Every few years, some jewelry company succeeds in convincing the style experts that charm bracelets are “back,” and the cycle of ads and articles begins as if they’d gone somewhere. The truth is, charm bracelets never really go away, and some people are always wearing and enjoying them because they’re such a wonderful way to keep and cherish memories.
Remnants of charm bracelets have been found in prehistoric sites, and the ancient Assyrians and others wore strings of various amulets. Back then, it was a charm in the magical sense: a thing intended to protect you from some kind of harm.
While the magical meaning faded with time, the idea of wearing something in an easily visible place to carry an important memory or message is a very popular one, so the idea never really faded away, even if it took different forms, depending on fashion.
Modern charm bracelet fans can thank – guess who? – Queen Victoria, for making them really popular. Pictures of the Grandmother of Europe from various stages of her life clearly show several of them, some that were mementoes from her beloved Albert, and others of her constantly growing family. Of course, if it was good enough for her, it was good enough for everyone else…and ladies quickly adopted the fashion.
At the time, it was very much an upper-class vogue. Most people would not have had the money for innumerable little trinkets – and a working woman would never have been comfortable wearing all of those jingling bits on her wrist while she scrubbed or typed, never mind what would have happened in a factory. So simply owning a charm bracelet marked you as woman of a particular class.
That’s probably one of the reasons Ella Shane prizes hers. While she definitely does not like fancy jewels, finding them wasteful and at least somewhat less than respectable, she definitely does love the collection of mementoes around her wrist. It’s a very proper way for her to announce that she is now a lady of means and substance, and she’s quite proud of it.
Like any woman who collects charms, she also loves what they represent. Many of hers are pieces that recall roles she’s played over the years, tracking her successful career. But not all. When we meet Ella, she also has pieces from friends and family marking special milestones, like her friend Marie’s wedding, and gifts from friends over the years.
Charms were, and are, a thoughtful and meaningful gift to a woman who collects them. They were also one of the very few gifts a man could give a woman that was considered respectable. Though charms are undoubtedly jewelry items, because of their tiny size, relatively low value, and the fact that they are also respectable gifts among family and friends, a gentleman could give one to a lady in perfect propriety.
That’s why the Duke gives Ella one at the end of their first adventure, A FATAL FINALE. The crossed swords engraved on it are a reminder of their meeting, and the charm itself a callback to a moment when he clasped the bracelet on her wrist, his fingers touching her skin for the first time. A charm is also his acknowledgement that she’s a lady whom one gives a small trinket, rather than a courtesan to be bought with jewels.
More than a year later, a charm closes the circle in their wedding adventure, A FATAL RECEPTION. Gil (as we now know him) sends his bride a gift on the day they marry: a charm engraved with the word “bashert,” Hebrew for “fated,” meaning a couple who are meant for each other.
A charm bracelet is a woman’s biography in jewelry. No wonder they never really go out of style!

Have a Throwback Thursday idea? Leave it in the comments!