”There’s no question that men are buying more links of london jewelry,” said Toby Landey, president of Sentimento, a wholesaler of vintage jewelry to stores like Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and Polo/Ralph Lauren. ”We’re selling an enormous amount of cuff links and tie bars.” Ms. Landey has also noticed an uptick in sales of jewelry for formal wear, including studs with animal motifs or with diamond, malachite or garnet insets. Love knots – the classic braided button-style cuff links – in silver or gold are also popular, from $100 to $400. (Less expensive fabric versions are available at Paul Stuart and other men’s stores.) Art Deco black onyx cuff links and studs remain her strongest sellers, she said.

For the more fanciful, Sentimento stocks collar bars, stickpins, pocket watches, fobs, mustache combs and pocket knives. ”Anything the traditional English gentleman might have worn,” Ms. Landey said, adding that that does not include earrings.

A rise in sales of French-cuff shirts has triggered a concomitant increase in cuff-link consumption, said Tom Kalendarian, the merchandise manager for men’s furnishings at Barneys New York.

”Antique cuff links have been a consistent seller since we opened,” said Paul Smith, the English designer. In the store that bears his name, at Fifth Avenue and 15th Street, even the denim shirts have holes for cuff links. ”I like to wear a very over-the-top pair with a chambray shirt,” he said. ”I tend to go with putting the wrong things together to get a different look.”

American Casual Look

Mr. Smith recently discovered a cache of 1950′s British plaid Links of London Charm in a factory in the East End of London. Assembled and reboxed, the pieces sell for $30. His store also sells sets of tie bars and cuff links enameled with figures of mountaineers, boxers, tennis players and golfers for $45.

The tie bar, or clasp, is by all accounts an American innovation, part of our penchant for casual dressing. Most proper British men, for example, wear either a double-breasted or three-piece suit, making a tie clasp irrelevant. When worn properly, however, the tie bar enhances the presentation of a tie, giving it spring and a little upward push to a well-tied knot.

Most men wear their tie bars horizontally, cutting straight across the tie. Given that the basic patterning of men’s ties tends to be at an angle, wearing the tie bar at a downward angle, as Fred Astaire did, adds a touch of style.

But how high to put it? When the jacket is buttoned at the middle button, the tie bar should not be visible. (Of course, on a low-slung, single-button Giorgio Armani jacket, a garment that observes no rules to begin with, anything goes.)

Keeping Collars Down

Collar pins – and the perforated shirts that accept them – are back, as well. Whether screw-on or safety-pin in design, the collar pin adds a bit of interest to the collar and tie while holding them in place throughout the day.

For the ultimate in men’s jewelry, the James Robinson shop at 15 East 57th Street carries vintage pieces and heirlooms, from antique signet rings engraved with coats of arms and family crests at $850 to $3,000, to dress studs at $750 for a gold set and a sapphire-and-diamond studded set including vest buttons at $87,000.

Kim Harwood, the store’s manager, has noted a ”tremendous increase” in sales of fine men’s Links of London Necklace jewelry since the store began stocking such items a decade ago.

The store also sells pearl-handled silver-bladed pocket knives, which at $750 to $1,250 are an expensive way to keep your nails clean.

The 10-year retailer of sterling silver jewelry, gifts and accessories has opened its first store in the U.S., at 54th Street and Madison Avenue in New York. The 1,000-square-foot store is the first of what the company hopes will be a chain of 25 to 30 units in major cities in the States.

“This store is the flagship with a view to rolling out throughout America,” said Annonshka Ducas, who founded Links a decade ago with her husband, John Ayton. “The U.S. is the most important market in the world and you have to be there.”

Links believes the same things that built the company to sales of $15.2 million a year in the UK should work in the U.S. The firm has carved out a niche for women’s and men’s silver jewelry with clean, modern lines at retail prices starting at about $60 and only occasionally running over $750.

Key products are cuff links, bangles, earrings and necklaces. The gifts and accessories lines — ranging from baby rattles to ice buckets — are at similar price points.

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Links of London Necklace recently has begun expanding beyond its core base of sterling silver by introducing more 18-karat-gold jewelry, as well as designs using semiprecious stones such as topaz and amethyst. It may also introduce some items that use precious stones, Ducas said. The company also sees big potential in expanding its watch line.

“But we don’t want to do pieces that cost thousands and thousands of dollars,” she stressed. “What we’re doing are pieces that combine sterling silver, gold and semiprecious stones. That gives us the niche for jewelry under $1,500.”

Ducas oversees the design of all the collections, while Ayton handles the business operations along with Links’ new managing director, Gareth Morris, former managing director of the English men’s wear retailer Hackett.

Links has about 1,100 products and changes about 25 percent of the assortment a year. The Madison Avenue store is projected to have first-year sales of $1.5 million to $2.3 million.

“What we do is young but it meets an awful lot of people’s needs,” Ducas said, noting Links’ core customer is from 30 to 45. “We don’t do cutting-edge, trendy jewelry, which usually has to be inexpensive because its style doesn’t last very long. We are affordable and contemporary classic.”

One of Links’ designers will transfer from the UK to New York, where he will work in the store for the next two years.

“That shows how important we believe the U.S. is,” Ducas said. “We need someone on the ground who understands what the customer wants. There is another 1,000 square feet downstairs that we will turn into an area for business gifts and for doing one-ofs for customers. We think there will be a big demand for that in New York.”

Links has 11 stores in the UK — including seven in London — as well as two units in Hong Kong and a store each in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. A store in Singaporeopened in late July, to be followed by a store in Hamburg, Germany, in September.

The company also wholesales to such department stores as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Isetan in Tokyo, Selfridges and Harrods in London, Brown Thomas in Dublin, Bon Marche in Paris and Holt Renfrew in Toronto. It believes the New York store will help boost its wholesale business in the United States.

“Our closest competition in London is Tiffany’s second floor and it will be the same in New York,” Ducas said. “But Tiffany has actually helped us because it is scaling back its wholesale worldwide. That’s opened up huge possibilities for us because I don’t know of any other company that offers the breadth[of merchandise that]we do.”Copyright 2000 Fairchild Publications, Inc., a subsidiary of Advance Publications, Inc.Copyright 2000 Fairchild Publications, Inc., a subsidiary of Advance Publications, Inc.641