How Carabiner Clips Became This Year’s Ultimate Autumn Accessory | British Vogue
You wouldn’t think so to look at it, but the carabiner clip – as in, those chunky metal loops that rock climbers use – has a long and storied history. This humble oval-shaped key ring, which makes a jingle jangle sound when you hang one off your jeans, has for a long time been a sort of flagging device among queer people, specifically lesbians. “When I first came out, the key ring was the first visual cue I learned of my new world,” wrote Christina Cauterucci for Slate, “picked up through anthropological surveys of lesbian dance parties.” It’s true: until fairly recently, like vest tops and thumb rings, that jingle jangle meant only one thing.
Over the past couple of years, however, I’ve noticed something strange happening. The carabiner – again, previously the reserve of climbing types, construction workers and lesbians about town – has moved out of the confines of its original home and into the wider world at large. I’ve clocked young fashion people in book shops wearing them. Straight-looking Gen-Z guys have started clipping them onto their Dickies jeans. Even Carrie Bradshaw was spotted wearing one around her neck during a second season episode of And Just Like That… The carabiner, once a very specific thing, for a very specific person, has become an unlikely must-have accessory. But why? What’s with everyone now attaching carabiners to their waistbands in order to safely hold their keys?
Carrie Bradshaw.
To understand the gradual emergence of this utilitarian accessory, it’s worth rewinding to around 2022, when the carabiner started glinting on runways in ways that made people sit up and pay attention. For Michael Kors spring/summer 2023, Bella Hadid wore a ginormous monster carabiner belt, while cult London brand Chopova Lowena climbed onto fashion’s main stage thanks to its signature carbiner skirts, which are collaged and pleated from vintage Bulgarian fabrics and suspended from thick leather waistbands using metal rock-climbing clips. Hardware-focused jewellery brand Eéra kept Dua Lipa, Ava Max and Rosalía in tough-girl jewellery at high-profile events.
Chopova Lowena SS25.
Louis Vuitton men’s creative director Pharrell Williams has been snapped multiple times this year – including at Paris Fashion Week – with a carabiner clipped to his belt. And as spring/summer 2024’s nostalgic trend for bag charms and trinkets accelerated, so too did the demand for carabiners. Which is probably how we found ourselves at Peak Carabiner. “I do think the latest surge of charm mania has brought more attention to new ways to wear charms, and carabiners do that job very well,” New York jewellery designer Kylie J told Vogue earlier this year.
Pharrell Williams.
It might be peaking right now, but this tiny metal hardware item probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Besides, it’s been around since before any of us were born, and has inhabited many different lives in the decades since. Yesterday? A mountaineer’s best friend. Today? Autumn’s most coveted accessory.