From hair color and homewares to fashion and jewelry, the world is obsessed with the happy, sunshiny, unicorn-complementary rainbow motif. And as the old saying goes, there are pots of gold at the end of these rainbows.
In the first quarter of this year, Gucci’s comparable sales grew 49%, a rise that was credited to last year’s bright and colorful striped sweaters and platform shoes. The style resonated with the #rainbow generation: More than half of the brand’s overall sales were to under-35s last year, says management-consulting firm Bain & Co. Needless to say, the Gucci rainbow has made a comeback this season.
The rainbow has also been spreading positivity in the world of fine jewelry. Along with pieces shaped like actual rainbows, the use of multicolored sapphires to create a palette is a trend that has rip-roared through the industry. This injection of color works brilliantly across all jewelry styles and is a particular maestro at freshening up existing designs, as Suzanne Kalan has done with the now iconic Fireworks collection.
Besides tapping into the Insta-vogue for all things saccharine and magical, rainbows also work well as a show of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, which has long flown the rainbow flag as a symbol of its diversity. Long is the list of jewelers who have celebrated Pride with a colorful composition of sapphires, and some have even created same-sex wedding bands that favor these gems over diamonds.
This is not to say diamonds are left out of this trend. After all, every rainbow needs a bit of sparkle, and diamonds work well as accent stones to electrify the colorful madness further.
And the other thing rainbows need? Gold. While it is not unheard of to use white metal, it definitely doesn’t look as good as a warmer setting of yellow or rose gold. Rainbows only come out when the sun starts shining, after all.
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Article from the Rapaport Magazine - September 2018. To subscribe click here.