Earrings First. Always.
On the days I get the earrings right, I feel comfortable in my own skin.
It didn't happen all at once.
It was a gradual shift — a slow realization that crept up on me over months of getting dressed in the morning and noticing what felt right and what didn't. What made me walk out the door feeling like myself. What made me feel, even on the most ordinary of days, comfortable in my own skin.
It was always the earrings.
I want to be honest about what "Earrings First" actually means…
Because it's not really about the sequence of getting dressed. It's not about literally putting your earrings on before your shoes or your jeans or your favorite sweater. It's about something more than that.
It's about giving the earrings the first real thought.
Most of us get dressed from the outside in — we pick the outfit, we figure out the shoes, and then at the last minute we grab something from the dish by the door and put it in our ears without really thinking about it. The earrings are the afterthought. The finishing touch. The thing we add when everything else is already decided.
Earrings First flips that. Not necessarily in order, but in intention.
Here's how it actually works for me.
In the morning I start by asking myself one question: how do I want to feel today? Not what do I need to do, not where am I going, not what's appropriate — just how do I want to feel? Comfortable. Romantic. Put-together. Relaxed. Feminine. Bold. The answer changes every day and that's exactly the point.
That feeling becomes the whole foundation. It tells me what kind of clothes I'm reaching for. There's usually one anchor piece — a dress I love, a sweater that feels like a hug, a pair of pants that makes me feel like I have my life together — and I build from there. The earrings come in as the thing that completes the picture. The piece that takes everything I've assembled and says: yes, this is her.
On the days I get the earrings right, I feel comfortable in my own skin.
Not dressed up. Not impressive. Not polished for anyone else's benefit. Just — like me. Like I got the morning right in some small but meaningful way. And that feeling carries. It follows me into my emails and my meetings and my errands and my ordinary Tuesday in a way that nothing else quite does.
That's what earrings first actually means. Not a rule. Not a styling hack. A practice of starting with the thing that makes you feel most like yourself — and letting everything else follow from there.
Why Earrings Specifically
I've thought about this a lot, because there's something particular about earrings that other jewelry doesn't quite do in the same way. They're the piece that frames your face. They're what people see when they're talking to you, when they're looking at you, when you catch yourself in a reflection mid-afternoon. A necklace is lovely. A bracelet is beautiful. But earrings are the thing you see yourself wearing all day long.
Which means they have an outsized effect on how you feel about yourself from the inside.
A pair of earrings that is right for you — right for your face, your coloring, your mood, your sense of who you are — does something that no other accessory quite replicates. It makes you feel seen, even when you're the only one in the room.
That's why I make them. And that's why I always start there.
How to Start
If Earrings First is new to you, start small. Tomorrow morning, before you think about anything else, ask yourself one question: how do I want to feel today? Don't overthink it. Just notice the first word that comes. Then pick the earrings that match that feeling.
Build the rest from there. You might be surprised how much easier everything becomes when you start with the thing that makes you feel most like you.