Mastering the Men's Pinky Ring For Those Who Aren't Royalty (or Mob-Affiliated)
At first glance, future kings of England and pop culture's most revered and feared mobsters don't have much in common. But if one were to draw a link between them, it just might be a fine gold thread connected through that glinting, gilded accessory ever-present around their littlest fingers. Prince Charles and Tony Soprano, the Duke of Windsor and the Godfather, they're all united in their steadfast devotion to the pinky ring.
Perhaps it speaks to the far deeper credo shared by these disparate crews: that life-or-death affiliation to your clan—and extreme unquestioning loyalty to whatever it is that clan stands for, whether it's service to country (though to be fair, the Duke of Windsor sort of failed in this department) or service to organized crime—is paramount. And the best, most conspicuous, way to manifest all this is with these pinky adornments. In these tiny bijoux lie major undertones: of duty, honor, tradition, fidelity.
Like all jewelry, men's pinky rings are status symbols with roots that stretch back forever. Even Pliny the Elder, in his magnum opus Natural History, mused on the uses of the accessory, that some wear all their rings on their smallest finger while others choose a single pinky ring as a daily substitute for a more valuable signet ring, "a rarity not deserving the insult of common use," he wrote, adding, "Thus even wearing a single ring on the little finger may advertise the possession of a costlier piece of apparatus put away in store."
During the Victorian era pinky rings became fashionable among British nobility thanks to Queen Victoria's sons, who took cues from the Germans and began stacking their wedding and signet rings on their left pinky, starting a long royal tradition that has continued to this day (see: Prince Charles). The trend found its way across the pond, too, most notably with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose pinky ring game was so on point it impressed Winston Churchill.
While the Windsors and their upper-class brethren are partial to signet rings engraved with their coats of arms and dynastic crests—long ago this served a practical purpose for easily sealing documents—not all pinky rings are signets, and vice versa. Over in the camp of mafia capos and consiglieri, flashy pinky rings—Joe Pesci's character in The Irishman turns a rare dollar liberty coin into a diamond-studded gem; Tony Soprano, on the other hand, preferred a gold band topped with a ruby—bound them to their shared cause, but also served a different sort of practical purpose: in the event of a mafioso's untimely death, his associates could use the ring to pay off funeral expenses.
Even with such strong associations, obviously one need not be a Windsor or a Corleone to adopt their signature jewelry style, just as one need not be a prim and proper lady to wear pearls. And today, sporting a pinky ring hardly requires pledging diehard allegiance to some great cause. "The perception is evolving as men have become much more style-centric," says Evan Yurman, chief creative officer at David Yurman (and the son of its namesake founder). "The pinky now shows a reverence for the past infused with a modern spirit of self-expression."
Whether they're stamped with symbolic motifs—a lion for strength, a bee for protection, a horse for valor—or encrusted in pavé stones, David Yurman's array of options is a gem-flecked indicator of just how far pinky rings have come from their blue-blooded and/or mob ties. "It's relaxed, American luxury—modern, playful, and individual," Yurman says. "Besides a wedding ring, a pinky ring is often a man's most personal ring, an essential part of his style. Something you can wear every day."
And while there are still those who undoubtedly love to flash a pinky signet ring as status symbol, the tides are turning. "Now men are leaning more towards wearing chunky pinky rings as fashion statements," says jeweler Briony Raymond. "There's something about having a ring on the pinky that lends one's gestures and mannerisms a more intentional flair. It can embolden a man."
A handy starter kit, below.
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