the 2021 trend report

the 2021 trend report

25.01.2022, 10:52
Category_Uncategorised

2021 may be over but the trends live on into 2022. From jewellery to fashion, the year 2021 gave us some fantastic looks, merging the home comforts of looming lockdowns with the aspirational luxury we were all longing for. With influences coming from the TV shows and movies we watched to the celebs we followed, 2021 gave us an eclectic mix of retro and modern, traditional and unusual, and expensive and affordable jewellery and fashion trends to experiment with.

We wanted to discover which were the most popular trends in fashion and jewellery over the past year so we dove into the numbers to find out.

Looking at just jewellery trends during 2021, we found that some trends and items received far more Google searches than others, suggesting that people wanted to at least find out more about the trend if not buy the item.

It looks as though choker necklaces are back in fashion as they top the list with nearly 3.4 million searches across the globe. Men’s jewellery comes in second with more than 2 million searches, perhaps inspired by the androgynous styles of male stars such as Harry Styles and Billy Porter.

  1. Choker necklace – 3,393,000 searches
  2. Men’s jewellery – 2,058,000 searches
  3. Layered necklaces – 780,000 searches
  4. Stacked rings – 444,800 searches
  5. Branded jewellery – 435,800 searches
  6. Beaded jewellery – 362,600 searches
  7. Gold plated jewellery – 347,900 searches
  8. Cuff bracelets – 254,900 searches
  9. Lariat necklace – 195,700 searches
  10. Chandelier earrings – 184,800 searches

Google isn’t the only place that we go to to see the latest jewellery trends. In fact, Instagram is an excellent place to find the latest looks, but which are posted the most?

Again, choker necklaces took the top spot with more than 1 million posts using the hashtag #chokernecklace, proving just how popular this retro trend has been in 2021. The top ten featured many of the same trends and items as the most popular according to Google, with the addition of enamel jewellery and shell jewellery.

  1. Choker necklace – 1,039,008 posts
  2. Layered necklaces – 242,721 posts
  3. Beaded jewellery – 222,131 posts
  4. Gold plated jewellery – 165,614 posts
  5. Men’s jewellery – 160,679 posts
  6. Chandelier earrings – 108,284 posts
  7. Cuff bracelets – 76,649 posts
  8. Lariat necklace – 60,733 posts
  9. Enamel jewellery – 52,984 posts
  10. Shell jewellery – 42,837 posts

2020 may have been quite a strange year, but that doesn’t mean that we weren’t interested in jewellery during that time. When we compare 2021 to 2020 we can see which trends had the biggest jumps in popularity.

Again, the choker necklace tops the list with a huge 72% jump in popularity, but we can also see that 2021 was the year for big and bold jewellery with increases in trends like chunky gold jewellery, oversized earrings and chunky bangles.

  1. Choker necklace – 72% increase
  2. Gold plated jewellery – 67% increase
  3. Chunky gold jewellery – 63% increase
  4. Oversized earrings – 59% increase
  5. Beaded jewellery – 56% increase
  6. Crystal statement earrings – 53% increase
  7. Chunky bangles – 43% increase
  8. Long pendant necklace – 42.2% increase
  9. Bag necklace – 42.1% increase
  10. Layered jewellery – 40% increase

Men’s jewellery is definitely on the rise as we can see from its number two spot in the overall jewellery trends, but which types of men’s jewellery are most popular?

While simple items such as rings and bracelets sit at the top of the table, we can see some of the newer trends proving to be popular, including hoop earrings, brooches and chokers.

  1. Men’s rings – 6,669,000 searches
  2. Men’s bracelets – 5,290,000 searches
  3. Men’s earrings – 3,691,000 searches
  4. Men’s necklaces – 2,530,000 searches
  5. Men’s hoop earrings – 660,000 searches
  6. Men’s pendant necklaces – 347,900 searches
  7. Men’s brooches – 334,800 searches
  8. Men’s bangles – 176,100 searches
  9. Men’s cuff bracelets – 133,800 searches
  10. Men’s choker necklace – 56,200 searches

When we look to Instagram, we see a similar story, with a few pieces ranking even higher, such as men’s brooches when searching on this platform.

  1. Men’s bracelets – 365,569 posts
  2. Men’s rings – 162,906 posts
  3. Men’s necklaces – 12,209 posts
  4. Men’s earrings – 7,076 posts
  5. Men’s brooches – 1,677 posts
  6. Men’s bangles – 407 posts
  7. Men’s hoop earrings – 108 posts
  8. Men’s cuff bracelets – 52 posts
  9. Men’s choker necklace – 37 posts
  10. Men’s pearl jewellery – 29 posts

While searches for the term ‘men’s jewellery’ increased by 8% between 2020 and 2021, some men’s jewellery items in particular have seen even bigger jumps during this time period.

  1. Men’s pearl jewellery – 46% increase
  2. Men’s rings – 33% increase
  3. Men’s brooches – 30% increase
  4. Men’s bracelets – 25% increase
  5. Men’s pendant necklaces – 21% increase
  6. Men’s choker necklace – 20% increase
  7. Men’s bangles – 18% increase
  8. Men’s cuff bracelets – 16% increase
  9. Men’s necklaces – 13% increase
  10. Men’s earrings – 11% increase

Some precious stones never go out of fashion; diamonds are a girl’s best friend, after all. However, it wasn’t just diamonds that proved themselves popular in 2021. While diamond jewellery was the most popular, turquoise and pearls also found themselves in the top three.

  1. Diamond jewellery – 653,500 searches
  2. Turquoise jewellery – 520,200 searches
  3. Pearl jewellery – 481,800 searches
  4. Opal jewellery – 299,900 searches
  5. Emerald jewellery – 262,200 searches
  6. Ruby jewellery – 238,500 searches
  7. Sapphire jewellery – 151,600 searches
  8. Amethyst jewellery – 148,700 searches
  9. Aquamarine jewellery – 140,800 searches
  10. Amber jewellery – 136,900 searches

Reflecting the popularity of precious stones according to Google, Instagram also has diamond jewellery in the top spot with over 900k posts, followed by pearl jewellery and opal jewellery.

  1. Diamond jewellery – 918,509 posts
  2. Pearl jewellery – 413,029 posts
  3. Opal jewellery – 108,098 posts
  4. Emerald jewellery – 87,826 posts
  5. Turquoise jewellery – 87,047 posts
  6. Aquamarine jewellery – 86,721 posts
  7. Amber jewellery – 32,651 posts
  8. Ruby jewellery – 31,786 posts
  9. Amethyst jewellery – 22,242 posts
  10. Sapphire jewellery – 18,992 posts

the precious stones that have seen the biggest jumps in popularity

While diamonds may take the top spot for the most popular overall, we can see that some precious stones have had bigger jumps in popularity, with amethyst jewellery searches increasing by 38% between 2020-2021, closely followed by turquoise and pearl jewellery.

  1. Amethyst jewellery – 38% increase
  2. Turquoise jewellery – 34% increase
  3. Pearl jewellery – 32% increase
  4. Citrine jewellery – 30.8% increase
  5. Aquamarine jewellery – 30.3% increase
  6. Emerald jewellery – 28.2% increase
  7. Sapphire jewellery – 28.1% increase
  8. Diamond jewellery – 24% increase
  9. Ruby jewellery – 23% increase
  10. Garnet jewellery – 22% increase

When it comes to fashion, 2021 saw quite a mix of trends as we lived through the yo-yo of going in and out of lockdowns, leading to a number of the trending ‘going out-out’ looks as well as some more comfortable.

Gen Z really came into their own in 2021, claiming some of their favourite looks from previous generations, with corsets, 90s fashion and even flares making a comeback.

  1. Corset – 12,275,000 searches
  2. Bralette – 6,796,000 searches
  3. 90s fashion – 4,779,000 searches
  4. Beret – 4,096,000 searches
  5. 1920s fashion – 1,482,000 searches
  6. Black minidress – 735,800 searches
  7. Cut out dress – 651,800 searches
  8. Long puffer coat – 518,300 searches
  9. Cropped jacket – 503,400 searches
  10. Flared trousers – 456,400 searches

Instagram shows us a similar picture with some retro fashion trends proving popular. As well as some cosy fashion like luxury loungewear entering the top 10, reflecting the amount of time we had to spend at home.

  1. 90s fashion – 4,973,579 posts
  2. Corset – 2,705,023 posts
  3. Bralette – 2,149,800 posts
  4. Beret – 843,435 posts
  5. 1920s fashion – 199,367 posts
  6. Monochrome fashion – 104,998 posts
  7. Luxury loungewear – 94,139 posts
  8. Cut out dress – 55,519 posts
  9. Oversized coat – 29,509 posts
  10. Cropped jacket – 23,142 posts

While 2021 saw a number of popular fashion trends, which were the ones the climbed in popularity the most from 2020?

The cutout dress may not be anything particularly new, but it saw a massive jump in popularity during the year with a 315.16% increase in searches for the trend. Taking inspo from Posh Spice, the black minidress also saw a massive rise in popularity with 137.82% more searches for the item in 2021 than in 2020.

  1. Cut out dress – 315% increase
  2. Black minidress – 138% increase
  3. Corset – 106% increase
  4. Netting jacket – 98% increase
  5. Long puffer coat – 73% increase
  6. Colourful knitwear – 53% increase
  7. Floaty maxi dress – 49% increase
  8. Oversized trousers – 43% increase
  9. Miniskirt suit – 41% increase
  10. 90s fashion – 34% increase

Jewellery trends vary across the world but we wanted to find out which were the most popular trends in each country.

While choker necklaces were the most popular in 53 out of 102 countries, men’s jewellery was most popular in 36 countries and branded jewellery was most popular in 13 countries.

methodology:

We began by collating a list of jewellery and fashion trends that were popular in 2021 taken from a number of articles from sources such as:

Elle, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Marie Claire, Harpers Bazaar

We then looked at three different factors for our list of jewellery trends, precious stone jewellery and fashion trends.

Popularity – we entered each list into Google Keyword Planner, looking at search volume for the last 12 months in all locations. By adding the monthly searches for each search term, we were able to discover the most popular trends.

Instagram popularity – using the same search terms, we used Instagram to discover how many posts used a hashtag with this term.

Popularity increases – using search data from Google Keyword Planner, we were able to compare the number of searches from the last 12 months to the previous 12 month period, giving a percentage increase or decrease for each trend.

Every country’s favourite jewellery trend used the same list of jewellery trends and looked at each country’s average monthly searches during 2021 to find which had the highest number of searches.