We're the NEW girls in pearls

Usually associated with maiden aunts and royalty, this season pearls are on the catwalks of Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix and Marc Jacobs, and are being worn by film stars such as Lindsay Lohan and Angelina Jolie.

Alice Smellie spoke to five girls who have inherited family pearl necklaces, about why it's the perfect moment to wear them.

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ELIZABETH BARNES, 25, an actress, lives in Fulham, South-West London, with a friend in a two-bedroom terrace house. Pictured left in her family heirloom necklace, she says:

MY STRING of pearls was given to me on my 18th birthday by my mother.

They were presented to her by my grandmother when she reached that age and in turn my grandmother received them from her mother when she turned 18.

They were originally given to my great-grandmother by her husband, and so the necklace is perhaps 100 years old. It must be worth several hundred pounds.

One of my earliest memories is of playing in my mother's bedroom. I must have been only five, but I would try on her shoes and beg to be allowed to play with her jewellery, especially her string of pearls.

Then I would admire my reflection at her dressing table. High heels and pearls were my favourite look.

It may seem cliched that a horse-riding grammar school girl living in the countryside

loves pearls so much, but I consider them to be timeless.

However, this spring I am pleased to see that I am in fashion - more and more young women are going out in pearl necklaces.

I think they need to be worn in moderation - my necklace is a simple double string.

I'm not sure about people dripping with strands, though it can be fun for a party, but just a few strings always looks sophisticated.

Though I know my mother wore the necklace a lot when she was young, I wear it only for special occasions, such as weddings.

Every momentous event in my life has been marked by wearing my pearl necklace - my graduation, 21st birthday and every ball I've attended.

Even if I am not wearing them, I sometimes have the pearls with me in my pocket as a good luck talisman, especially if I am performing.

I spent last summer in Los Angeles working in films and, of course, I had my pearls with me. They were always a talking point when I wore them.

People loved the background of my necklace because it's so quintessentially English. The idea of inheriting something through generations enchanted them.

I'll be proud to pass them on in turn to a daughter or daughter-in-law one day - hopefully, she will value them for their history as much as for their worth.

LISA GOODCHILD, 24, works in IT and lives in a two-bedroom terrace house in Hampshire with her fiancee, Aaron Sessions, 27, a bank manager. Pictured left in three strands of pearls, she says:

WHEN I was a little girl, my favourite bedtime story was about my aunt's pearls.

She and my uncle went to Costa Rica on holiday 30 years ago and during the trip they went out on a boat with the pearl divers.

As they were sailing over the beautiful azure waters, my uncle announced they were going to keep some of the pearls found that day.

The men dived down to the bottom of the ocean and came up gasping for air, clutching the pearls that were made into my aunt's necklace.

Since I was a tiny girl, I coveted it, and last year my aunt passed her pearls down to me.

She can't remember how much my uncle paid for them and I don't know how much they are worth now, but to me they are priceless.

I also own my fiancees great-grandmother's 70-year-old pearls, which have come down to me through his grandmother and mother.

I feel honoured to have been given them. She bought them herself because they were fashionable in the Forties.

I was close to my grandmother and

she had lots of pearls that she kept in a jewellery box, which was always at her side. Wherever she travelled, her pearls went, too.

I was allowed to play with them as a child and now have one of her strands myself.

Another string has been given to me by my sister-in-law. They were a present when I got engaged - I thought that was a lovely way to celebrate my engagement.

I love my pearls, but they haven't always been fashionable. On a couple of occasions, people have joked about them, especially in the past few years when chunky, funky jewellery has been fashionable, but now I feel smug.

The trick is to wear them with trendy or even edgy clothes so there's no danger of looking like a fuddy duddy.

I am normally careful not to wear too many strands at once - lots of pearls are overdone.

If I need to dress up an outfit, I wear just one strand, otherwise they can look too formal.

Apart from my engagement ring, pearls are the only jewellery I wear. I love them too much to bother with anything else.

JULIA WILLIAMS, 27, a diamond grader, lives on Jersey with her husband Lewis, 28, an accountant. Pictured in her pearl and diamond choker, she says:

EVERY piece of jewellery in our family has a wonderful story to it.

A ring owned by my granny, for example, has a tiny spindle beneath the sapphire, because my grandfather invented a spinning machine which earned him the money to buy the ring.

My pearl and diamond choker even has a nickname - Sneezer. It was given to my great-grandmother when she was in her early 20s in the late 19th century.

But it is very tight-fitting round the throat, and one day she suddenly sneezed. The string broke and the pearls flew across the room, hence the name.

The choker was re-strung and later it was passed to my grandmother. She is still alive, but she lets me borrow it for special occasions.

I hope it will be passed to me formally at some point. I believe it is worth about £3,000.

I love pearls because they're so versatile. As a child, my mother would sometimes fill my hands with pearls and tell me to feel their warmth. Then she would tell me all the amazing things you could do with them.

Old pearls can be reset to make them look more up to date. My aquamarine pendant used to be on a chain, but I have had it threaded on to silk with added pearls.

On my wedding day, my dress had pearls beaded round the neckline. I plan to have it made into a necklace for me to keep for ever.

There might have been a time a few years ago when not all young women would have jumped at the chance to have a pearl necklace, if they could have had other jewellery of equal value instead.

But now that pearls are back on the designer catwalks and in TV shows such as Desperate Housewives, there are plenty of 20-year-olds copying the look.

While my job is working with diamonds, I do know a lot about pearls. The biggest and most valuable are the white South Sea pearls.

Tahitian ones are always known as black pearls - yes, they really are black. You can tell real from cultured by rubbing them together - real ones feel slightly gritty.

To be sure, you have to xray them to see the nucleus.

I wear pearls during the week for work and when I go out in the evening at the weekends, whether it's a black tie occasion or simply to go to the pub.

I am often complimented, so it's nice to know fashion has finally caught up with me.

STEPHANIE DARE, 22, a clerk, lives in a four-bedroom house in Oxford with friends. Pictured left in her double-string pearl necklace, she says:

JUST a year ago, I stood alone in my grandmother's bedroom, surrounded by all her familiar items.

I felt desperately sad because just a few days before, she had died of a stroke.

I was very close to her - she was lots of fun to be with and very loving to me.

My aunt had suggested that I choose a couple of pieces of her jewellery to remember her by and her huge collection was laid out carefully on the bed.

I chose a pearl necklace and a pretty brooch. The pearls are beautiful - a double string, with a jewelled clasp.

They are cultured pearls dating from the Fifties and we believe she must have bought them herself, though we don't know how much she paid for them.

A week after she died, I attended a black tie ball in Oxford, where I was studying. I decided that wearing her pearls would be a wonderful tribute to her.

I chose a very simple black dress to set them off. The evening was amazing, and I really felt as though my grandmother was with me.

So many people complimented me on my necklace - lots of other women were wearing fake jewellery, but I thought my real ones were most elegant and obviously the quality showed.

I am glad to hear pearls are back in fashion, but to me they have always been synonymous with timeless class.

As a child, my two older sisters and I wore real pearl bracelets, and I loved them even then. I always admired my grandmother when she wore her necklace.

I don't know how much it is worth because I've never had it insured separately. But to me it is a priceless heirloom because of its background.

ANNA WALTON, 24, works in IT and lives in a detached, four-bedroom house in Fleet, Hampshire, with her parents. Pictured left in some of her pearls, she says:

ONE of my favourite daydreams goes something like this: I am standing in a castle wearing a long black dress and gloves.

I am holding a glass of champagne in one hand and am idly twiddling my pearl necklace with the other. I feel incredibly glamorous and a man who looks rather like James Bond has just complimented me on my jewellery.

I know it all sounds rather far-fetched, but there is something about pearls that makes women wistful for a more romantic age.

It's a state of mind I inherited from my grandmother, who always wore beautiful strings of pearls.

My father goes to Hong Kong a lot for business, and while he was out there a few years ago he bought my mother a bracelet, which I coveted so much she has passed it on to me.

My earrings are from my great-grandmother, and my two necklaces are ones my grandmother wore. She was a very elegant woman.

I was touched when she left me her beautiful necklaces because we were so close.

There is something sentimental about wearing a piece of jewellery that comes from someone you loved dearly.

I inherited them when I was 12, but didn't wear them until I turned 18. Her pearls are from the Forties, I believe, so it's lovely that they are just as stylish today.

I don't know how much they are worth, but I'll have them valued.

It doesn't surprise me that pearls are back in fashion - it was only a matter of time before people realised how cool they are.

I have always worn mine to formal events, but it's great that I can wear them clubbing as well.

It's lovely to be able to go to a bar with my friends wearing skinny jeans, a T- shirt and my pearl bracelet and earrings to complete the look and know that I'm looking rather trendy.

I've noticed that lots of young girls are wearing pearls. They have lost their stuffy image.

I'd like to think that eventually I'll pass on my jewellery to my children. It would be lovely to think my pearls will continue to go down the generations.