Sardine-core, but in 18k gold

My Instagram algorithm thinks I need something fishy. For weeks now, it’s been serving up T-shirts and hats with sardine-tin prints. Combs—both vintage and new—carved from bone and brass into elongated mackerel-like silhouettes. Charms, earrings, and pendants that look like they might wriggle. Even manicurists are getting in on it, painting silver sardines across nails or turning to colourful chrome styles inspired by fishing lures, like someone dropped their hand into a tackle box.

Of course, the internet has already tried to name this moment. TikTok briefly flirted with the idea of Sardine Girl Summer, a half-baked microtrend that involved consuming conservas and vaguely Mediterranean lifestyle aspirations. Sardine-core fizzled fast. But if fish has found staying power anywhere, it’s as a motif in jewellery: strange, elegant, and actually wearable.

Fish were already swimming in the details on the spring/summer 2025 runways. Chemena Kamali’s sophomore outing for Chloé saw fish charms dangling from necks and ballerina flats (the ‘Sea Treasures’ ballet flat has already sold out). Matthieu Blazy’s final collection for Bottega Veneta included earrings in the shape of whimsical little fish-like creatures fashioned out of pearls with agates for eyes. At Schiaparelli ready-to-wear, gold-plated brass fish skeletons hung from ears and necks like Surrealist bait. A swordfish pendant also made an appearance at Roberto Cavalli.

But it’s independent designers who are giving the fish real depth. At Studio Renn, the motif is part of a long-running conceptual project titled [Prime]al, an investigation into natural forms and symbolic abstraction. “Fish as a symbol is often used to represent the idea of abundance and sustenance in indigenous art forms,” say co-founders Rahul and Roshni Jhaveri. “What began as a study of the fish skeleton gradually moved beyond the obvious—and that sensibility has translated into a distinct visual language of pattern formation, while the silhouettes segue between the symbolic and the surreal.”

The idea was first introduced at the 2021 Gem Genève jewellery fair and has since evolved into one of their most haunting signature motifs. “The fish and its skeletal frame were the creative catalyst that spurred us to reframe the form in a way that is distinctly ours,” they add. What results is jewellery that doesn’t just shimmer—it suggests systems, memory, transformation.

For Rosh Mahtani, founder of the London-based jewellery label Alighieri, the fish is more personal. “As a child, I would repeatedly doodle the same fish all over my notebooks,” she says. “Growing up in Africa, one of my favourite childhood memories was being on my dad’s speedboat collecting shells and watching the fish in the water. For me, it’s is a symbol of joy, abundance, and childhood magic.” The motif first appeared in her Gone Fishing collection in 2023, and more recently resurfaced in a padlock pendant for her collaboration with J.Crew. “When Olympia [Gayot] reached out last summer, I immediately knew I wanted to tap into the brand’s maritime heritage with this symbol,” she adds.

This duality—slippery but symbolic, cheeky but meaningful—is what gives fish its staying power. It works for maximalists and quirky minimalists alike.

And unlike the sardine girls of TikTok, the motif wasn’t born on the internet. It has cultural and artistic depth: from couture’s enduring fascination with oceanic forms to centuries of Chinese and Japanese depictions of koi and carp as symbols of strength, abundance, and transformation.

So yes, fish are trending. But they’re also timeless. They’ve been around for 500 million years—and they’ll outlast whatever microtrend follows #marinecore, #fishermancore, and sardine girls. If you’re going to buy into a motif this season, make it the fish: strange, fluid, full of meaning, and suddenly—unmistakably—chic.

Below, our jewellery edit for when you want to go fishing for compliments on every budget.