Flora Ruby Necklace - Delicate Beaded Choker with Floral Motif

Sitting close to the throat, a burgundy floral choker

Bought online, a choker lives or dies on where it lands, so start there. Fastened at its shortest, this one closes on the collarbone notch and the bouquet sits high, in full view above a bustier or a boat neck. Let the extension chain out one notch and it drops a step, which suits a V-neck or an open shirt collar far better. Anyone who finds close-fitting necklaces uncomfortable should know that the mount here is a thread rather than a rigid band, so it follows the neck instead of resisting it.

What the two photographs actually show

A crowded ten centimetres, then almost nothing

The design is deliberately unbalanced. Five leaves and a central bud, packed with very dark burgundy micro-beads, almost black, hold the middle; salmon-pink pearl beads and bright red faceted bicones fan out from them on short stems, and a small cluster drops below the line so the front never reads as a flat band. Past that bouquet the loop empties out: single pink beads, violet flowers and frosted grey beads, spaced wide apart. Because there is no chain at the front, only a hair-fine black thread, the piece behaves differently from a gold or silver-toned necklace where the chain is part of the drawing. Against pale skin in daylight the thread all but disappears and the bouquet seems to float; against a dark neckline it reads as a clean line.

A guest piece as much as a bridal one

Deep burgundy is not the obvious bridal choice, and that is the point of it. Over a plain ceremony dress in burgundy, ivory or black it does the whole job of a neckline on its own, no second piece needed. It also survives ordinary Tuesdays: a closed white shirt, top button undone, the black thread lost in the shadow of the collar. Among our floral necklaces for the ceremony it is one of the darkest, since most of them go ivory or gold.

Earrings and bracelet: keep them quiet

With a busy front like this, plain company works best: a pearl stud, a thin band, a bracelet with no pattern at all. If you would rather have the whole set match, our coordinated necklace and earring sets spare you the job of matching styles that argue.

Perfume first, necklace second

Thread and beads have no patience with water or anything sprayed, so the order of getting ready matters: scent and hairspray go on, then the necklace. A dry cloth drawn over the motif is enough to bring the shine back, and nothing wet should ever touch it. Store it flat rather than hanging it on a hook, and two things stop happening: the bouquet no longer pulls on its own thread, and the sparse back section stops catching on whatever else is in the box.