W
hen Vanessa Fernandez, an emerging design talent, showed me a stunning stack of wavy gold bangles at the 2025 COUTURE show, my first thought was, “It’s so cool that she makes everything herself on the bench.” Then I had a moment and realized, “It’s been a long time since bangles were on my radar.”
Header image features Buddha Mama
The rigid bracelet style aligns with the return of torque necklaces and the enduring popularity of hoops.
Vanessa Fernandez
Image courtesy of Jade Trau
The hard bracelet style is, of course, a classic, and there are designers who always have a few in their collections, but they had slipped out of the top trends. The last time I remember bangles being really big news was the early 2000s.
Image courtesy of By Pariah
Then Gwyneth Paltrow confirmed my feelings about the freshness of bangles at the December 8 premiere of Marty Supreme in Los Angeles. The star tossed on a few from Cartier and raved about them like they were something fabulous and new, which they felt like they were, in her getting ready video on Instagram. She made them the focal point of her outfit.
Image courtesy of Harwell Godfrey
The rigid bracelet style aligns with the return of torque necklaces and the enduring popularity of hoops. They offer a solid and substantial look. Bangles are also a lot of fun the way they move around the wrist. When worn in multiples, they can make a gentle, musical sound when they hit each other.
COUTURE designers BUDDHA MAMA, BY PARIAH, HARWELL GODFREY, JADE TRAU, TEN THOUSAND THINGS and ZAHN Z have bangles in all kinds of variations in their collections. Find out all about them below.
Image courtesy of By Pariah
By Pariah
“Architectural, bold and smooth” is how By Pariah designer and founder Sophie Howard, who launched her company in 2016 with a name inspired by the Pariah regions of the Caribbean, describes her aesthetic. All of it can be seen in the variety of bangles in the collection.
Image courtesy of By Pariah
The bracelets include classics like a slender smooth gold bangle and a thin diamond set design. Architectural vibes come through in the silver bangles set with slices of a moss agate or grey agate divided with a central line of gold.
Image courtesy of By Pariah
Image courtesy of By Pariah
Image courtesy of Ten Thousand Things
Ten Thousand Things
Ron Anderson and David Reese, the creative giants behind Ten Thousand Things, are as much sculptors and artists as jewelry designers. These qualities make their work utterly unique and timeless.
The Ten Thousand Things silver bangles were added to the collection way back in the early aughts, around the time when I last remember bangles being a thing. Each bangle features a special motif shaped in the design. Examples include the Bone bangle, which has a section that resembles a skeletal joint. The Bottle bangle features a tiny vessel in the center. And the Galaxy style has trailing lines resembling a comet or shooting star.
Image courtesy of ZAHN-Z
Zahn Z
Hiba Husayni, the creative director and founder of Zahn Z, won the COUTURE Award for Best in Debuting in 2025. An architect and jewelry designer by training, her work is beautifully built to fit around the body with her innovative shapes.
Image courtesy of ZAHN-Z
Hiba breaks the conventional bangle circle with her signature arched boomerang form in the Big Zaha bangle centering on a colorful cushion-shape gem. The designer’s Beluga bangles have a free form line that also focuses on a colorful gem.
Image courtesy of ZAHN-Z
Image courtesy of ZAHN-Z
Image courtesy of Harwell Godfrey
Harwell Godfrey
Designer Lauren Harwell Godfrey is all in on the bangle arm parties. They express the same kind of joy that her collection has become known for with its big hearts and salt shaker pendants among many other whimsical works.
Image courtesy of Harwell Godfrey
Fully designed in her signature mode, the bangles feature colorful gems, diamonds and pearls as well as triangle motifs. Each of Lauren’s bangles is hinged, meaning they open and close with a clasp rather than sliding over the hand.
Image courtesy of Harwell Godfrey
Image courtesy of Harwell Godfrey
Image courtesy of Jade Trau
Jade Trau
Jade Trau brings the same nuance and style to her array of bangle bracelets as she does to her celebrated engagement ring collection. The Pilé, for example, starts with a perfectly proportioned 3-millimeter bangle that exudes the same elegance of a wedding band. From there, the collection goes in a few different directions.
Image courtesy of Jade Trau
A solitaire sits at the center of the Vanguard Pilé bangle. Another solitaire serves as the focal point of the open loop of the Billie gold wire bangle. A full glam cobblestone of pavé round, pear, and marquise diamonds covers another jewel.
Image courtesy of Jade Trau
Image courtesy of Jade Trau
Image courtesy of Buddha Mama
Buddha Mama
Nancy Badia and her daughter Dakota always bring a sense of playfulness to their Buddha Mama collection. For one of their bangle styles, the design duo adds pops of color with bright enamels divided up by a row of gems. And they don’t stop there. They add little gold stars in the mix. Other bangles have patterns covering the designs.
Image courtesy of Buddha Mama
Any one of these pieces would add a powerful punctuation point to an outfit. But I know if you asked Nancy and Dakota how to style them, they would essentially say, “More is more.”
Image courtesy of Buddha Mama
Image courtesy of Buddha Mama
Marion Fasel writes about history and contemporary trends in The Adventurine newsletter on Substack. She is the author of 11 books focusing on 20th-century jewelry design. In 2021, Marion curated the exhibition Beautiful Creatures: Jewelry Inspired by the Animal Kingdom at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
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