Once upon a time, people going to big dances wore elaborate jewellery. Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennett wore her pearls to country dances; Cinderella had finery made of everything but the garden shed to go to the ball where she would hook her man. But now, the thing to wear on a night out is a set of glow stick bracelets and other accessories.

Jewels may be striking on the dance floor, but they’re cumbersome, expensive, and unethical. Yes, some people still wear diamonds and gold, but it’s a dying fashion. Now that everybody knows the human cost of mining these precious gems and rare metals – with people in developing countries working in terrible conditions to extract them – people are far more likely to go for jewellery which is fun, trendy, cheap and totally ethical. Glow stick bracelets and necklaces are what’s seen on everybody out in a club at the moment.

Glow sticks first became big news during the late eighties and the minority dance scene. But now, glow sticks have entered the mainstream, and are a sure way to brighten up any club night. Many promoters hand them out in clubs or on the street, and parties are filled with them. You can even get glow stick bracelets as a reward for giving to a collection bucket in a pub – and wear your pink breast cancer support, or red British Heart Foundation, bracelet all night.

Glow sticks have two major fun elements. The first, obviously, is the glowing. Diamonds and precious stones have a reputation for sparkle, but for eye catching colour nothing matches the bright shine of a glow stick, which can shine even when nothing else can be seen. In a dark club, you’ll often be able to recognize your friends by the glow stick bracelets they’re wearing, as everything else disappears into the dark atmosphere.

This brings us to the second most fun thing about glow sticks. They can be arranged and rearranged in all sorts of different ways. For a long time, glow stick bracelets were the most common item of glow stick jewellery seen. But people all over the world soon discovered that, thanks to the flexibility of the plastic sticks, they can be worn in all kinds of ways.

Glow stick jewellery works equally well for boys and girls. For girls, they can replace normal jewellery; you can even get them to colour co-ordinate with your outfit! For guys, glow sticks help you to stand out in a crowd, and give a fun edge to the normal boy’s clubbing uniform of jeans and t-shirt. But that’s not the most important part of their flexibility.

Many glow sticks can be joined together, to make a glow stick necklace as long as you like. So glow stick necklaces, glow stick bracelets, glow stick anklets, glow stick rings, and even just long chains of glow sticks are now a common sight. Many people use a long chain of glow sticks to keep them and their friends together in a crowded club. And then there are always people who prefer to keep a hold on their glow stick wand and wave it around to help them dance – rather like using a sparkler, to draw pictures in the dark sky.

So next time you get ready to go out to a club, make sure to keep your neck and wrists free for the final addition to your outfit. Whether you collect them once you’re in the club, or whether you and your friends help to bedeck each other with them before you go out, glow stick bracelets and necklaces will always be the final touch for that special party feeling.