In the 1940s, compact clips or screw backs, often made with a matching brooch, were the dominant earring style. Gold, strongly colored stones, and bolder, more sculptural forms were now preferred, in keeping with the padded shoulders and highly structured coiffures of the period. Close-to-the-ear styles, with clip or screw backs, continued to be the most popular in the 1950s, but settings became more delicate, to harmonize with the more deliberately feminine fashions in the years following Christian Dior's 1947 "New Look" collection. An important look of the 1950s was the matched set of choker necklace and button long earrings, and these were produced in a wide variety of styles and materials, including newly developed plastics. White and colored rhinestones were popular, as were beads and faux pearls of all kinds, colors, and finishes, often looped in multiple strands around the neck, and fastened with a clasp of clustered beads matching the earrings. Ear piercing, while still not common, began to revive in the early 1950s; in the United States, the trend began as a fad among college girls, and Queen Elizabeth II set an example for many in England when she had her ears pierced in order to be able to wear diamond earrings she received as a wedding present in 1947.
In the 1960s, as in the 1920s, clean-lined dresses and hairstyles, including the long, straight hair popular later in the decade, provided an ideal background for large and decorative earrings. Earrings were again among the most important of accessories, and were often designed to stand alone, rather than as part of a matched set. In both fine and costume jewelry, abstraction was popular, and creative design, visual impact, and wit were often considered more important than the intrinsic value of jewelry. Hoop earrings were one of the signature styles of the decade, and they appeared in designs inspired by tribal jewelry, enormous space-age styles of chrome and plastic, and kinetic designs of concentric, articulated rings. Ethnic styles, particularly from India and the Near East, were also popular, and delicate dangling earrings helped to propel handcrafted sterling silver jewelry, which had been growing in popularity since the 1940s, into the fashion mainstream.
By the early 1970s, the new fashionable ideal was the "natural look," and large costume earrings disappeared in favor of smaller and more delicate earrings, usually of silver or gold, and almost always worn in pierced ears. In terms of design, earrings remained fairly inconspicuous throughout the decade, though they were given new prominence by the fashion for multiple piercings in the same ear, which began as a teenage fashion around the middle of the decade, and continued into the twenty-first century to be a popular way to wear earrings. Earrings worn in the upper part of the ear, and ear cuffs, which grip the edge of the upper ear, were fashions introduced late in the decade. The 1970s was also when earrings for men returned to fashion after a 300-year absence; earrings had continued to be worn by sailors, by some homosexual men, and by members of groups such as motorcycle gangs, but many more men now began to wear single earrings largely for their decorative value.
Large and flashy earrings, both real and frankly fake, returned in the 1980s, to balance the bolder shapes and colors, padded shoulders, high-volume hairstyles, and dramatic makeup then in fashion. Chunky button earrings covering the lower half of the ear and large pendant hoops were popular styles, and common finishes were shiny gold, bright colors contrasted with black, and a variety of bronzed and iridescent metallic finishes. Even relatively understated earrings tended toward strong shapes, worn close to the earlobe; though most women still had pierced ears, clips were popular because they kept earrings close to the head, and because they distributed the weight of heavier styles.
In the early 1990s, silver, brushed finishes, and simple, elegant earrings began to succeed the shiny gold and jagged shapes of the 1980s, in keeping with the monochromatic and minimalist mood of fashion. At the same time, the trend toward simple, versatile clothes that could be dressed up or down inspired women to use elaborate or unusual earrings to vary the effect of an ensemble, and earring styles proliferated. Since the mid-1990s, there has not been a dominant style in earrings, although historical revivals have been an important trend; the popularity of glamorous "chandelier" earrings inspired the return of girandole and top-and- drop designs from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, along with the more familiar kinetic designs of the 1920s and 1960s. Earrings have become a popular form of personal expression, and how and when they are worn, along with their function within an ensemble, became largely a matter of personal choice.
