The last time I wore a strand of pearls was also the first. Invited by a new friend from university to the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, my mum and I were stumped by how to translate that rigidly conservative dress code to suit a 19-year-old. I can’t remember too much about the dress, hat or shoes (probably for the best) but suffice it to say that the pearls were the nail in my dress code coffin. Pearls are classic. Too grown up for me, now aged 33, and too grown up for my mother, 64, who remembers her own mother wearing a strand every day.

Source: The Times August 03, 2021 15:56 UTC