Cuff Bracelets: Wrapping Up History in Style

Although we always seem to regard our own era as "the modern one" and the most advanced one in all matters, one must never forget our roots. All is a matter of evolution. All is a matter of continual growth and inspiration. It takes but common sense to understand that without understanding History, our seemingly confident steps would not take us very far.

The team here at YAA YAA LONDON is passionate about colours and shapes that spread confidence and allow our community to dream without any limit. However, beyond the craft and skills poured into bringing to life each unique YAA YAA LONDON ornament, we also deem it appropriate for you to know that every detail of the jewellery you are wearing boasts a deep personality.

Our new range of Cuff Bracelets represents the best that jewellery can offer. Over 5.000 years old, the ornament has travelled through centuries and continents, through controversies and low-class reputation, only to be re-elevated as a must-have accessory in recent years. With cuff bracelets, we think colours, we curate shapes, and we twist them to modernise the pride of wearing history on your wrist.

A cuff, also referred to as a bracelet cuff, is an open bracelet that wraps around your wrist with an opening that allows you to push it into place from the side of the wrist.

Most of the time, a cuff bracelet is wider than simpler link bracelets and calls for more imagination since it is more rigid than the aforementioned link bracelets. When designing a cuff bracelet, jewellers work on a fit that hugs the skin while providing elegance and lightness. Usually, the cuff features a wider, decorated part that sits on the top of the wrist or the outside of the am.

Easy to wear and made to impress in style, the cuff can be traced back thousands of years, making appearances in ancient cultures from Africa to Asia, from Europe to the Americas.

The cuff bracelet might have a rich and breath-taking history, but its original name has struggled through many more controversies than we can imagine. Archaeologists do not entirely agree on the period when the term “slave” bracelet was first used, but it takes nothing away from its history of ownership, pain, and freedom.

Already about 5.000 years ago, the ornament decorated the arms of slaves and servants. A painting found in Pakistan and dating from around 2.600 BC depicts a woman dancing with “slave” bracelets.

The beginning of the modern “New World”, around the 16th Century, saw a boom in the use of cuff slave bracelets because they were actually used as such. Slaves deported from Africa to serve in the Caribbean islands, and the Americas had to wear a one-piece bracelet engraved with branding or a number to be identified. Generally, the cuff would be crafted from flattened bronze or wrong iron to resemble handcuffs.

 

 

In other parts of the world, the jewellery item grew to more respectable environments, like in India, where men offered the cuff to the women they were chasing. The story of the love bracelet seems to date back to the Roman Empire, where it also became a highly sought-after fashion accessory. Imposing ancient empires such as the Mayans would use the bracelet as a status symbol and style. The Egyptians decorated the cuffs with gemstones and engraved them, while the Greeks used metal and leather to craft cuffs that were believed to protect the wearer.

Navigating the waters of history, the cuff bracelet has reached contemporary society in endless declensions of boldness and materials. Women and men alike can build up their jewellery on par with their outfit quickly, with cuffs that you can wear on their own or stacked for maximum impact.

The cuff bracelet and its open end are secure, stylish, and immersed in an extraordinary fashion personality with a proper statement look. Fortunately, as decades passed, the cuff has lost its dreadful meaning and now strikes our hearts lightly in bangles of styles for every occasion.

An endless list of fashion influencers was reported along the years to set the cuff trend over and over again. Coco Chanel herself, for instance, designed the Maltese Cross cuffs in collaboration with the jeweller Duke Fulco di Verdura and was known to wear them often. In an encounter with the great Muhammad Ali at the RFK Tennis Tournament Party, Jackie O, John F. Kennedy’s wife, was immortalised wearing gold cuffs signed Van Cleef & Arpels. In the boom of freedom of the 1960s, Vogue’s editor and journalist Diana Vreeland was rarely spotted with naked wrists. Instead, huge bangles and cuffs would often hug her wrists, stacked one upon the other in a statement look.

If the cuff has decorated the lives of so many powerful females through the years, we can confidently say that its history and beauty are the main reasons for that. When wearing a cuff, you can show off your style delicately or boldly - and easily add some splash of colour to showcase your individuality further.

Not one person should feel excluded from wearing that type of bracelet, as the cuff used to be an adornment of both genders. Wear it on your wrist, forearm, or upper arm in a line of precious metal, leather, or even wood, to feel invincibly fashionable. How about stacking up brightly-coloured cuffs with a full-white outfit and an oversize shirt with a mesh print? An elegant alternative could be to wear one thin cuff with a tux and dangling earrings in more statement colours like our Hold On earrings - sober yet striking. Or, as seen on the Ralph Lauren runway, you could try and wear the cuff over a thin sweater as an exciting attempt to liven up your style.

In the end, what matters most is the fun you have while matching jewellery to your outfit. Cuffs give an edgy, sober, and stylish look altogether, and you can infuse as much personality and statement as you wish in such an item. Pastel or bright, polished or matte, thin or as bold as it gets, the cuff is always the solution.