Glance around any Christmas drinks party and you’ll probably notice a fast-emerging trend among the female guests: the vogue for the glittering ear. Not since the punk era have multiple earrings been so fashionable. But this time around, it’s not the adolescents who are studding their cartilage — it’s the older woman.

Where men typically deal with mid-life by buying inappropriate vehicles, the older woman is increasingly facing 40 (plus) by decorating her ears with climbing rows of gold hoops and tiny, twinkling diamonds, such as Maria Black’s triple-hoop earring (pictured, ￡545, net-a-porter.com). At Love Hate Social Club, a studio in west London’s Notting Hill, 80 per cent of clients are in their 30s or older, and most declare themselves to be in the midst of a midlife crisis as they climb into piercer Nicole Mitchell’s chair.

“They all say they must be mad,” says Mitchell. “They haven’t had a piercing in 20 years. They’re very nervous. We have a consultation and talk them through it.” Despite their varying levels of self-conscious anxiety, her customers are bold in their choices. Helix rings, which perforate the cartilage just before it curves over the top of the ear, are popular. So too, incidentally, are nose piercings. The desired effect is a sophisticated brand of luxed-up rebellion: think of the jeweller and Fendi heiress Delfina Delletrez, who wears septum studs and piercings as insouciantly as her Fendi forebears might have once worn a string of pearls (Delfina Delletrez earring, pictured, ￡675, net-a-porter.com).