With regards to daily add-ons, males have a number of options -- there is the tie, the watch, the briefcase. But there's a past favorite in the dresser drawer worthy of reconsidering: the cufflink.
These fashion statements of the wrist are making a comeback. They're being used day and night and by everybody from college students to older men to whom dressing up never went out of fashion. Ladies are using them too.
Gov. Rick Perry put on a visible set of cufflinks with a crisp and clean white shirt while he signed a bill for benefits for Texas video and film game projects. However cufflinks aren't only for the usual suspects (read: politicians, other and lawyers white-collar professionals).
"Cuff links will always be in," says Bozhena Orekhova, GQ's accessories editor. "They are one of many accessories that men can put on, just like watches. It indicates a lot regarding your manners and how intensely you take your style."
Cufflinks came into play in the 1600s when the flamboyant King Charles II of England popularized a shirt with a lacy front and matching cuffs. Charles had grown sick and tired of using ribbon to tie his cuffs. They may have reached their peak during the 1960s and '70s, but there is a current interest in them as a essential men's essential accessories. Fashion influences from stars such as designer Tom Ford and singer Justin Timberlake, who are pushing gentlemanly looks, indicate that cuff links will be popular for some time.
Prices range from a couple of bucks for a thrift-store find to thousands of dollars.
Winter must have
Fall fashion forecasts at Neiman Marcus, which sells cufflinks from John Hardy, King Baby and others show French cuffs and cuff links will be must-haves as more professional fellas -- or fellas merely wanting to jump out in a sea of button-up shirts and jeans -- return to dressing up.
"By checking out a person's cufflinks, you can tell a person's resume," Orekhova suggests. "It's one of the essential men's fashion accessories. It is something that may always be there and remain there. Since the British gentleman is back in fashion, individuals are trying to exploit that and design things that seize it."
Not too long ago, jewelry creators have ventured into non-traditional cuff link components such as bone, rubber, titanium, wood and various precious gems.
Styles differ from the kitschy and comical (martini glasses and water faucet knobs) to the glamorous (David Yurman's black diamond cuff links).
Lance Avery Morgan grasps this revival.
Morgan's cufflink assortment, including ones passed down from his dad and grandfather, numbers close to A hundred and fifty pairs - - and it gets even bigger with each and every gift from a associate.
"I'll dress in French cuffs on each day that ends in a Y," says Morgan, publisher and editorial director of the Texas lifestyle magazine Brilliant. Some time ago, he went to Tahiti, where he went scuba diving for black pearls. The pearls will be set for cufflinks, naturally.
"I have as many cuff links as I do moods," he claims. "We live in this age when gents look after themselves but don't think about the details."
This means breaking out his more uncommon cufflinks. They've got the power to be interaction pieces, he suggests.
"I love that I can take a normal pair of torn jeans and a white shirt and a pair of loafers and do a day or evening look with the proper cufflinks," claims Morgan, who has dreams of one day designing his own collection.
"It's a present that gives a heritage. I do not know anyone who has ever disposed of a pair of cuff links."
Mousumi Shaw, founding father of jewelry studio Sikara & Co. on Rio Grande Street, is preparing to broaden her cuff link products. She already offers types from European, Latin American and American jewelry designers.
The latest tie
Cufflinks are the brand-new tie when it comes to men's accessories, she says.
This summer time , she plans to include a brand of cufflinks from designers in India.
"India hasn't ever been famous for cufflink design," she claims. "And we now have a new gem stone line, and we have a few more industrial styles that we're bringing up. There is a renewed desire for guys to accessorize."
At jewellery shop Rewards at the Arboretum, owner Russell Stromberg claims his cufflink company progressively has grown yearly.
With the world-wide economic system, he says American men are trying to dress up similar to their European counterparts. He says informal days in Austin might be slowing down as more men want to go back to French cuffs and cufflinks.
"It helps make them feel better about themselves," he said.