Buying jewellery for someone whose taste you do not know

Professional Jeweller published a piece on 30 September 2026, written by Andrew Seymour, on what customers actually want from jewellery now. One line in it is the answer to the hardest gift question there is. On engraving, it says: "A date inside a wedding band or two initials on the back of a pendant are details nobody else sees, yet the wearer never forgets them."

Read that again if you are stuck for a present. If you do not know somebody's taste, the way out is not to guess harder. It is to stop buying taste altogether and buy information you already hold.

I have made jewellery by hand in London for 22 years, from a stall on Portobello Road to counters at Liberty, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Harrods. In that time a great many people have stood in front of me and said, quite honestly, that they had no idea what she likes. They were usually wrong about that. They knew more than they thought.

A jewellery gift can go wrong in 3 ways, and only 1 of them is taste

1. Size, which is the one that actually ruins it

A ring has to fit one finger on one hand, and fingers are not guessable. A bangle is harder still, because its internal diameter is fixed at the moment it is made and cannot be let out afterwards. Anything that hangs is safe: a necklace, a bracelet on a chain, a charm, a pair of earrings. None of those has to pass over a knuckle or a closed fist.

So if you cannot ask, buy something that hangs. If it has to be a ring, borrow one she already wears and use the ring size guide. For a necklace my chains are labelled 16in and 18in as the standard lengths, and the Chain Guide sets out the rest.

2. Taste, which you can side step entirely

You are not obliged to predict what she would pick off a tray. You can put something on the piece that is hers already: her initial, her children's initials, the date of something that happened, her own name, or handwriting. A personalised piece is not a guess about style. It is a fact about her, set in silver or gold.

3. Metal, which takes 1 photograph to settle

Find any recent picture of her and look at her ears and her wrist. Almost everybody wears gold or silver and stays there. Buy the one she already owns and the new piece goes on with the old ones, instead of sitting in a drawer waiting for the right outfit.

The piece I reach for when somebody is stuck

The Signature Writing Name Necklace is £100 in sterling silver, £120 in gold vermeil or rose gold vermeil, and £575 in 14kt solid yellow or white gold. It is hand scripted in the workshop, and if you send us handwriting we can make it the same.

That last part is why it works when taste is a mystery. Handwriting is not a style anybody has to agree with. It is already hers, or already her mother's, and it does not date. The pieces people hold on to are rarely the most expensive ones in the box.

Two more ways to buy, at either end

The Initial Letter necklace is the easy entry point: £45 in sterling silver, £60 in gold vermeil, in 5 lengths from 14in to 22in. One capital letter, 1cm high, handmade to order in the London workshop.

The Initial Italic Disc Necklace is engraved rather than cut out, and it scales with a family. One disc is £60 in sterling silver, 2 discs £90 and 3 discs £120. In gold vermeil the same run is £85, £115 and £145. If you are buying for a mother, 1 disc per child is the obvious use of it.

And if it does have to be a ring, the Special Date Ring carries a date in Roman numerals: £125 in sterling silver, £140 in gold vermeil, £580 in 14kt solid gold. Allow 14 working days, because it is not on the 5 day express service. Get the size first.

The best present is sometimes something she already owns

If the person you are buying for already has plenty of jewellery, the useful present may not be another piece at all. Nearly everybody keeps a ring they never wear, odd earrings with no partner, a chain that broke years ago, or stones from somebody who has died. Second Life is the remodelling and resetting service in my London studio. The stones stay, the gold stays, the shape changes, and the piece comes back as something that gets worn. The estimate is free, from a photograph, with no obligation, which makes it a simple thing to arrange on somebody else's behalf before Christmas.

If the gold itself is the only part worth keeping, recycling it into a new piece is the other route.

The second life is the real one.

Everything I would put in front of a worried gift buyer is in the Christmas Gift Guide, and everything engraved in the workshop sits in Engraved Jewellery. If you are still not sure, send me a photograph of what she already wears, to anna@annalouoflondon.com, and I will tell you what will sit beside it.

Anna Lou x

Questions people ask

What is a safe jewellery gift if I do not know her ring size?

Buy something that hangs rather than something that has to close. A necklace, a charm or a pair of earrings needs no measurement at all, and a chain bracelet has enough give to be forgiving. Rings need an accurate size and bangles have a fixed internal diameter, so both are better bought with her in the room. If you want to try anyway, borrow a ring she already wears and check it against the ring size guide.

How long does personalised jewellery take, and when should I order for Christmas?

Every personalised piece is made to order by hand, so allow up to 10 working days for production before dispatch, and 14 working days for the Special Date Ring, which is not on the 5 day express service. Working back from that, late November is the comfortable window for anything engraved. December gets tight, and the solid gold pieces take the longest.

She already owns a lot of jewellery. What do I buy her?

Ask her what she never wears. An inherited ring that is not her style, odd earrings, a chain that broke. Those can be remade into one piece she will actually put on, through Second Life, and the estimate is free from a photograph. It is also the present nobody else will have thought of.