For Jade Lustig, diamonds are always the focal point of her creations, not an afterthought. The founder of jewelry brand Jade Trau started sketching her new Victoria collection on a long-haul flight to Botswana, where she had been invited to visit De Beers’ operations as part of a small group of designers in November 2019. Named after the British queen who made sentimental jewelry popular, the range captures consumers’ current luxury aspirations: Meaningful, designed to be personalized and layered, and serving as a vehicle for the wearer’s story.
What Lustig could not have anticipated was that her decision to create these charms and mini-studs at a lower price than her previous collections would make them ideal in the financially challenging Covid-19 era. “What I’m launching is a smaller price point or something that you can add on. It is quite fortuitous timing,” says the New York-based designer during a Zoom presentation of her new line.
A dynamic, driven jeweler who didn’t let the lockdown stop her production — she even enrolled her 12-year-old twin sons to help with FedEx parcels — Lustig highlights how important her relationship with retailers is. In fact, she has given them the first pick of the Victoria line.
“I am so grateful for all my retail partners,” she says. “They all invest in my collection, and they work so hard to not just promote their own brand. I wanted to give them a chance. So I’m waiting [before I] launch direct to the consumers.”
jadetrau.com
Images: Jade Trau
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - September 2020. To subscribe click here.