Every year around Valentine’s Day, like clockwork, women take to social media to implore men to steer clear of heart-shaped jewelry. Despite good intentions, love-themed jewelry tends to sit somewhere on the spectrum from on-the-nose to outright gaudy. But one old-school token of love—the qu’hier que demain pendant—is a much subtler option for the lovestruck.
While the charm can take on a variety of iterations, it is always inscribed “+ Qu’hier – Que Demain,” most often inside of a gold circular pendant with a diamond-encrusted plus sign and a ruby minus sign. The phrase comes from the 1889 poem “L’éternelle chanson,” or “The Eternal Song,” by Rosemonde Gérard. In one stanza she wrote: “Car, vois-tu, chaque jour je t’aime davantage, Aujourd’hui plus qu’hier et bien moins que demain,” which translates to, “For you see, each day I love you more, today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.”
“This style of jewelry was popularized in 1907 when a French jeweler by the name of Alphonse Augis took inspiration from this poem and distilled it down to ‘+ Qu’hier – Que Demain’ to create the first version of the famous love token charms,” says Alexis Nido-Russo, founder of jewelry brand Local Eclectic, which sells a pendant inscribed with the phrase.
The slight ambiguity of “more than yesterday, less than tomorrow” allows for the necklace to be worn as a stealthy proclamation of love—more subtle than, say, heart-shaped diamonds. So it comes as no surprise that it fits right into Sofia Richie Grainge’s sleek, timeless wardrobe. The newlywed flashed the necklace during a getting ready TikTok last June, sparking a newfound interest in the previously under-the-radar pendant.
“This summer a friend sent me a message asking if I could identify a necklace that Sofia Richie was wearing in a get ready with me video she had posted on TikTok. I immediately recognized it as a + Qu’hier – Que Demain coin charm,” Nido-Russo says.
Richie Grainge’s endorsement of the necklace gave it an instant boost in popularity, so much so that it inspired Nido-Russo to launch a line for Local Eclectic’s in-house brand, Family Gold, which will launch December 1. “I made a video on TikTok talking about the necklace, and was overwhelmed by the positive response and commenters asking us to make a similar, more affordable option. I was familiar with this design, but it’s not a style you see often so this set the ball in motion,” she says. She will offer the motif in the traditional coin, as well as a heart-shaped pendant and signet ring.