An everyday earring has to pass three tests. It must be light enough to be worn from morning to night without pulling on the lobe, secure enough that it survives a jumper coming off over the head, and plain enough that it does not compete with whatever else is happening. That rules out most long drops and almost all statement designs, and it leaves a small and genuinely useful category: huggies, small to mid hoops, studs and short drops that sit close to the ear. Within that, weight is the thing people underestimate. A solid gold hoop of any real diameter is heavier than it looks, while a hollow tube hoop of the same size is a fraction of the weight and looks identical from a metre away.

Metal choice is a comfort question before it is a style one. Solid gold in fourteen or eighteen carat is the safest for reactive ears, though not entirely inert, since the alloy contains copper and other metals. Gold vermeil is a thick gold layer over sterling silver and holds up far better than plating, which will wear through at contact points within a year on a piece worn daily. Stainless steel and titanium are the least reactive and the most durable and are worth considering for the pair you never take out. On finish, a high polish shows scratches and a brushed or matte finish hides them, which is why a brushed hoop worn daily still looks new after two years while a polished one looks tired.

We keep arriving at the same small set. One pair of hoops sized between fifteen and twenty five millimetres, one pair of huggies for sleeping in, one pair of studs with some presence, and that is genuinely enough for most wardrobes. Everything beyond that is occasion jewellery and should be bought as such. The other habit worth adopting is checking the post and the closure rather than the front, because that is where a cheap pair gives itself away and where an expensive pair earns the price. If you take one thing away, buy fewer pairs in a better metal and wear them constantly, since jewellery only looks good when it looks like yours rather than like a purchase.