Lanyards are incredibly versatile. They’re great for everyone from college grads to office workers, from medical professionals and busy moms and everyone in between.
You can hang almost anything off a lanyard. They’re kind of a distant cousin to the medieval chatelaine, a fancy silver chain that held all of your essentials.
We’ve moved beyond that elaborate hardware and settled for a simple decorative ribbon with a keychain on the end.
If you’ve got a lanyard, you no doubt wear it around your neck on a regular basis. That fulfills its basic function, but if you want to learn how to wear a lanyard in a more creative way, we’ve got eight great tips for you. Keep reading!
1) Around Your Ankle
When you wear a lanyard around your neck, your keys drape down and bump up against anything. Want it out of the way? We’ve got suggestions.
Try tying your lanyard around your ankle. It keeps your keys and such out of the way and looks kind of cool.
Bonus: this is a great idea for places like water parks or amusement parks.
2) Use It As A Sash
Need your key fob and whatever else close at hand but hate the way it swings back and forth around your neck? No worries – we’ve got a solution that’s so easy you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it before.
Slip the lanyard over one arm and around your neck. The keys should be dangling under one arm.
Wearing a lanyard like this keeps your essentials out of the way but still close at hand.
3) Wear A Lanyard As A Belt
If you’re a woman, you’ve no doubt discovered there are plenty of pants without pockets. That’s pretty frustrating, but your lanyard comes in handy at this time.
Want to keep your lanyard out of the way? Do your pants have belt loops?
Get around the lack of pockets by looping your lanyard through the belt loops and wearing it as a belt. This look is handy, functional, fashionable!
4) Wearing A Lanyard On A Belt Loop
Here’s another great way to take advantage of those belt loops – hang your lanyard from one of them.
Does it sound kind of boring? It doesn’t have to be. You can learn how to wear a lanyard from your belt loop with flair, it just takes a bit of research.
Depending on what you need it for depends on how you’re going to wear it.
Need your lanyard easily accessible? Keep it loose.
Want to be a bit more fashionable? Learn how to braid it or tie interesting knots in your lanyard ribbon. It’s sure to turn heads if you can make an elaborate knot.
5) As A Bracelet
Did you master a few cool looking knots from our last tip? They’ll come in handy if you want to know how to wear a lanyard as a bracelet.
You can make this as simple or as easy as you like. The most basic style is obviously just to wrap it around your wrist.
If you’ve got the time and the dedication, you can make pretty cool braided lanyards. Don’t just stop at one ribbon – you can buy contrasting colors to really add some pizzazz.
Think more about what kind of look you want to go for and try it out. Don’t be shy — show off your style!
6) Hanging Out Of Your Pocket
This tip is more about fashion than function. You can learn how to wear a lanyard in your pocket in a fun way that shows off your personality.
For this style, you want to go all out. Make a statement.
Get a lanyard that shows off your favorite sports team or has a fun saying on it. There are even lanyards that have jewels on them if you want to be really extra.
When you walk down the street with a flashy lanyard hanging out of your pocket, it gets a lot of attention. Don’t try this style unless you’re OK with drawing eyes to your backside!
7) Wrap It Around Your Hand
Need your lanyard close at hand but neatly tucked away? Here’s how to wear a lanyard in a way that satisfies both of your requirements.
Just wrap it around your knuckles. This isn’t a long-term look, best for using whatever is on your lanyard immediately.
While we can’t condone violence or say it’s a great way to protect yourself, if you did have to punch someone, having a braided lanyard around your knuckles helps.
Bonus: If you’ve got a lanyard with a great saying on it or a sports team logo, it’s kind of like having a cool yet temporary knuckle tattoo.
8) On Your Backpack
Backpacks aren’t just for students. They’re a great way to keep your things with you on a long commute in a busy city.
Not only that, but tiny backpacks used as purses have come back into fashion.
Know what looks great with a fashionable backpack? That’s right – a lanyard.
This combines the styles you mastered in our previous tips – wearing a lanyard hanging out of your pocket and braiding or knot tying.
You know your lanyard is going to get a lot of attention hanging off of a cute backpack purse (or your fully functional workhorse backpack). Go the extra mile and make your lanyard awesome.
Braid two (or more!) colors together. Rep your school colors.
Bonus: What To Put On A Lanyard
You’ve got eight great tips to up your lanyard style. Take it a bit further with putting cool things on the actual lanyard.
You don’t just have to stick to keys and cards. Go wild – attach a fluffy pompom, a cute character, or a stress-relieving squishy toy.
Now You Know How To Wear A Lanyard With Style
Now you know not only how to rock a lanyard but how to add cool stuff to it to make it stand out.
Looking for more life hacks and everyday tips and tricks? We’ve got tons of ideas – and more. Keep coming back to our blog every day; we’ve got great new ideas all the time!