The sighting: Reality TV star Bethenny Frankel recently posted an ad for self-tanner on her Instagram account. She wore a simple white dress to show off her fake tan, but I only had eyes for her jewelry.

The jewels: I’m guessing about the materials, but Frankel appears to be wearing a diamond tennis necklace in yellow gold, a gold T-bar necklace with a fancy gold chain, a pair of yellow gold and diamond huggies, a chunky gold watch, a white gold bow-shaped cocktail ring with diamonds, and a stack of gold and diamond bracelets.

The trends: The huggies, the watch, the stack of bracelets and the tennis necklace are nice but all standard for Frankel’s demographic —  basically the jewelry capsule wardrobe for her type of affluent white woman. They’re lovely and they look good together.

What I find interesting is the T-bar necklace. This style as a modern trend is endlessly fascinating to me because it takes an item that was once actually functional (the T-bar watch chain) and turns it into pure aesthetic.

Also called Albert watch chains or Albert T-bars because Prince Albert was a fan, this style of chain originated in the 17th century. A person would attach a pocket watch and/or decorative fobs to one end of their watch chain and slip the T-bar at the other end through the buttonhole of a waistcoat to secure it.

The vintage gold T-bar watch chains pictured above are from Instagrammer Gimmie.the.gold.

Taylor Swift was the first high-profile celebrity I saw wearing a contemporary T-bar chain (hers was a demi-fine piece by Tilly Sveaas). There are an increasing number of contemporary brands creating watch-chain inspired pieces with T-bar details.

Some modern brands seem aware of this style’s historical origin, but others do not. I recently saw one brand try to pitch their T-bar design as “representing balance and harmony,” rather than simply being an interesting-looking but no longer useful functional object from the past. It is, in effect, a watch chain’s vestigial tail.

What do we think? I find the T-bar’s renaissance utterly fascinating. I don’t know whether Frankel’s T-bar necklace is old or new. I don’t know if she understands its origin or just thinks it looks cool. But it’s an especially pretty one and she nailed the styling.

The T-bar detail and interesting link on the chain elevates the look from uninspired basics to well-executed, stylish daytime luxury.

Judgement: 13/10 for a great daytime jewelry look with one especially interesting element.