Repeat business, easy gifts, engaged shoppers: Stacking is a
retail dream, and new-season collections make it clear that the industry isn’t
due a rude awakening just yet. In fact, the trend is expanding as new
experimentations with neck wear, ear stacks and bridal towers take it far
beyond simple rings and bracelets.
The bridal-band trio is the original stack, and the
tradition of building a collection of diamond rings throughout a marriage has
continued. It has expanded, even, as the zeitgeist for stacking makes its mark
on matrimonial jewels.
Loading multiple jewels on the ring finger is an emerging
trend. While some brides add rings through the years — often thin, full or half
eternity bands — to mark anniversaries or children, others want the look up
front. This is a market to which Anna Sheffield caters by selling pre-stacked
sets of three diamond “ceremonial rings,” each different but complementary.
Whether the rings will be a perfect flush fit or provide
purposeful juxtaposition is at the bride’s discretion. Current trends favor
both.
And for those who want to transform their everyday
engagement ring into something more black-tie, Jessica McCormack has come up
with the novel idea of adding a jacket — a supersized twist on an antique
technique. These lavish rings fit around existing bridal bands, converting them
into cocktail rings. More commercial jackets, also called enhancers, are
available from suppliers including Gabriel & Co and Samuel Kleinberg.
Another jeweler pushing bridal boundaries with stacking is
LA-based Spinelli Kilcollin, which launched its first line of wedding jewels
this year. The rings, an extension of its popular Galaxy collection, are sets
of up to four bands joined by gold links. They can be worn as a stack on one
finger or unfolded laterally and worn across multiple digits.
Jewelry has experienced a massive shift toward consumer-led
customization, and stylish stacking with playful twists to express the wearer’s
personality fits right in with this.
Consumers don’t want to be told what or how to stack, so
offering a selection of single mix-and-match items is key. The epitome of this
customization trend was the launch of Chopard’s Ice Cube collection in March,
when it relinquished creative control to French social media star Aymeline
Valade to style its promotional shots as she saw fit.
This power shift from brand to consumer as the editor of a
look makes it hard to anticipate what might win favor, but classic personal
talismans like initials and star signs on delicate chains worn around the neck
or wrist are bestsellers, as are more modern statements such as emojis and
written slogans.
Tennis bracelets have also enjoyed a revival with skinny
widths, colored gemstones and flexible settings. Chokers, too, are popular and
can be worn in multiples, as demonstrated by Sabine Getty’s colorful new Baby
Memphis collection dedicated to stacking in all its forms, including the
ear.
The recent rise of multiple ear piercings has opened up new
possibilities for stacking. Teenage girls and middle-aged women alike are
flocking to a new crop of upmarket piercing bars like Maria Tash and New York
Adorned for ears full of small precious studs, cuffs and hoops, sometimes
interconnected. Then there are the earrings that stack onto themselves, like
Tomasz Donocik’s Mini Stellar Hoop and Dune earrings that can be worn as hoops
or built up to long drops.
And for consumers who like the look of a stack but lack the
patience or budget to create one organically, there are the fake stacks. New
additions to Stephen Webster’s Magnipheasant line this autumn will include
bracelets and necklaces with double chains to create the illusion of layering.
Stackable jewels are brilliant gifting solutions for a
variety of reasons. Most importantly, the delicate scale required to allow
space for additions means price points can fall into gifting sweet spots.
And if the giver is adding to a collection already started,
they are buying with confidence, which could encourage them to spend more than
they would if they were choosing on a whim. If this is a first foray into
stackables for the recipient, it may well lead to repeat business as they build
their collection.
Generic personal icons like birthstones, numbers and
initials are not just the purview of self-purchasers; they also work well for
gifting moments like birthdays, graduations or goodbyes. So do current trends
such as this season’s ear studs, tennis bracelets or long, delicate,
diamond-dotted necklaces.
The birth of a child is another obvious gifting moment, and
push presents continue to be a huge opportunity for jewelers. Designer Lauren
Conrad recently described the diamond stacking rings she has created for Kohl’s
as an ideal push present, layered with a wedding band or stacked separately.
And it’s not just partners who buy jewels for new mothers, but also extended
family and friends, who might be more inclined to buy bracelets or necklaces.
Rings generally remain the domain of the husband or wife.
Yet additions to bridal towers don’t have to be restricted to markers of
matrimony or bearing children. Marketed as memory bands, they can signify a new
home, a grandchild, the trip of a lifetime, retirement, beating an illness, or
any other poignant moment that couples share.
Images (left to right): Ole Lynggaard, Nature rings olelynggaard.com; Tomasz Donocik, Mini Stellar Sand Dune earrings tomaszdonocik.com
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - August 2017. To subscribe click here.