Pearls are the rare gift that suits almost everyone. Here is how to choose the right one.

Pearl solves the hardest problem in gifting: it reads as significant without being presumptuous, it needs no sizing, and it flatters every skin tone and nearly every age. It is the gift you give when you want to get it right rather than get it noticed.

By budget

By recipient

For someone receiving their first pearls

Start with studs. They are worn more than any other piece of pearl jewelry, they go with everything, and they never feel like a costume. A 6–7mm Akoya or a well-matched freshwater is the right scale for daily wear.

The instinct to buy bigger is usually wrong here. A modest, high-luster pearl worn constantly is a far better gift than a large one worn twice.

See pearl earrings.

For a mother or grandmother

A strand, if she does not have one, or a restringing and a new pair of earrings if she does. An 18-inch princess length sits at the collarbone and works with a neckline she already owns.

If she has worn her mother's pearls for thirty years, the thoughtful gift is often not a new strand at all — it is having the old one restrung and matched with earrings. We restring as part of our annual service.

See pearl necklaces.

For a bride

Pearl is the traditional wedding-day jewel, and the reason is practical as well as sentimental: it photographs softly, it does not compete with the dress, and it does not date. Studs or a short drop earring for the ceremony; a strand if the neckline invites one.

Buy it early enough to be a gift rather than a task — four to six weeks before.

See bridal earrings.

For someone who already owns good pearls

Move sideways, not up. She has white Akoya, so give her something with color and character:

• Tahitian — naturally dark, with green, aubergine, and steel overtones. Nothing else in a jewelry box looks like it.
• Baroque — irregular by nature, and the most modern-looking pearl there is.
• Pearl and diamond together — the pairing the house is known for. Warm against cold, soft against sharp.

For a man

Not a joke, and not a trend that is going away. Tahitian and baroque pearls on a leather or gold cord have moved firmly into men's jewelry, and they suit it — dark, substantial, unfussy.

By occasion

• Anniversary — pearl is the traditional gift for the 3rd and the 30th. A strand for the 30th is one of the few gifts that genuinely rises to the occasion.
• June birthday — pearl is a June birthstone. Obvious, and still correct.
• Graduation — studs. The classic first grown-up jewelry.
• Holidays — a strand or pearl and diamond earrings. Pearl photographs beautifully under warm light, which is most of December.
• New mother — a pendant. Comfortable, one-handed, and it survives being grabbed.

Three things worth checking before you buy

1. Luster. The first and most important quality. Look for a sharp, almost mirror-like reflection rather than a chalky glow. It is visible from across a room and it is where most of the price difference lives.
2. Knotting. A good strand is hand-knotted on silk between every pearl — so they do not rub, and so a broken strand loses one pearl instead of all of them.
3. The clasp. Solid gold, not plated. It is the part that fails first on inexpensive strands.

A note on timing

Order gifts by early December for the holidays. Fine jewelry is the busiest category of the year in the last three weeks, and anything custom or resized needs room. Shipping is free domestically, and we include a 60-day return window — so an early gift is not a locked-in guess.

More on choosing between the four pearl types in which pearl is right for me, and on keeping them beautiful in how to care for pearls. Browse the full pearl collection.

The best jewels make the best gifts.

ISAAC WESTMAN® · New York · Founded 1982