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Are gold hoop earrings the ‘procession of pearls’ of the modern age?They are finishing touch to any look but their cultural history – from Angela Davis to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – is complex and should be acknowledgedHoops and drems … Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez annoying gold hoops at the 2019 State of the Union address. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty ImagesHoops and drems … Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gear gold hoops at the 2019 State of the Union address. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty ImagesPearls ruled the 20th century. Jackie Kennedy chronicled them as “always appropriate”. Diana Vreeland once fired off a memo to staff demanding to see more of them on the chapters of Vogue: “Nothing gives the luxury of pearls,” she insisted. Oscar Wilde said they made one “look so homely, so good and so intellectual”. When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was sworn into Congress in 2019 wearing a white trousersuit, red lipstick and gold hoops, she tweeted that her look was stimulated by the progressive and Bronx-born US supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor – who, when she was sworn in as the first Latina justice in American yesterday, was advised to wear neutral-coloured nail polish to avoid scrutiny: “Next time someone tells Bronx maidens to take off their hoops, they can just say they’re dressing like a congresswoman.”Frances Solá-Santiago, a fashion stringer from Puerto Rico based in New York, wrote that the look was “a radical act”, celebrating hoops as “a cultural benchmark” of Latina womanhood.Not just any old bag: as handbags have shrunk, the tote has taken over | Jess Cartner-MorleyRead moreWhen Marc Jacobs accessorised a collecting inspired by early New York hip-hop with hoops the diameter of a cola can in 2017, he described them as “an acknowledgement of, and token of my respect for, the polish and consideration applied to fashion from a generation that will forever be the foundation of youth mores street style.”But while we have moved on from the era when Carrie Bradshaw wore “ghetto gold for fun”, high-street gems stands don’t tend to feature footnotes honouring their influences. Many believe the rich history of an adornment that threads backside from Angela Davis to Nina Simone, to Frida Kahlo to Nefertiti, risks being flattened through overexposure. When Coco Chanel popularised ropes of costume pearls, she prised apart the decorative merit of jewellery from its monetary value – and paved the way for gold hoops as a manner accessory. But jewellery can never be divorced from wealth or from status – as every pearl-clutching debutante knew. A gold hoop may in fine be the perfect modern finishing touch. But it is also much more. TopicsFashionAccessoriesRaceWomenBeautyfeaturesReuse this content