“Jewelry is made to be worn and lived with. It brings a lot of joy,” said Vardi (and your jewels would tend to agree). Pearls need frequent skin contact to look their best: “The humidity and heat from your skin keep them nice and warm, and body oils make them lustrous,” said Santimer. Silver, too, prefers regular wear. “If you leave silver in a drawer, it tarnishes, whereas if you wear it, it tarnishes a lot less,” Vardi told us. As for solid gold, “it doesn’t really tarnish, and you can wear it all the time. And one of the great advantages of solid gold is that it can be repaired and reworked ad nauseam,” said Plessner. Though you should probably doff your necklaces and rings in certain situations—like before stepping into a chlorinated pool or hot tub—how and when you choose to wear your jewelry largely comes down to preference. “I personally like my jewelry to look lived in,” said Vardi. “For me, it’s OK to have that patina of life.” Plessner added, “There’s a Joan Didion quote that we always paraphrase: ‘Use the good silver every day, because every day is all there is.’”
