"Tops": What Indian Shoppers Mean, and How to Pick a Pair

Ask for stud earrings in most Indian jewellery shops and you'll get a blank look. Ask for tops and the tray comes out. Tops, or ear tops, is simply the everyday word for stud earrings, the ones that sit flat on the lobe instead of swinging below it. That's the whole definition. What decides whether a pair actually works for you has nothing to do with the name.

Push-back or screw-back

Every pair of tops comes down to two choices at the back, and most people never look past the front. A push-back, or friction back, slides on and holds by pressure alone. Fine for a pair you remove at night. A screw-back threads onto the post and locks, so it survives sleep, a shower, a toddler grabbing your ear, or a full day under a dupatta that keeps brushing past your lobe. Wearing tops constantly rather than for one evening? Get the screw-back. Coming off nightly with the rest of your jewellery? A push-back is one less thing to fumble with.

Plain silver or set with a stone

Own no silver yet? Buy a plain 925 stud first, no stone. It goes under a saree blouse and a college t-shirt without anyone questioning the choice, and there's no setting to loosen or stone to lose. Add a single American Diamond once you already own the plain pair and want something for evenings — a solitaire-style stone reads dressier without the earring getting any bigger. Skip the heavily clustered designs for a first pair, or for daily wear generally. They catch on a dupatta, a phone mid-call, a pillow if you forget to take them off.

Sizing against your lobe, not the photo

A stud that looks perfect on a model's ear can sit oddly on yours. Lobes vary far more than product photos suggest. A wide, flat lobe carries a bigger stud without trouble. A small or thin lobe makes even a modest stone look larger, because there's less lobe around it to balance it out. Buying online and can't try one on? Hold a shirt button against your lobe first. 4mm reads as a small, close stud. 8mm starts to look substantial. Past that, it's closer to a small pendant on the ear than a top.

Why the metal matters more here than anywhere else you wear silver

A necklace comes off with your work clothes. A bracelet comes off before you wash dishes. Tops, for a lot of people, don't come off at all. They go in once and stay for weeks, through sleep, sweat, a monsoon commute. That makes what's touching the piercing site more relevant here than on almost anything else you own. Our silver is genuine 925, stamped accordingly, and tested by the Sheffield Assay Office (UK) against limits set for exactly this kind of prolonged, continuous contact: nickel-free, cadmium-free, lead-free. If your ears have reacted to metal before, this covers what's actually causing it before you buy another pair.

Tops for men

Plenty of men search for ear tops too, and the logic barely changes. A single small stud, 4mm to 6mm, plain silver or with one small stone, is the standard start, and a screw-back is worth the extra effort if it's going to a gym bag or a night's sleep. Where it differs is size. Most men end up sizing down from whatever they first pick — a stud that looks fine at arm's length reads larger up close. Our stud size guide for men covers the sizing properly.

Our full stud earrings collection runs from plain silver to fully stone-set, if you want to compare backs and sizes side by side. For a single American Diamond in a classic round setting, the solitaire earrings range is where to start, and the wider American Diamond earrings collection runs from a small stud to something dressier.