T he last time I wore a strand of pearls was also the first. Invited by a new friend from university to the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, my mum and I were stumped by how to translate that rigidly conservative dress code to suit a 19-year-old. I can’t remember too much about the dress, hat or shoes (probably for the best) but suffice it to say that the pearls were the nail in my dress code coffin.

Pearls are classic. For the past few decades, pearls have been too classic for many of us. Too grown up for me, now aged 33, and too grown up for my mother, 64, who remembers her own mother wearing a strand every day. Elegant, timeless — yes, but also

Registered in England No. 894646. Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF.