Tennis bracelet, anyone? – New York Times

In 1978, Chris Evert lost his gold diamond bracelet while defending his three-year winning streak as winner of the US Open.

“When I competed, I wanted to wear something that gave me confidence and empowered me as both a woman and an athlete,” Ms. Evert, who has won 18 major singles championships in her career, wrote in an email interview. “My diamond-lined bracelet did it for me. It was also a nod to my personal style.”

Mrs. Evert asked the authorities to stop playing so she could find it.

“I think everyone was confused in the stands because I was walking around the field looking for something,” he wrote.

Mrs. Evert won the match. In an interview after the game, reporters asked him what he had dropped. “”Oh, it was my tennis bracelet,” she recalled saying. “From then on, it seemed like the tennis bracelet took on a life of its own.

The tennis bracelet was once known as a “line bracelet”: a single-strand diamond bracelet that stands out from a straight, sparkling row of diamonds. A traditional bracelet has four unobtrusive prongs (metal fingers that hold each stone in place), one at each corner of the diamond. This setting allows the diamonds to shine as brightly as possible.

“But now people have reinterpreted it. Today, people call any diamond bracelet a tennis bracelet in a variety of settings,” said Elizabeth Doyle, board member of the American Society of Jewelry Historians. She added that the current understanding of tennis bracelets is based on several settings without strict guidelines.

Ms. Doyle, who is also the founder of Doyle & Doyle, a New York antique and vintage jewelry store, said the tennis bracelet has long been a popular item.

“But what I’ve noticed is stacking and layering, mixing and matching different colors or less important stones with diamonds,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be that serious.”

Monica Rich Kosann, a Connecticut-based jewelry designer who in August 2022 launched a line of tennis bracelets with Ms. Evert, echoed that sentiment in a phone interview.

“I think a woman would probably use her tennis bracelet alone. I remember my mom had a tennis bracelet and I remember her wearing it on her watch and that’s what she wore,” Kosann said. “Now, my daughter, they wear it every day. They never take it off and they mix it with all their other bracelets and it just becomes another layer on your wrist.

Her collection includes an emerald that pays homage to the US Open’s former green, and a diamond sweat drop representing, as Ms. Evert described to Kosanni, “the sweat of competition.”

Roxanne Assoulini’s sparkling iterations are also designed for everyday wear. In 2020, Ms. Assoulin, a longtime jewelry designer, began to want a casual version of the diamond tennis bracelet she wore in the late 70s (and later dismantled for earrings).

“I didn’t want them to be big and flashy,” he said. “I wanted them to be really small and fine and delicate.”

When Miss Assoulin’s son asked her about a tennis bracelet for his wife, she began to wonder: “Does it have to be true?” Her Tennis on the Rox bracelets are made from cubic zirconia, cost less than $200, and are designed to be stacked.

For those who may be new to tennis bracelets and looking for a more traditional design, The last lineThe small white diamond bracelet is a miniature version of the classic. Or for something less on the nose, the Nakard by Nak Armstrong tennis bracelet series is made tiled onyx, combed opals and scaly labradorite, each stone is bordered by a visible black, rhodium-finished bezel. For maximalists, MATEO makes eye-catching tennis bracelets boxed rainbow sapphiresas well as Pink sapphires in butterfly settings. And for those with a penchant for phoebe-filo-style understated luxury, Dorsey offers a beautiful single strand of lab-grown white sapphire for $240.

You get cheaper options, all five colors Anthropologie baguette tennis bracelet come under $30. J. Crew’s The square crystal interpretation—currently $49.50—is so thick that if it happened to fly off your wrist, you’d see and hear where it landed.

Diamond bracelets in a broader sense have been popular since the Georgian era; line bracelets have been around since the Art Deco era and have been styled with casual jeans or on the court since the 70s – at least if you’re Chris Evert.