Henry Golding Looks for a 'Sense of Belonging' and 'Real Emotional Tie' When Picking Jewelry

David Yurman

Henry Golding is a big fan of jewelry

The Crazy Rich Asians star and ambassador for David Yurman tells PEOPLE that it's an "absolute honor" to be back for another campaign with the brand, this time celebrating the holidays.

"They've got such iconic pieces and such iconic clientele," Golding says of David Yurman. "And for them to be sort of a wholly New York family brand is absolutely amazing."

Golding may not be a New Yorker himself, but he has a love of the city that shines through in the new campaign shot at The Carlyle hotel in the Big Apple. The retro-glam style of the holiday shoot provides a beautiful background for the new collection, and the atmosphere and the jewelry touched Golding so profoundly that he couldn't help but take a piece home, right from the set.

David Yurman

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"One of the pieces really spoke to me," he tells PEOPLE of a silver bracelet he fell in love with. "It was this art deco design — the same design language as that of the Empire State Building, so those beautiful lines. I just absolutely fell in love with it and that feeling of yearning for it. It itched that corner of my heart and brain, which made me feel like, 'Oh, this is a piece that you're going to have for the rest of your life.'"

The bracelet is just one of many pieces of jewelry in Golding's collection. He doesn't shy away from wearing it in his everyday life and switching it up for the red carpet. When picking pieces to add to his collection — just like the David Yurman bracelet — Golding looks for a "sense of belonging and a real emotional tie," adding that when something "speaks" to him, he knows it's a keeper.

One such piece is a St. Christopher's pendant that his parents gave him before he left home to travel the world (as a hairdresser, then a TV host and then an actor). He also has a "couple of signet rings," a rope necklace, a David Yurman Gibeon meteorite ring and a diamond chain bracelet from the jewelry designer as well.

"What's wonderful about the David Yurman pieces is that they can be understated but still have this amazing sort of brilliance when you walk into a room," Golding, 35, says of his growing collection of jewels. He admits he keeps his bling a little more "streamlined" if he's walking a red carpet, which is why he reaches for statement pieces that will draw your eye without being overwhelming.

RELATED: Scarlett Johansson and Henry Golding Are David Yurman's First-Ever Celebrity Ambassadors

David Yurman

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Golding mostly brings out his statement pieces if he's hitting a red carpet, which he says he thoroughly enjoys because it gives him a chance to play dress-up and have a night out with wife Liv Lo Golding. And while he's certainly landed himself on a fair few best-dressed lists for his sharp suits and well-fitted tuxes, he's not even sure to actually describe his style anymore.

"I think it's a relaxed, elevated style," he says after thinking about the question for a moment. "In my early 20s, I was a travel host, so a lot of my style was very practical. I would use a lot of flannel shirts over moisture-wicking t-shirts — really lame. Now I live in [Southern California], and they've got a very relaxed style. I guess I've got young middle-aged man style, let's just put it like that."

His relaxed, elevated style — which he later clarifies is not preppy — works well as a background for David Yurman's pieces, because while Golding specifically calls out those statement pieces that call attention, he notes that they're balanced with things you can feel good about wearing every day. For Golding, it all comes back to the feelings that jewelry brings him, because he knows the sentimental value in each piece and knows it's made to last a lifetime and span generations.

"[Each piece reminds] me of someone or something or a place in time," he says. "So everything that I pick, I have an emotion attached to it."

Shop David Yurman's new holiday collection — which also stars Scarlett Johansson — online and in stores.