Why Do We Talk About “the perfect fit” in Navel Jewelry
Because it was never a common focus.
If anyone did, they never really touched on what makes a true difference.
But what I really want to share with you is how I think of “the perfect fit” and what it means to me.
I’ll start with two fundamental questions.
Can navel jewelry really be considered independent of your anatomy? Like you would a pair of earrings? Or does it start with your anatomy?
And when you end up on a website buying jewelry. How do you bridge the gap? Their jewelry. Your anatomy. Will it look and feel right when you put it on?
I once watched a piercer talk about piercing shallow (that’s leaving most of the bar exposed) because she had a personal preference for how it looked. But that’s rare lol.
Maybe the disconnect happened somewhere in between the piercing studios and the jewelry brands. But can we call them all brands? Like really. Does a mass producer focused on “cute stuff” really care about you? Isn’t “caring” about “something” the very essence of any brand?
Let’s be real, there’s no meaningful guide or clearly defined standard anywhere for how navel jewelry should fit. Most will just tell you how to measure the jewelry. I know I’m striking a chord here. But how else would we end up with jewelry that fills your navel as “starter” jewelry? And how about that skeleton sticking out of your piercing? I’ll leave this one to your imagination.
So I guess “it’s fashion”, the style of jewelry, how big or small, what statement you’re going to make?
But now I’m starting to see other brands go all out on “the perfect fit” in this context of navel jewelry. They’re even calling it “a new way to buy navel jewelry,” and I felt like writing this just to give you the download of what this really meant to me.
Of course, it’s much easier to give you the download now. Jolie Co has truly come to life, and it’s more than a personal story. But unlike other brands, I didn’t copy phrases that sounded cool or an offering because it seemed like it would be good for business. For me, this is personal. And so, I genuinely care about all of this. Deeply.
But I think I need to tell you a bit about how I realized what a huge miss it is. And in the process, I hope to inspire you on why this is so important.
"The perfect fit" isn’t optional. It’s everything. Quality jewelry is just as important.
So here is more of my untold story. But I promise I will dive even deeper in my next blog posts and videos.
I was looking for a style of navel jewelry I saw once, but for some reason, I could not find it anywhere. I admit it had a charm, one that was permanently attached. And I wanted it badly. Like 16-year-old really, really bad. And so, I started with the websites of some shops and then dug on Pinterest and through socials. Without getting too lost in the details, fast forward a few years, one thing really stood out. In almost every case I saw a dangle, there was a piercing that had migrated. A lot. You don’t really realize what you’re seeing until you start seeing a lot of it. And while that didn’t happen right away, here’s the essence, as cringy as this might sound. I quickly lost sight of looking for the (funky dangle jewelry as I see it now) and started looking for migration. It was something I didn't really want to have happen to me. I took to social media and dug through pictures, “a lot of them, like many thousands of them”, and let me tell you, what started as curiosity turned into a whole structured study. The more I saw of it, piercings that had migrated, the more curious I got. I wanted to understand how widespread this migration issue really was. Admittedly, I had some help.
And so, the initial conclusion - it must be bulky jewelry, dangle charms, and the works. Why was this such an important find? Here's an observational insight, well over 70% of belly piercings that I saw classified as this had heavily migrated. That’s serious. Serious enough to see there’s a disconnect and to question where the disconnect lies. If you need to convince yourself, take a quick look around, how many piercings do you see that have migrated? If you’ve heard me say this in my TikTok videos, well, now you know where I got it from. Look even closer at the jewelry they’re wearing. Soon enough I’ll be sharing more details about all of this, my journey into the piercing world and getting hands-on training, including how we crossed the bridge into jewelry manufacturing. That’s another thing we really obsess about. You can’t have fitted jewelry that isn’t made well. The essence in all of this is that I’ve surrounded myself with professionals from all walks of life. I promise it’s an exciting story. I’m beyond passionate about all of this.
So how did no one see it? Or at least, why is no one screaming STOP?
If jewelry’s too heavy - it puts pressure on your piercing.
If it’s too large, fills your navel with not a lot of room to move - it puts pressure on your piercing.
If it’s too long and moves a lot, like sticking up when you bend - it puts pressure on your piercing.
It’s common sense. Pressure is at the heart of most navel piercing issues.
Professional piercers that love what they do know this. Do they get how big this issue is? They absolutely get it. But when things go wrong, we spend our time looking for magic potions and quick remedies. Does your doctor get jewelry? They’ll tell you to remove it when things get ugly. And how about the magic potion dealers? Well, they care about magic potions. Jewelry is like your sense of fashion. And once you leave the studio, you’re on your own buying it.
And if you’re wondering, if it isn’t really these guys? OK, set aside a bad piercing, bad advice, improper care, etc. Then it must be “the jewelry”.
Ask yourself the question, how much do the designers know or care about your piercing journey when they design large bulky jewelry, especially one that sticks out of the exit hole of your piercing?
There’s an army of mass producers of inexpensive body jewelry inundating you with cute designs. What’s worse, some people think it's the only jewelry they can afford, and wait for it...they build collections. Do they realize how much they’re spending?
This is about attitude.
The mass production syndrome isn’t just limited to inexpensive jewelry. I call it a syndrome because the manufacturers are stretched thin doing more for less, and you might not be getting what you think you’re getting. We’ve all enabled it.
But the attitude I’m really talking about is how you think about navel jewelry.
I can’t tell you how many times I got a comment on one of my posts, “300–400 for a belly ring?” Like what? “It’s a belly ring.” Who came up with the concept of where to draw a line in how good it should look or feel when YOU put it on?
I’m only sharing this to make a point. We’re all led to believe belly rings should be cheap. And you’ve never really paid attention to the imperfections in either the look or fit because cheap is just that, cheap.
And I’m going to jump in here and defend us a little, we don’t always feel the pressure. Whatever the issue may be, we'll see the outcome of it, whether a piercing bump or irritation, but quite often we don’t feel it until it’s too late.
So here’s what "the perfect fit" really means to me.
The perfect fit is striking the balance between your anatomy, piercing, and lifestyle.
It’s something you do to protect your piercing and to achieve everything you’re going for, comfort, the look, the statement you’re going to make.
One size does not fit all:
• Our anatomies are not all the same.
• We’re not all pierced by the same piercer.
• We don’t all heal the same.
The big questions you need to ask yourself are these:
• Your lifestyle, are you super active? i.e. work out, on the go, or sit at a desk all day
• What do you value more, that edge vs. comfort?
• What do you really like and don’t like about your current jewelry? i.e. do the gems point downward? Do you find it buries in even when you’re standing?
• How comfortable is it when you move or bend? i.e. does the top stick out "a lot"
• Do you experience frequent issues? i.e. bumps, irritation, and the works
These are just a few to get you going.
The way you spend most of your day should dictate the type of jewelry you’ll wear all day. With exceptions, of course. You’ll always push the boundaries a little. I do it too. I love my larger bling, especially when I’m out. It’s stunning. And you know something, everyone looks. No exception. An exquisite piece just does something special. I’ve been calling it the centerpiece of your outfit for this very reason because it really is. And yes, I get a little daring with it too, because when everything comes off, it's the only thing that stays on. It’s intimate. It’s super sexy and looks incredible. It’s common sense (I’m crying.) Of course, it’s the centrepiece of your outfit, even when you’re not wearing one.
For me, the big thing is how I brought it all to life and our “Jolie Co’s” ability to personalize your jewelry in so many ways. Whether it’s the bar length or the way a gem is angled to ensure it doesn’t get buried. I get such a kick seeing a happy customer. I’ve had few cases where we went back and forth remaking the jewelry three, four times. It’s like each time we’re getting closer to what they want. They think they’re exhausting me, but I simply love doing it. Fine tune it to perfection to get that “perfect fit”. How would that ever be achieved with standard jewelry? And who does this? Lifting a stone another millimeter, reinforcing a base so that the jewelry doesn’t fall to the side when worn or tilting a gem another 10 degrees? I find so many have something they don’t like about the way their jewelry fits, they can’t quite put their finger on what it is.
There’s so much that matters in how the jewelry is made. All of it is “the perfect fit”.
For example, take a top and the way it rests on your skin. If it’s flat or has an odd-shaped base that doesn’t perfectly hug your exit hole of your piercing, it will dig into your skin. The top has a lot to do with how comfortable the jewelry is. Why on earth do you think I pick on bulky so much? It will rip your piercing if something pulls on it hard. But often it hides in plain sight. You’ll see expensive jewelry poorly designed.
And what about that polish? It’s how the jewelry feels. Your body knows it. A bar that has a perfect mirror finish, you’re not getting this in mass-produced jewelry. You know why? The focus is on volume, not on each individual piece. Do you think they’re hand-polishing under a microscope? That’s how crazy my team got. Or at least, that’s what people in the industry say. You often hear these old-school jewellers say, “But nobody looks at jewelry up-close. Do they put it under a microscope?” My team recognized, we had to “raise the bar” to meet the standards of the kind of brand we’re working to build. Can’t wait to show you more of our roadmap and where we’re going with all of this.
I sure hope I got you thinking and inspired you in some way.
And while I applaud the other brands that embraced it and have seen the value of this vision, I really wanted to give you a tiny glimpse into what "the perfect fit" means to me - and how it came to be in my world. As for the professionals who have long advocated for it, you have my utmost respect.
This is my personal view.
Alyssa Jolie, Founder of Jolie Co
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