As the most-important selling season of the year approaches, many in jewelry are hoping they’ve stocked their cases wisely. Diamond studs? Check. Diamond tennis bracelets? Absolutely! These styles are fixtures in many stores, but those who pay attention to fashion and market trends suggest adding a few fresher, more inspiring options to merchandise arrays. Here’s a roundup of timely looks that forward-thinking jewelers and talented designers predict are worth stocking for the holidays.
Styles that transform — say, from a bracelet to a choker, or from drop earrings to studs — offer a versatility that can help cement buying decisions among customers who know they’ll get multiple looks out of a single purchase. Convertibles speak to buyers in times of uncertainty, and were also the most frequently spied look at this year’s jewelry trade shows. Those with new interchangeable numbers include Roberto Coin, Hearts On Fire, and Tacori, as well as Tomasz Donocik, Buddha Mama and silver designer Belle Étoile.
While some admire the two (or more)-for-one jewelry concept for the value it offers, others appreciate the technical aspect. Those who like electronic toys will likely find fascination with the ability to “put together, take apart, fiddle and tinker with convertible jewelry,” says Priyanka Murthy of Arya Esha, who debuted earrings with jackets this year.
Rebecca Shukan, a private jeweler based in Pasadena, California, understands the value of these versatile looks firsthand. A client who bought a pair of 0.50-carat diamond studs as a young accountant returned to her for an upgrade when she earned a promotion. The woman didn’t want to replace her studs, though — she wanted to enhance them. Shukan sold her a halo jacket to create a bigger look.
“Earring jackets are a way to elevate a simple stud to a more relevant look for today’s trends while showing the evolution of a person’s taste and personality,” the jeweler explains.
Cluster varieties of fancy-shape diamonds like marquise, popular in the market for the past two years, remain en vogue. That’s because of the lower cost of small diamonds, which makes them affordable for designers to work with and for collectors to buy, and because combinations of them are downright darling.
That last is something consumers find comforting in tumultuous national times, according to Ellen Hertz of Max’s in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “If the world is not making customers feel good, they will surround themselves with pretty things,” she says.
At Lissa Jewelry in New York City, fancy-shape diamonds are part of owner Elissa Schneider’s daily sales diet. While Schneider says she sells “$3,000 to $15,000 pieces all day long” from brands like Garavelli and Dinh Van, one recent special order tops even those: a $42,000 kite- and pear-shape band of colorless diamonds in 18-karat gold.
Suzanne Kalan of the eponymous design firm has arguably put baguette-cut diamonds on the map when it comes to non-classic and non-bridal jewelry. In her Fireworks collection, styles featuring matchstick-thin stones in her signature scattered settings encircle centers or stand alone in beautiful groups. The looks are so popular that copies are evident at nearly every turn and trade-fair table. Retailers in the know, like Hertz, stock up on Kalan’s original works, which are now available in evil-eye motifs and include new styles of chokers, stiletto-drop earrings, charms, hoops, stacks and one-of-a-kinds. In fact, these skinny stones were Hertz’s biggest Las Vegas jewelry show takeaway. “Baguettes are big,” she says.
The Victorian collars and cinched waists of fall fashion demand to be offset with dramatic drop earrings. Jewelry makers already had the looks top of mind when they presciently debuted long numbers at this year’s Las Vegas shows. Elisabetta Molina of Garavelli calls the long styles a “must-have” for the holidays, whether in her whimsical floral garland drops or more traditional looks. Diamond-accented styles are a constant among all her orders for fall 2017, especially at the $10,000-and-under price point.
Schneider has placed orders with Molina and others for dramatic stiletto-drop styles that extend from the lobe as far as 4.5 inches. Ditto for Lisa Vinicur, who, at press time, had just sold a newly acquired pair of 4.5-inch-long black rhodium-over-silver numbers with white freshwater pearls from Maria Luisa Jewels. Vinicur, the co-owner of Diane Glynn Jewelry in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, ordered the $615 pair for the holidays, and they barely touched down in the display case before they were snapped up.
More stunners come from Fern Freeman, whose sexy yellow gold-fringed earrings sweep gracefully to the shoulders like blond tresses. Freeman, who started making them when she realized they were trending on runways, personally loves the spectacular length and movement. She also knows they speak to lovers of the mix-and-match trend who wear a long earring on one lobe and a stud on the other. She struggles to keep long earrings in stock. “I’ve sold dozens in the past six months,” she says.
Another familiar style that’s sticking around is stacks. Designers like Julie Lamb have many ways for consumers to layer up, including stackable Metropolis lariat necklaces (“They are casual but sexy,” she says) and her Mariel trio of rings, which she sells as one unit. “If you don’t have stack rings, this is a good starter set,” she explains. New individual pieces, including charm rings in 14- or 18-karat gold with single bezel-set baguettes, are also ideal to stack, and they mix well with her signature tiny lamb silhouettes — an homage to her name — which stand vertically on top of bands as playful elements.
Stacked-bracelet standouts for fall include soft styles with bolo-tie closures instead of clasps to mix in with cuffs and bangles, and rose gold mixed with yellow. Vinicur’s more conservative shoppers were initially hesitant, thinking the color combination was too trendy, but Cartier’s use of it in an iconic tri-color rolling ring convinced them otherwise. “People say, ‘If Cartier can do it, why not me?’” observes Vinicur.
For holiday sales, Schneider is banking on diamond tennis bracelets to be a hit. Her favorite way to wear them is with sapphire, black diamond, and emerald iterations mixed in. “Come fall, when you put on a chunky sweater, you will want a wrist full of bracelets,” she insists.
Kalan’s new colored-stone stacking pieces, with sapphires, emeralds and rubies, fill that fashion prescription. “I’ve been adding color to our Fireworks collection, and it’s a hit with retailers,” she says.
Rough-cut gems, including unfaceted crystals, slices and rose cuts, are another category to stock for the holidays. That’s because consumers are increasingly seeking authenticity, which can include both knowing their stones’ sources, and buying gems that retain as natural a state as possible. Rustics are often more affordable than finely faceted friends, since they’re more included and require less finishing, but they’re also a draw for shoppers who love the unique.
“Organic and raw looks are trendy, especially with younger clientele,” observes Alexis Padis, director of operations and marketing at Padis Jewelry in San Francisco.
Designer Emanuela Duca’s rugged-looking aesthetic is a natural fit for rough-cut gems, which she included in two recent collections. In Burst, a massive rough-cut, pale aquamarine sits on a strong but spindly gold cuff to capture the energy of the designer’s bold move out of New York City after 20 years. In Hudson Valley — the name of the collection that followed, and of her new location in New York — shallower rose-cut stones reflect the area’s nature-rich surroundings. Wild animals and trees are her neighbors now, she says, noting that “within two days, I saw five black bears.”
For Malak Atut of Zaiken Jewelry, a demand for the different is what drives sales of her organic-looking colored-stone styles. Purchases of these are often about “a love of texture,” according to Hertz — a point with which Atut agrees. “Organics are more interesting to the eye,” says the Zaiken designer.
Image (clockwise): Arya Esha multi-gem earrings aryaesha.com; Roberto Coin covertible chocker robertocoin.com; Emanuela Duca, Hudson Valley cuff with aquamarine emanueladuca.com Article from the Rapaport Magazine - October 2017. To subscribe click here.