How To Style A Chain Neckace For Men

Whether you are wearing casual or smart clothes, chain necklaces can elevate your outfit. With basic outfits such as a T-shirt and jeans or plain-coloured joggers, chains can take these outfits to the next level. 

This applies to smart clothes as well, wearing a suit with a sleek thin chain can add the finishing touches to a smart look and make anyone look like and feel like a “boss”

Chain necklaces come in a variety of styles, materials, colours, thicknesses and lengths giving you a wide range of possibilities for styling. 

However, with all these choices it can be difficult to decide how to go about styling a chain with your outfits. In this blog, we go over how to style a chain necklace for men. 

Consider Your Build

The first aspect you should consider when deciding on how to style your chain necklace is your body type. For individuals who are taller a longer chain is great as it further accentuates their tallness. For someone who is shorter, a super-long chain necklace can look quite overwhelming.

Additionally, if someone is much wider in size, they may opt for a longer chain necklace to accentuate their tallness and reduce their thickness, whilst those that are more on the slim side will look best with a shorter chain to accentuate their wideness. 

 

Consider Face Shape

Photo by The Art Of Manliness

The second aspect you should consider when deciding how to style a chain necklace is your face shape. 

Longer chain lengths are ideal for those rounder more squared-shaped faces to create to accentuate the length of their face and reduce the roundness. For those with longer faces, a shorter chain length works well as it softens the face and shortens the length of the face. 

At the same time for those with wider faces, thinner chain necklaces work better whilst for those with thinner faces a thicker chain necklace is perfect. 

Consider Neck Structure

The third aspect you should consider when deciding how to style a chain necklace is your neck structure. 

For individuals with shorter necks, a longer chain length accentuates the long features of your neck. For individuals with longer necks, a shorter chain length is more suitable, however, both short and long necklaces tend to work. 

What is considered a short or long necklace will depend mostly on your neck thickness, however as a general rule 16 - 20 inch chain necklaces are considered on the shorter side whilst anything above 20 inches would be considered long. 

Consider Your Outfit

The final consideration when deciding how to style a chain necklace is what outfit you will wear. Longer chains are better suited to wear outside of your shirt. Wearing a longer chain outside of your shirts, polos, turtle necks and t-shirts adds shine to your outfit and elevates it.

Shorter chain necklaces will be better for people who are planning on wearing their necklaces inside of their tops as a subtle piece of jewellery. 

Now that you understand some general rules for wearing and styling chain necklaces. Here are some tips on specific aspects of styling:

Styling Gold Chain Necklaces

Gold chain necklaces are great for those who want to stand out and make a statement whenever they enter a room. They look great with formal business attire like a smart shirt, polo and trousers. With formal outfits, gold chains can add a sense of luxury, success and achievement to your fit. 

Gold chain necklaces can also be styled with casual clothes including a T-shirt, jeans and joggers to take outfits from looking basic to well put together.

They can even be styled with casual clothes including a T-shirt and jeans or jogger combo to take the outfit from looking basic to well put together. 

Gold chains are best worn with warm deep tone neutrals and pair well with outfits that consist of charcoal, grey, chocolate brown, olive green, dark tan or beige.

 

Styling Silver Chain Necklaces

Silver chain necklaces are a great option for those wanting to incorporate jewellery into their outfits but aren’t ready to commit to a bold gold chain. 

Silver chains are great for adding extra subtle style to your outfits, making them look modern. 

Silver chain necklaces are best worn with black, grey or white coloured clothing. Bright-coloured clothing such as light blue, green and yellow will take away attention from the shiny silver colour of these chains. 

 

Mixing Gold And Silver Chains

When people ask how to style chain necklaces, they first say that you should never mix and match colours. However layering gold and silver jewellery together is becoming an increasingly popular trend, however, for some, this is still a controversial take. 

Layering gold and silver chains together alongside other gold and silver accessories can create an extremely unique look. Styling gold and silver necklaces look particularly good with gold and silver watches or gold rings with diamonds. 

 

Consider Chain Thickness

When thinking about how to style a chain necklace, chain thickness is one important consideration. For those that want a more subtle look and who are just wanting to wear a chain underneath their shirt and not outside of their shirt a thinner more dainty chain necklace will make the most sense. Wearing a thin chain underneath a formal shirt or even a casual shirt with the chain peaking out of your neck adds that extra shiny detail that can elevate your look. 

For those who want to make a statement, a thicker link chain is the perfect option. This is best for an individual who is planning on wearing their chain necklaces outside of their T-shirts as a statement piece. 

When layering chains, experiment with chain thicknesses. Layering chains of the same thickness can create a cohesive look, whilst mixing chains of different thicknesses can also be done to create your own look and style. 

 

Layering Chains Together

Another question people have concerning how to style a chain necklace is how to layer them together. If you’re stuck on what type of chain to wear with an outfit why not wear more than one? Mixing chain necklaces of different thicknesses, lengths, colours and types can produce a unique look.

When you layer your chains you’ll want to choose different chain necklace lengths anyways, this ensures that each piece is visible when layering. 

Adding Pendants

If you ever get tired of your chain necklaces why not add a pendant to them? Pendants are a great way to personalise a standard chain necklace and stand out from the crowd. 

Pendants can come in a variety of materials including silver, gold, stainless steel, rose gold, sterling silver and more. They can even come in a variety of shapes, sizes and designs. This means the possibilities of styling chain necklaces are almost endless when you add on a pendant. You can also layer a chain necklace with a long pendant necklace. 

Get Cohesive With Accessories

Another look we like is layering a chain necklace with a matching chain bracelet or earrings for an outfit. This creates a cohesive look and can also create a statement as people will take notice of your matching set of jewellery. 

Now you know how to style a chain necklace properly, I think it’s important to know that there is no right or wrong way to style them with an outfit. Layering unusual chains together, mixing different lengths, colours, styles and thicknesses that some may think won’t work together can end up looking good with certain types of outfits. At the end of the day how you style a chain necklace is up to your own personal preference!

Still Not Sure About Chain Necklaces?

Check out our blog post that goes through everything you need to know about chain necklaces.