Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger shoving off his enamel glass cufflinks. Marianne Faithfull at the back. (1969)

After the fashionably tasteful moderation of the postwar years, the second half of the 1960s saw inhibitions flying out of the window to open up the horizons of creativity

Maison Bayer Enamel, glass paste cuff links circa 1960

– including among designers of cuff links. In tune with the swinging London scene, eccentricity became a must. Carnaby Street dandies—with Mick Jagger at the forefront—wore velvet and brocade, and the sassiest of them all used the men’s makeup kit—kohl and lipstick—launched by Mary Quant.

Not since the 18th century had masculinity been more theatrical. Prince Raunitz, who, two hundred years earlier had been celebrated for his wasp-waisted satin corsets and would spend an hour every morning stepping through one salon after another, where footmen would throw clouds of powder of different colors into the air as he passed to create an exact nuance, would have been proud of such heirs. His modern descendants reveled in their outsized synthetic diamond cuff links in electric colors, with chain links extending right around their wrists like bracelets.