Guest blogger- would like to remain anonymous … but we all know who it is.
Emma wore her grandmother’s pearls to the beach last August. She is aware this was a choice. She would like everyone to stop bringing it up and also to understand that she would do it again, immediately, without hesitation, given any opportunity, forever, until she dies.
Here is what happened: Emma had been asked to a last-minute beach day by her friend Diane, who knows Emma does not do “last-minute” anything and yet continues to try, bless her. Emma was not prepared. Emma’s beach bag was in the car from two weeks prior and contained: one towel, a book she has been reading since 2022, a tube of sunscreen that expired during a previous administration, and absolutely nothing else.
But Emma was wearing the pearls. She wears the pearls often. She is a pearl-wearing girl. It is simply what Emma does.
“There is no rule that says pearls cannot be worn at the beach. “
– Emma
Emma checked. She checked thoroughly. She checked in a way that suggested she had been waiting for someone to challenge her on this.
Fine. Let’s Address The Pearls.
People have opinions about pearls. Fashion editors have been calling pearls the ultimate comeback story for years, which means they never actually went anywhere, which Emma knew all along. Pearls are a classic!
Anthropologie’s pearl jewelry collection is proof positive. There are approximately forty ways to wear a pearl right now, from the classic strand to the layered modern version, and every single one of them is correct. Grandma’s pearls in particular are not a trend. They are an inheritance. RIP Grams.
And for crying out loud, pearls COME from saltwater!!
Saltwater pearls grow inside oysters that live in the ocean. The actual ocean. The one Emma was sitting next to. She was not bringing pearls to the beach. She was bringing them HOME.
Furthermore, and Emma would like this noted, a pearl forms because something got inside an oyster and irritated it, and the oyster’s response was to coat the whole thing in layers of something ooey and gooey and beautiful until it became a gem. If that is not the most Emma origin story for a piece of jewelry, nothing is. Something annoying happens. You deal with it gracefully. You end up fabulous. That is pearls. That is Emma.
Diane took a photo. Emma looks, objectively, fabulous. Sandy toes, sun hat slightly crooked, grandma’s pearls gleaming, paperback propped on her knees. It is the most Emma photo that has ever existed. It should probably be on something.
Things Emma believes about dressing yourself
Emma has not gone viral. Emma does not have a fashion blog. Emma has, however, been wearing clothes for over five decades with great intention, and she has some thoughts:
Wear the thing. The dress you’re saving for a special occasion. The earrings that are “too much.” The pearls that belong to the beach now apparently. Wear the thing. The occasion is today. You are alive.
Rules are for people who haven’t found their thing yet. Once you find your thing – your signature, your “oh that’s so her” – the rules become background noise. Emma’s thing is pearls. Your thing might be red lipstick at 9am, or that one specific handbag, or the fact that you always have a good scarf. Find it. Commit to it. Refuse to apologize.
Be the photo your friends take without warning. The best pictures of us happen when we’re just being ourselves loudly. Emma at the beach in her grandmother’s pearls is more her than any posed photo she’s ever taken. This is what Tara Boone understands… that there’s art in the specific, unfiltered, zero-regrets version of a woman. It’s why the Boonie’s Besties cast feels like someone you actually know. Not a type. A person.
Speaking https://booniesbesties.com/shop/of which, if you have an Emma in your life (and you do, we all have an Emma), the Boonie’s Besties shop has things she would actually use and love. Not generic. Not forgettable. The kind of gift that makes someone say “how did you know.” You’ll know because you paid attention. Emma would approve of that.
Even better… make her a Custom Bestie. Pearl necklace and all. Find her quirk and make her smile.
Got an Emma in your life?
She deserves something as extra as she is.