Emerging Jewelry Designer Ashley Harris Shares Her Favorite Holiday Style Hack

Jewelry is, naturally, central to Harris’s personal style. Just as she adds a bit of magic into everyday accessories, she’s figured out how to make her winter wardrobe equal parts sentimental, personal, and joyful. Describing herself as a “Kallmeyer, La Ligne kind of gal,” (read: a woman equipped with elevated classics), Harris explains that, for winter, she keeps to a capsule wardrobe. “One of the hard truths I learned in New York is that sweaters take a lot of space, and I don’t have a lot of space,” she laughs. 

To accentuate her edited-down wardrobe, Harris uses her arsenal of fragrances. A “scent addict” who recently bought a fridge to store her bottles at a steady temperature, Harris layers her favorites to turn her look into a full sensory experience. “Fragrances are really similar to jewelry,” she says. “They sit on each person’s skin much differently than the next person. You need to wear it the full day to see if it’s something you can actually live with.” Her favorites are Les Liquides Imaginaires (she describes the way they change over time as “little movies”), Jazmin Saraï, and Foope. 

While her outfits stay consistent—“because I have to feel comfortable, I have to be the best version of me wherever I’m going”—she’ll change her fragrance depending on who she’s around, even giving samples to friends. Similarly, she says, “if I’m around one of my friends who is super playful, I’ll wear a necklace from the Hello Playful collection because I know they’ll appreciate that. If I’m going to see my grandmother, I’ll wear anything with a little cartoon character. I see my jewelry as talking points.” Use that as a trick the next time you have to make small talk at a holiday party! 

Her final tip for small ways to shake up your holiday look? Don’t forget to do something for yourself. She makes sure to wear three or four necklaces, even under a turtleneck. “Throughout the day, I’ll just touch my neck or the necklaces, and it feels like a hug to myself. It’s something I’ve put a lot of time and energy into,” she says. “I know it’s really silly, but it’s something I do for me. During the holidays, we forget to do things for ourselves. There’s so much pressure to do things for other people, but there are these little things we can do for ourselves that really make us happy.”