How to Choose the Right Silver Anklet: Fit, Size, Style and Care Guide

What the Silver Actually Is

Almost everything sold as a silver anklet is sterling silver, and sterling silver is not pure silver. Knowing the difference is what separates a piece that lasts from one that does not.

Pure silver is 99.9 per cent silver. It is bright, it resists tarnish well, and it is far too soft to wear on a foot. An anklet made from it would bend out of shape within weeks.

So silver is alloyed — mixed with a small amount of another metal, usually copper — to make it hard enough to survive being worn. The standard mix is 92.5 per cent silver, and that is what sterling silver means.

What Else You Will Be Offered

Three other materials turn up constantly, and only one of them is silver at all.

• German silver contains no silver. It is copper, nickel and zinc. It is hard-wearing and inexpensive, but the nickel in it is a common cause of skin reactions, and it will never behave like silver.
• Silver-plated means a thin layer of silver over a base metal. On an anklet it is a poor choice specifically because of where it is worn — plating wears through fastest where a piece rubs, and an anklet rubs against shoes and against itself all day.
• Argentium is a modern sterling alloy that tarnishes more slowly. It is genuine silver and it works well; it is simply less common and costs more.

The Marks

Genuine sterling is usually stamped 925, sometimes STER or STERLING. On a fine anklet the mark can be very small and is often on the clasp or on a tag near it rather than on the chain.

One thing worth knowing if you are buying in India. BIS hallmarking is mandatory for gold, but not for silver. So the absence of a BIS mark on a silver anklet tells you nothing either way, and its presence is a seller choosing to be checked rather than a legal requirement being met.

Why the Fit Decides Everything

With most jewellery, the wrong size is a matter of looks. With an anklet it is a matter of whether you keep it.

An anklet that is too tight presses on the ankle bone. That is bearable for an hour and tiring by evening, and it is why a piece that felt fine in a shop can be taken off by dinner.

Too loose is the more expensive mistake. A loose anklet slides down over the heel, works its way under the foot, and catches on sandal straps, chair legs and door frames. Most anklets that are lost are lost this way.

An ankle is not a fixed size. It swells slightly through the day with movement, heat and the ordinary retention of fluid, and in an Indian summer that difference is not small. Measure late in the day, when the ankle is at its largest, and the piece will fit at every other hour too.

How to Measure Your Ankle

A soft tape is ideal. A length of thread and a ruler works just as well.

Where to Measure

Wrap the tape around the ankle at the point where you want the anklet to sit. That point is a choice, not a fixed place, and it changes the whole character of the piece.

• Just above the ankle bone — the anklet sits close and neat, and stays where it is put.
• Just below the ankle bone — the anklet drapes, moves as you walk, and is more visible in open sandals.

The higher position is steadier. The lower position is the one that makes a sound and catches light, and it is also the one that more easily slips.

How Much to Add

Your measurement is the ankle. The anklet has to be longer than that, or it will sit like a tourniquet.

• Everyday pieces — add about 1.25 to 2 cm (half to three quarters of an inch). This suits fine chains and light designs.
• Heavier or layered pieces — add about 2.5 cm (one inch). Weight pulls a piece downward, and charm designs need room to hang without dragging.

Standard Sizes

Measuring is always better. But when you are buying online, or buying for someone else, these ranges cover most people.

Every row adds the same half inch of ease to the ankle measurement, which is the everyday allowance described above. For a heavier or layered piece, take the next size up rather than the one the tape suggests.

For a child, size up and choose an adjustable chain. Children outgrow a fixed anklet in a season, and a fixed one that has become tight is worse than no anklet at all.

The Clasp Is Not a Detail

It is the smallest part of an anklet and the part most likely to end its life. It is also the part you will handle bending down, often in a hurry.

Lobster Clasp

A sprung hook that shuts on itself. It is the strongest of the common closures and the easiest to work with one hand, which matters when you are fastening something at your own ankle. This is the sensible default for daily wear and for anything with weight.

Spring Ring

A small ring with a sprung bar inside. It is light and almost invisible, which suits a very fine chain. The mechanism is small enough to be stiff with cold fingers and to wear loose over years of use, so it belongs on delicate pieces worn occasionally rather than every day.

S-Hook

A shaped hook that catches a ring at the other end. It is traditional, it looks handmade because it usually is, and it opens if it is pulled. On an anklet, which is pulled constantly by hems and straps, that is a real risk rather than a theoretical one.

Adjustable Slider

A chain that tightens through a bead or a knot, with no fixed length. This solves the size problem entirely, which is why it is the safe answer when you are buying for someone else. Against that, it can creep looser through a day of walking, so it wants a check now and then.

Choosing a Style

Silver anklets run from the deeply traditional to the almost invisible. Rather than tell you which belongs where, here is what each one actually does.

Payal and Nupur

The traditional forms, worked in detail and often carrying ghungroos. They have weight, they have sound, and they are meant to be noticed. They sit at the centre of festive and bridal dressing for exactly that reason.

Weight is the practical consequence. A worked payal wants more ease than a chain, and it is felt at the end of a long day in a way a fine chain never is.

Oxidised Silver

Silver deliberately darkened so that the pattern stands out against the recesses. The texture reads clearly even at a distance, which is why it carries ethnic dressing so well.

It also behaves differently in wear. The darkening is a surface treatment, so polishing an oxidised piece hard will lift it — these are the pieces to wipe and leave alone rather than shine.

Plain Chain

A fine chain with nothing added. It makes no sound, it disappears under a hem, and it is the form that survives an ordinary working day best because there is nothing on it to catch.

Charms and Beads

Anything hung from the chain — small charms, coloured beads, a bell. It gives the piece movement and a lighter character.

The trade is that every hanging element is something that can catch on a strap or a hem, and the more there are, the more the piece needs room to move.

Shoes, and Wearing More Than One

Two questions come up the moment the anklet is on. Both have a guide of their own in this series, so here is only what bears on the choice you are making now.

Closed shoes are the thing a silver anklet is least suited to. A metal chain slips down inside a shoe, sits under the ankle bone and rubs, and that is a comfort problem rather than a styling one. If most of your days are spent in sneakers or closed footwear, it changes what you should buy — which is the subject of How to Wear Black Thread Anklets with Shoes and Sneakers.

Wearing two is the other question, and it is a question about length before it is one about looks. Two anklets of the same length sit on top of each other and abrade; two of different lengths do not. If you intend to wear more than one, buy them as a set of lengths rather than buying the same size twice. One Anklet or Two? takes the rest of it.

Living With Silver

Silver darkens. It is not dirt, it is not damage, and it is not a sign that the piece is fake.

Tarnish is a reaction between the silver and sulphur in the air and in sweat. It forms a dark film on the surface and it comes off. It happens faster in humid weather, faster still where a piece is worn against skin all day, and an anklet is worn against skin all day.

That is why the single most effective thing is also the simplest — wipe the piece with a soft dry cloth when you take it off. Doing that removes the sweat before it has time to work.

The Rest of It

• Keep it out of water. Swimming pools are the worst of these, because chlorine attacks silver directly.
• Put it on last. Perfume, lotion and hair products all reach jewellery if the jewellery goes on first.
• Use a silver cloth occasionally, not often, and gently on anything oxidised.
• Store it dry and closed. A small airtight pouch slows tarnish considerably, because it limits the air the silver can react with.

Choose the silver honestly, measure at the end of the day, pick a clasp that suits how you live, and wipe it when you take it off. An anklet chosen that way stops being a decision you make each morning and becomes something you simply wear.