As a professional Indian woman working on the East Coast, I’ve found to my absolute surprise that Indian jewelry works remarkably well with American business casual . . . as long as you remember that a little goes a long way.

Indian jewelry is often intricately designed with 22 karat gold and precious gemstones. In addition, Indian jewelry usually has intricate patterns and complicated designs.  The excellent quality and the beautiful designs are the main reasons I love wearing Indian jewelry!

But . . . I’ve also found that the combination of excellent materials and intricate design makes Indian jewelry a little tougher to integrate into a Western wardrobe.

After a lot of experimentation, I’ve found that the best starting point for Indian jewelry and Western clothing combos is the little black dress.  Anything goes with black, and there are multiple ways to jazz up a little black dress thanks to the amazing variety of Indian jewelry.  Let’s take a look at some samples below:

Indian pendants and the little black dress.

One of the best things about the little black dress is that it accommodates a variety of jewelry.  Any color, any shape, and any design will almost always work well.  Here I’ve paired a multitude of different Indian pendants with a basic J. Jill black tank dress:

Look #1: The Sapphire Bead Pendant

Before we get into the merits or demerits of the look above, I should explain why I started wearing Indian jewelry with my office wear.  As a fashion neophyte in NYC several years ago, I had no idea what to wear or how to dress.  Even worse, since I had just graduated from law school, I also couldn’t afford to do what most of my law firm peers did: raid pricey little boutiques in Chelsea.  Fortunately, despite my cash flow problems, I had a secret fashion weapon: my mother.

My mother, and her mother, and my aunts, and all of my female cousins, had spent several decades carefully saving money to spend on high quality jewelry.  I liberally pulled multiple family strings to borrow the odd piece here or there, for a few weeks at a stretch.  The end result was that I could transform relatively inexpensive little black dresses into well-thought out statement pieces – all with Indian jewelry!  And, as a side note, please do not think I have millions of bucks in the bank, because I don’t.  High quality Indian jewelry is a staple of every Indian family’s assets . . . but unlike American mutual funds and savings accounts, you actually wear your investments for special occasions or religious holidays.  And if you are like me, you wear them to work.

The pendant above – shown at a distance, and up close, has worked well for me on multiple occasions.  I’ve used it with black dresses, navy dresses, and with white shirts.  It adds an extra subtle pop to anything you are wearing, but it’s classy enough – and small enough – to not shout for attention.

Let’s move on to the next look –

Look #2: The Jeweled Flower

So, I happen to absolutely love this pendant.  It’s not an entirely traditional Indian jewelry design.  That is to say, flowers are very critical components of many Indian jewelry designs, but this pendant has a contemporary feel to it – it lacks the typical surrounding bells and whistles that usually come with these pendants.  As you can see from the pictures, it doesn’t have the same color pop that the previous sapphire beaded pendant has, but it still does add an extra dash of elegance to anything you are wearing.

I have often work this pendant with white collared shirts; it blends in well and brings an extra edge to the shirt itself.  But, it is also conservative enough to make an appearance at work.  And now on to the next look –

Look #3: Lady in Red (Pendant)

Here is an example of an absolutely exquisite ruby red pendant.  The intricate mosaic design of this pendant makes it stand out beautifully against any Western dress.  I think it works well with a collared and belted shirt dress worn into work.  It also could go with just about any neutral, although I haven’t tried it with navy just yet.  I like this design for its traditional base.  My mother, born and raised in Mysore, South India, never went for jewelry designs like this when she was younger, because it is a more typical North Indian look.  But as she spent more time abroad, she began to appreciate North Indian jewelry for its entirely different style aesthetic.

Look #4: Turquoise!

As you can see from the design of this pendant, it is remarkably similar to the design in the previous example.  I believe both pendants were bought at the same time, probably from the same merchant.  Once again, the intricate mosaic design is on display here.  It blends well against the little black dress; and would probably work well if a matching turquoise cardigan was thrown on too.

Look #5: The Multicolored Pendant

One of the toughest aspects of matching Indian jewelry to Western clothes is the multi-colored aspect of Indian design.  In short, Indian design LOVES color!  No bland beige or colorless one-stone monolithic looks for us!  We may have a few boring pieces as a baseline, but most Indian women gravitate toward brilliant, bright hues.  The pendant above has a unique mix of bright green and yellow stones.  It shouldn’t work – my American mind says it won’t work – but it does!  The effect is quite beautiful.  I usually have only worn this pendant with a black dress, but I dare my readers to suggest alternate options.  (And I hope the photo does this pendant the justice it deserves!).