Gold Toe Rings

The second toe is the usual choice. It is the longest in most feet, sits a little higher than its neighbours, and is flanked on both sides so a band on it clears both the ground and the shoe.

The third toe is the common alternative and works on the same principle. The great toe is possible but exposed, since it takes the push at the end of every step.

Wearing a ring on the same toe of both feet is the traditional South Asian arrangement. Western wear is more often a single ring on one foot.

Measure the circumference at the base of the toe, at the point where the band will sit rather than over the knuckle. A paper strip wrapped round and marked where it overlaps gives the figure without any special tool.

Take the measurement late in the day. Feet are at their largest after hours of standing and walking, and a band chosen against a morning figure will be tight by evening.

Most toe rings are open at the underside and cover a range rather than a single size, so the number you arrive at is a starting point rather than an exact requirement.

Most are. The band is made as a partial circle with a small gap at the bottom, and the two ends can be brought together or eased apart with finger pressure until the band grips without pinching.

The adjustment is meant to be small and occasional. Opening a band wide and closing it fully, repeatedly, hardens the metal at the ends until it turns brittle.

Closed bands exist and are made to a fixed size like any other ring, but they are less common, because a toe changes size through the day and a closed band cannot follow it.

Yes, provided it is low. A flat or shallow-domed band sits under a sock and inside most shoes without being felt, which is exactly why the designs avoid raised settings and standing ornament.

A loose band causes more trouble than a snug one. If it can rotate it will migrate towards the joint while walking and then press against the shoe's upper.

Footwear that clamps the forefoot is a poor combination. Laced running shoes, boots and cleated footwear all put pressure directly on the band, and many wearers take the ring off with their shoes.

A correctly fitted open band grips by spring pressure against the toe and stays put in normal walking. It is designed to come off by opening the gap, not by being pulled over the end of the toe.

Losses usually follow a slackened band. The small repeated flexing of walking widens the gap over a season, and the ring eventually becomes loose enough to be pushed off by a sock or a bedsheet.

Cold water is the other common cause. Sea or pool water shrinks the toe slightly, and a band that was secure on a warm foot can slide free without being noticed.

Within limits. Gold bends readily and springs back, but every bend rearranges the metal's grain, and on an open band that change concentrates at the two ends.

In practice, adjusting the fit a few times in a season is unremarkable. Springing the band wide to take it on and off every day is what leads to a crack at one end.

A band that has started to feel stiff, or that shows a bright line at the bend, is telling you the metal has hardened there. A bench jeweller can anneal it before it fails.

Bichhiya is the Hindi name for the toe rings worn across much of South Asia, traditionally on the second toe of both feet and traditionally made in silver rather than in gold.

They are associated with married status and are put on during the wedding itself, which is why they are worn as a pair rather than singly.

The Western fashion for toe rings arrived separately and a great deal later, through beach and resort dress in the second half of the twentieth century, and it carries none of that significance.

In Western wear, largely yes. The piece is bought to be seen, and it is only visible with sandals or bare feet, so many owners put one on in spring and take it off in autumn.

Nothing prevents year-round wear under closed shoes. A low band under a sock goes unnoticed, and leaving it in place avoids the loosening that comes from repeated removal.

In South Asian tradition the rings are everyday dress rather than seasonal, which is one reason designs made in that context are built for continuous wear.

Gold itself is not attacked by either, but the alloying metals in a lower-karat band can react over time, and chlorinated water is the more aggressive of the two.

The practical difficulty is position. The underside of a toe ring is pressed against skin inside a shoe, so whatever reaches it stays there instead of drying off.

Sand does more visible harm than water does. It works between the band and the toe and abrades a bright surface to a dull one within a few days of beach wear.

Because most are open, and an open band has no closed geometry holding it. Its stiffness comes only from the section of metal, which on a toe ring is deliberately thin.

It also lives in a compressive environment. A finger ring is knocked occasionally; a toe ring is pressed between a toe and a shoe upper thousands of times a day.

The deformation is gradual and concentrated at the gap. Checking that the two ends still sit close together, once or twice a season, catches it before the ring is lost.