It’s All in the Wrist

You may have thought I.D. bracelets went out with notes pinned to your chest from your teacher, but these metallic chain bracelets, with a smooth metal plate for one’s name, now swing from the wrists and leather jackets of all the truly trendy.

“They have to be a silver color,” stresses platinum-blonde Carol Naff, proud owner of several. Naff says I.D. bracelets on the wrist should be worn with a silvery watch and one other bangle. But, she adds, “I also like to clip them on the lapel of my leather jacket.”

And what to inscribe on all these I.D. bracelets? Well, that varies. Naff says to leave an I.D. bracelet blank is such a non-statement that it’s the ultimate statement. “Whenever I wear my blank ones out to a club, I’ll invariably meet some guy who will say, ‘Oh, that’s cool. I don’t have anything on mine, either,’ ” says Naff.

But to inscribe the bracelets with “special” names is also de rigeur . “On my leather jacket, I wear one with the name of my ex-husband, one with the name of a guy I like and one with the name of a character in a screenplay I’m writing,” Naff confides. “Now that I’m single, guys always say, ‘Hey, who’s on the I.D. bracelet?’ It’s a great conversation starter.”

Robin Baird of Baubles & Bangles, a store on the Cal State Northridge campus in Northridge, says the bracelets, which sell from $20 to $70, often get snatched up as popular love tokens. “A lot of girls get them as gifts for their boyfriends,” she says. But they also serve as claims of possession. “Bill Cosby wears an I.D. bracelet that says ‘Camille’s Husband’ or whatever. . . . So a lot of girls like to engrave their own bracelets with ‘Bob’s Girlfriend,’ or ‘Joe’s Girlfriend,’ ” she says.

Will Effertz, a North Hollywood musician, is one young man whose I.D. bracelet may not do him much good. “I have an I.D. bracelet and I really like it,” he says with a sigh. “But I have a tendency to break things, so I never wear it.”