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Men's Silver Jewellery Guide — How to Wear It Right

Men's silver in India stopped being a statement some years ago and became ordinary. A kada at a desk. A chain under a collar. A Rudraksh worn every day instead of only on festival mornings. What follows is the practical part: what to choose for your build, how to size a kada properly, and how to wear the pieces without looking like you are wearing them. Kada, bracelet or chain These three are not interchangeable, and wrist size decides more than taste does. A kada is rigid. It does not follow the wrist; the wrist sits inside it. On a broad wrist with a heavy forearm, a kada reads as proportionate. On a narrow wrist, under about 16 cm around, a wide heavy kada tends to look borrowed, and it slides. If your wrist is on the finer side and you still want one, go narrower in width rather than smaller in size. A bracelet is flexible and clasped. It follows the wrist, so it suits almost every build, and it sits under a shirt cuff without catching. This is the safer first purchase. A chain avoids the wrist question altogether. Length is what matters. Twenty inches sits at the collarbone and disappears under a buttoned shirt. Twenty-two to twenty-four inches sits on the chest and is meant to be seen. Eighteen inches is a close fit that reads more European than Indian. Seeing widths side by side settles this faster than measuring does, so it is worth looking through the full men's jewellery range before deciding. Sizing a kada: the 2.x system Kadas are not sized small, medium, large and extra large. Indian bangle sizing uses a numbered system that describes actual inner diameter, and it is worth learning because it is precise. Sizes run 2.2, 2.4, 2.6, 2.8, 2.10 and 2.12. Note that 2.10 comes after 2.8. It is read as "two-ten", not as a decimal. Each step up adds roughly one centimetre of inner circumference. Bangle size Inner diameter Inner circumference 2.2 5.4 cm 17.0 cm 2.4 5.7 cm 17.9 cm 2.6 6.0 cm 18.9 cm 2.8 6.4 cm 19.9 cm 2.10 6.7 cm 20.9 cm 2.12 7.0 cm 21.9 cm How to measure at home Press your four fingers together and tuck your thumb in toward your palm, as if you were sliding a rigid bangle on. Wrap a strip of paper or a length of non-stretch thread around the widest part of the hand in that position, usually across the knuckles at the base of the thumb. Mark where it overlaps, lay it flat against a ruler, and read the length in centimetres. That is your hand circumference. Choose the size whose inner circumference is equal to or just above your measurement. If you fall between two, go up. Two practical notes. Measure the hand you will actually wear it on, since the dominant hand is usually slightly larger. And an open-ended kada has a little give at the gap, so it forgives a near miss, where a closed one does not. The full chart is on the size guide, and sizes are listed piece by piece in the kada collection. Weight and presence Two kadas can look identical in a photograph and feel like completely different objects on the wrist. A solid kada carries its weight low and still. It settles against the wrist bone and stays there, and you stop noticing it after a day. A hollow or thin-walled kada of the same outer dimensions weighs a fraction as much. It rides up the forearm, swings when you move, and rings slightly when it meets a table. It also dents. A solid piece takes a knock and keeps its shape. Weight is the most reliable indicator of what you are actually buying. When two pieces look the same and are priced differently, the gram weight usually explains the gap. Oxidised or polished An oxidised, or antique, finish is deliberate darkening pushed into the recesses of a design, so the pattern reads as depth rather than shine. A polished finish is bright and reflective and reads as new. Oxidised works with warm and deeper skin tones, with kurtas, linen, denim and anything textured, and with carved or detailed designs where the darkening is doing structural work. It is quieter across a room. Polished works with cooler and fairer skin tones, with tailoring, formal shirting and sharp minimal shapes. It reads dressier and photographs brighter. If you are choosing one piece to wear with everything, oxidised is more forgiving. If you are building around a suit, polished. Layering chains without clutter Layering fails when everything competes. Three rules cover most of it. Differ the lengths by at least two inches. Chains at similar lengths tangle and read as one messy line. Let one piece lead. A pendant on the shorter chain and a plain chain longer, or the reverse, but only one of them should be the thing people notice. Vary the link, not the metal. A box chain next to a curb chain reads as intentional. Two near-identical curbs read as an accident. Keep the metal and the finish consistent. Two chains is a sensible ceiling for most men. Three works only if one of them is genuinely thin. Spiritual pieces, worn daily Om, trishul, Rudraksh, Khatu Shyam. These are the pieces most often bought for a festival and then kept in a box, which wastes a good object and misses the point of it. A spiritual pendant is designed to be worn against the skin every day. That is what the form is for. Worn daily it also ages properly: sterling picks up a soft patina in the recesses, the high points stay bright, and the piece starts to look like it belongs to you rather than to a shop. For daily wear, keep the pendant modest in size and let the chain do the work. A large pendant on a thin chain looks unbalanced and pulls at the neck. The spiritual collection is built around pieces at daily-wear scale. Wedding versus work For a wedding, this is the one occasion where scale is correct. A solid kada with an oxidised finish, a visible chain at twenty-two inches, a ring with presence. Ethnic clothing carries weight that tailoring cannot, and an understated piece disappears entirely against a sherwani. For work, one piece, at or just under the cuff. A narrow kada or a flat bracelet. If you wear a chain, keep it at collarbone length and let it stay under the shirt. Rings are the exception; a single band is fine in almost any office. The test is simple. At a wedding, the jewellery should be seen. At work, it should only be noticed by someone standing close enough to notice. Keeping it right Sterling is rhodium-finished to resist tarnish, but no finish is permanent. Contact points wear over time, and sweat, perfume and humidity speed things along. Wipe a piece with a soft cloth after a long day, put it on after the aftershave rather than before, and store it dry and sealed rather than open on a shelf. Tarnish, when it comes, is a surface film and it comes off. Details are on the care page.