ONCE UPON A TIME, MEN HAD GREAT TASTE. They built character through personal style, down to the smallest details. A ring worn every day. A chain that never came off. Look at old photographs for proof. But today, when you think of jewellery and personal style, chances are that the first face that pops in your mind isn’t of a man. Rigid gender roles and lazy categorisation managed to almost entirely edit out jewellery from masculinity. Edited, because jewellery has never been alien to Indian men and culture to begin with. Long before fashion weeks and viral campaigns, men have lived in jewellery through culture. Today, they may be more receptive and the perspective is surely changing but the idea here isn’t new.
Jewellery for Indian men was never just decorative. It was worn across class and caste in the form of culture, belief, status, tradition and customs. It travelled easily from farms to royal courts and from daily life to ceremonies. Sunita Shekhawat, the celebrated meenakari expert behind her eponymous label, recalls a world where jewellery on men was simply the norm.
“Right from the elitist of the state, when you see them attending weddings and important occasions, to when you travel to the villages, even a farmer, although he’s working in the field, you will still see him wearing a small pair of earrings. In Rajasthan, we call them laung.” she says. Men’s ears were pierced young without debate. Where she grew up in Rajasthan, dressing well was never gendered or reserved for spectacle. “It has always been very traditional when it comes to dressing well, whether men or women, for even the smallest of occasions.
In conversation with Tarang Arora, CEO and creative director of Amrapali Jewels, he is quick to remind us how jewellery belonged to men first. He explains how men were always more social as they were the ones out in public, in courts and everywhere else. “In the time of the maharajas and kings, they were all wearing jewellery because they were flaunting it,” he points out. This was status flex in the pre-social media day and age. “When the British came, it suddenly became so that men are not supposed to wear jewellery and it’s only for women,” he says. That shift reflected the growing influence of Victorian ideals of masculinity, which favoured a more restrained way of dressing. Jewellery gradually became associated with women, while many Indian men moved away from adornment. Arora believes the change was largely accepted without being questioned.
Today, a new generation of men is beginning to challenge that inherited idea. Vijay Deverakonda’s wedding look earlier this year was a clear marker of the shift. The actor was draped in temple jewellery by Shree Jewellers, and the layered necklaces, earrings, arm cuffs, kadas, rings, ankle cuffs and gold belt weren’t treated as finishing touches but as essential elements of the groom’s identity.
One of the biggest markers of this transition was the 2025 Met Gala, where Diljit Dosanjh and Shah Rukh Khan made their debuts. Neither shied away from jewellery. Dosanjh arrived in an ivory and gold silk brocade sherwani and cape by Prabal Gurung, his jewels by Golecha referencing the legendary Patiala necklace of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh. Strings of polki diamonds traced his turban, while Cartier’s Nature Sauvage Tigre bracelet and Panthère watch completed the look. Khan, meanwhile, took a more restrained route. Dressed in black by Sabyasachi Mukherjee, he paired an elongated coat with layered necklaces draped across his torso, a brooch, stacked rings and a cane crowned with a studded Bengal tiger head. In both cases, the impact wasn’t from what they wore but what it represented. Dosanjh celebrated India’s regal legacy, while Khan projected power and authority, both as extensions of their identities.
Though Indian weddings are an influential market for men’s jewellery, the revival of men’s jewellery isn’t just about occasion dressing anymore. Suhani Parekh, founder and creative director of Misho, has seen this change play out over the last few years. She says, “The biggest shift I’ve noticed is that jewellery is increasingly becoming part of a daily uniform rather than something reserved for weddings, events or celebration. People are looking for pieces they can live in and develop a relationship with over time. Ceremony still plays a role, particularly in India, but everyday wear is becoming the more interesting category”. As for what men are actually buying, Parekh says chains are often the point of entry. But rather than treating them as default, she encourages choosing pieces that feel more personal. Signet rings, for instance, strike the right balance between character and wearability.
It’s an approach filmmaker and photographer Ishaan Nair instinctively relates to. “I’d like to think I pick things unique to me. I hate following trends. They should feel like it’s something I’ve always had," he says. To him, that has become something of a habit. "My nephew recently pointed out in Italy that the only stores I walk into are jewellery stores. Every airport now has an Amrapali, and if my flight is delayed, I’m in there, indulging in a little retail therapy" he says.
According to various reports, Indian men are buying more jewellery than they have in years. Except, many still aren’t buying it themselves. According to Arora, it’s the women in their lives that are choosing the pieces. He stresses on the next step being men taking initiative. “Men need to be more adventurous. They need to go and hunt for their own jewellery,” he says, while further explaining the approach today. What men want at the moment is to walk into a store, ask for a T-shirt and get the same one in three different colours. Jewellery deserves more curiosity than that. He points out that right now jewellery shopping still isn’t truly theirs. It’s the women in their lives doing all the buying while the men stand at a distance, convinced the space isn’t meant for them. It’s comfort and convenience disguised as indifference. That’s precisely what needs to further change.
Perhaps that’s the real revival. Indian men don’t need another lesson in wearing jewellery. History has already taken care of that. What we need now are men that choose it, hunt for it and build collections that reflect who they are instead of what’s been handed to them. That’s when jewellery stops being an accessory and starts becoming personal style.
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