By Mao Shan Wang

SOTD got me into a smiley (and smiling) mood. No sooner had I downloaded the Comme des Garçons Holiday Emoji than I realised I wanted a smiley to wear, not to send via an app installed in my smartphone. I don’t want something on a T-shirt—an easy-to-fade digital print—either, but a physical thing that can swing and be twiddled with, like a pendant.

This matter of keeping the fingers busy is the unfortunate result of a childhood habit of pinching and twisting the corners of my pillow case, a preoccupation left curiously unchecked by my mother. The love of smileys is an on-going affair with adorable circular things delineated in an age when cuteness was a lot simpler, if not innocent. We don’t easily lose the fixations of our growing-up years, do we?

I first saw this Ruifier smiley bracelet on the wrist of a friend’s mother who had just returned from a “conjugal refresh” in London. I thought it looked totally charming on her, especially when she had paired it with a Breguet watch that looked like it was born in the Belle Epoque. For many her age, a jade bangle is the preferred wrist adornment. But as SOTD had pointed out before, women of a certain maturity are susceptible to cute. Smileys really don’t recognise age or marital status just as they know no gender.

Ruifier is marketed as a “fashion and fine jewellery brand”, which I surmise, is for grown-ups with mature taste, but its designs are contrary to anything as staid as those of, say, Tiffany’s (even when Holly Golightly’s favourite jeweller has fine-tuned their image with the help of Grace Coddington). It’s reported that G Dragon is a fan: that should cast an interesting light on the label. There’s no denying that fine, as with luxury, these days has to look accessible even when they may be unattainable. Ruifier’s smiley accessories may perhaps look entry-point to some, but they belie the brand’s high-end quality and points of sale.

Conceived by founder, Central Saint Martin’s alumna Rachel Shaw (a Londoner of Asian descent), Ruifier jewellery seems to extol the belief that a smile is infectious. A happy countenance is, in fact, Ms Shaw’s design constant. Especially alluring are the rings set with either eyes (represented by Xs) or lip (represented by a stretched U), and when the two are worn together or “stacked”, as the brand describes it, they form an expression of catching gladness. I definitely second that emotion.

Ruifier bracelets and other jewellery are available at Club 21 e-store and Pedder on Scotts. Photo: Ruifier