She had been told not to wear black to the party.
 
It was the summer of 1967, and everyone else seemed determined to arrive in colour.
 
She chose black anyway.
 
A little black dress. Hair swept away from her face. Bare shoulders. And around her neck, something that looked as though it belonged to another century entirely.
 
A necklace of black beads falling across her skin like lace.
 
She remembered standing before the mirror fastening it. One last look. A dab of perfume at her wrists. Then the necklace.
 
Suddenly the dress wasn't simply a black dress anymore.
 
And neither, somehow, was she quite the woman she had been five minutes earlier.
 
That is the peculiar power of this 1960s Neo-Gothic necklace.
It has drama without needing grandeur.
 
Its tiny black beads have been worked into delicate open circles, almost like lace drawn directly upon the skin. Between them sit clusters of faceted black beads-little midnight blossoms - while fine garlands fall beneath in graceful swags.
And from those garlands hang black teardrops.
 
They move.
 
That detail matters.
 
Because this is not a necklace that simply lies against the body. When you turn your head, when you walk into a room, when you reach for your glass, those tiny suspended drops move with you and catch the light for just a second.
 
Enough to make someone look twice.
 
There is something deliciously contradictory about it.
 
It carries the romance of Gothic jewellery - the darkness, the lace, the almost Victorian femininity - but filtered through the freedom and glamour of the 1960s, an era when women were beginning to dress increasingly for themselves.
 
Perhaps that is why it still feels so relevant.
 
Nearly sixty years later, you could wear it to work tomorrow.
 
Imagine it against a beautifully crisp white shirt, the collar slightly open, black trousers and a great pair of shoes. Suddenly the necklace becomes less Gothic and more impossibly chic.
 
At dinner, let it fall against bare skin with a simple black dress.
With an ivory silk blouse, it becomes softer.
With a blazer, unexpectedly cool.
With velvet in winter, wonderfully decadent.
And for an evening when everyone else reaches instinctively for diamonds and gold?
Wear black.
There is tremendous confidence in choosing the jewel nobody expected.
 
The necklace measures approximately 29 cm, with a generous additional 9 cm extension, allowing it to sit beautifully across different neck sizes and necklines. Its elaborate garland falls approximately 6 cm, creating that wonderful lace-like frame across the décolletage.
 
But here is what makes finding this particular piece rather exciting.
Pieces of original 1960s Neo-Gothic jewellery with this elaborate, articulated construction are increasingly sought after precisely because they belong to such a distinctive moment in design. And finding one that still feels genuinely wearable - not costume, not theatrical, but elegant - can be surprisingly difficult.
 
Finding one at this price is harder still.
 
The one you wear with the white shirt on an ordinary Tuesday.
The one that comes out again with the black dress on Saturday night.
The one someone eventually asks you about across a dinner table.
And perhaps, many years from now, another woman will fasten the same little black necklace around her neck, look at herself in the mirror - 
and wonder where on earth you found something so beautiful.
1960s. Neo-Gothic. Nearly sixty years of midnight, waiting for its next woman.