There are few fashion rules more adhered to than Coco Chanel’s legendary mantra: ‘before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off’. That said, it appears that this advice does not apply to jewelry in the weird and wonderful world of 2016 trends. Usually we would never encourage you to go against Coco’s advice, but let’s face it there are few morning activities more satisfying then layering necklaces correctly or perfectly combining your favourite rings.

Alas, this is often more easily said than done, so we’ve come up with a fail-safe system to ensure you always look as good as Coco.

Necklaces

1. The Gradation Effect

There are numerous ways we can wear multiple necklaces at once, but there is always the risk of looking mismatched or even messy if we do it incorrectly. Fortunately, there is The Gradation Effect!

Begin with a shorter, more delicate chain that sits comfortably close to the neck, followed by a slightly chunkier piece that’s a little longer and finish off with an even lengthier, more robust necklace. Of course, there’s no need to limit the number of necklaces to three, the real trick is creating a clear yet subtle gradient.

2. Make It Your Own

Once you’ve mastered The Gradation Effect, then it’s time to embrace your own creativity and style. After all, fashion is all about expressing yourself!

Gather your favourite pieces and see which ones go well together, be it by length, colour or style. There’s no reason that chunky horizontal bar can’t go with your delicate diamonds, and you can always wear that coin necklace with a collar. Go a step further by pairing your zodiac sign with a choker or a few delicate chains with a name necklace from onecklace.com to truly create some statement pieces.

Rings

1. Choose A Metal

When it comes to rings, it’s seriously difficult to combine different band colours and metals together successfully. Instead, it may be safer to just choose one and stick with it, so if you’re planning on wearing a silver gold ring then it’s time to pull out all your other silver gold pieces.

However, this does not apply when it comes to size. Of course, we don’t mean your ring size otherwise you’re going to have a difficult day chasing after rings as they fly off your fingers. We mean chunky vs. delicate, plus you can even wear some that sit just above your knuckle in addition to your more traditional items.

2. Less Is More

Unless you’re into the Phoebe Buffay look, chances are you’re not going to want each and every one of your fingers covered in stackable rings.

The amount of rings you can get away with before you begin to look like you live in a horse drawn carriage depends entirely upon how chunky your rings are. If you’re wearing some seriously delicate, tiny rings then you can probably wear anywhere between eight and twelve items, however if you’re wearing a massive cuff ring one or two is probably more than enough.