The Ankle Gets Its Moment
Sandal season has a way of pulling attention downward – to pedicures, to straps, to the particular satisfaction of bare skin in warm air. This summer, that gaze is landing on something else: the anklet, newly embellished, deliberately stacked, and worn in ways that have very little to do with the thin chains that defined the style for decades. Street style, celebrity dressing, and independent jewelry designers are all pointing in the same direction at once.
Rihanna, Hailey Bieber, and Gigi Hadid have all been spotted wearing them. That kind of concentrated celebrity visibility rarely happens by accident – it usually signals that something has already been building at a lower level for a while, and has now broken through.
What Changed, Exactly
The anklets circulating right now are not minimalist. Where the classic version was a single delicate chain – something barely visible, almost apologetic in its smallness – the current iteration is intentionally loud. Bright gemstones, layered metals, charms, and mixed materials are all in play. The aesthetic borrows from the broader color enthusiasm running through fashion this season: candy tones, saturated hues, the general sense that restraint is temporarily out of fashion.
Christin Marie Nichols, founder and CEO of Christin Marie Studio, describes the shift bluntly: “Anklets are moving from being a minimal aesthetic touch to a bold show of character.” Her brand – which has an established celebrity clientele – is built around maximalism, and its anklet range leans into sizable, multichromatic gemstones as a signature. “The combination of colors I use are made to complement anything you wear and are so eye-catching,” Nichols says. “It’s almost like organized chaos but pretty. With it being so unique it attracts attention where people normally wouldn’t pay attention.”
The stacking behavior is particularly telling. Treating anklets the way most people treat bracelets – layering multiple pieces, mixing metals, building a curated combination rather than choosing a single item – is now the dominant approach among those driving the trend. Nichols confirms it directly: “Anklet stacks are huge right now. Just like bracelets, customizing your anklet stack is a statement of self-expression that speaks to your individuality.”
Why Stacking Works as Self-Expression
There’s something interesting about the ankle as a canvas. It’s a less obvious location than the wrist or neck – lower, easier to miss, and for much of the year, hidden entirely. That intermittent visibility might be part of the appeal. The anklet is jewelry that only appears under specific conditions: when shoes come off, when sandals replace sneakers, when someone actually looks down. It rewards attention without demanding it.
Nichols frames the stacking practice as a form of individuality built from choices: “What you choose to incorporate, how creative you can get, how many you use, mixed metals and materials – all factors that I love to see.” The specificity of those choices – which charms, which metals, how many pieces, in what order – means that two stacks are rarely identical, which is exactly the point.
Where the Trend Is Actually Living
Anklets have appeared on runways, but that’s not where this trend is primarily happening. The real energy is in street style – in the kind of dressing that doesn’t follow a single designer’s directive but instead aggregates individual choices into a collective direction. That distinction matters because it suggests durability. Runway trends can evaporate. Street style movements tend to stick longer because they’re driven by actual wear rather than editorial timing.
The range of options currently available reflects how wide the trend has spread. Gold anklets sit alongside maximalist statement pieces; minimalist styles coexist with fully embellished versions. Several designs work across seasons – the kind of piece that doesn’t disappear when temperatures drop and closed-toe shoes return. Others are explicitly warm-weather jewelry, built for beach trips and tropical settings, effective only when skin is showing.
For anyone who has been wearing Hailey Bieber’s aesthetic choices as a rough guide to where things are heading, the anklet is already on the list. What remains is figuring out exactly how far to take it – one piece or five, gold or mixed, subtle or loud.
The ankle, historically the quietest part of a summer outfit, now has 11 opinions about itself.
Whether dainty chains ever fully return – or whether the stack mentality has permanently replaced them – probably depends on what happens when cold weather arrives and all of this disappears back under wool socks.
