Modern Jewelry Trends

Like this year’s Spectrum Awards, the first do-it-yourself design competition, this year all the entries for the 2008 Couture Design Awards are available to view online at www.couturedesignawards.com. You can see the designs and vote in the “primaries” to select which designs will be nominated for the awards, which will be put to a vote at the show this year. The designs entered in the competition are an express-lane preview of the new styles that will be launched at Couture.

So what can we expect to see more of at Couture this year? Yellow gold dominates. There are a lot of great cuffs on display, from Armenta, Gurhan, Diana Heiman, Annie Fenterstock, Todd Reed, Sazingg, Fern Freeman, Konstantino, Jarretiere, and many more.

There are eleven categories in the Couture Awards, although a few don’t have many styles in competition. The most competitive categories are Gold and Haute Couture, which has some incredible pieces. The strength of the entries in the Newcomers category, open only to new exhibitors at Couture 2008, shows the strength of the show in continuing to attract interesting designers.

Who will win? Well, that’s for you to decide!

The philosophy of the turn of the twentieth century Arts and Crafts movement feels relevant again today: that design and craftsmanship make jewelry exceptional rather than the value of the metal and gems.

From 1903 to the early 1920s, the Wiener Werkstätte firm in Vienna created masterpieces of art jewelry. The firm, whose name means Vienna Workshops, subscribed to the Arts and Crafts ideal of well-made objects designed by artists and made by skilled craftsmen.

The first exhibition devoted to Wiener Werkstätte Jewelry, now open at the Neue Galerie on Fifth Avenue in New York, includes 40 pieces, many made by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, founders of the firm.  Hoffmann’s brooches, square grids filled with colorful cabochon gemstones like the one shown below, are a particular delight. Wiener Werkstätte Jewelry is open until June 30, 2008.  By happy coincidence, the Neue Galerie is also hosting a show of Gustav Klimt paintings and drawings: Klimt was a collector of Wiener Werkstatte Jewelry too.

While reflecting turn of the century philosophy, the jewelry also has resonance for designers today, who are using more unusual material like agates and what used to be called “semi-precious” and ornamental gemstones.  Hoffmann’s rigorous geometry, hammered textures, and the nature-inspired leaves and branches of the moonstone bracelet by Carl Otto Czeschka below, wouldn’t be out of place at a booth at the Couture show today.

In a recent formal presentation in London, De Beers announced that it plans to build the Forevermark, the source-assurance program of diamonds inscribed with an icon and a unique identity number, into a global diamond brand.

“The Forevermark team has a clear vision. Working in partnership with the world’s leading diamond jewelry retailers, Forevermark will be established as one of the world’s leading diamond brands, inspiring, exciting and re-assuring diamond consumers of all ages,” says De Beers managing director Gareth Penny.

It’s no big surprise: the company has been testing the marketing program for four years and the inscribed diamonds are already available in China, Hong Kong, India and Japan. DTC sightholders supply the inscribed diamonds, which are individually tracked through the pipeline, to retailers in those markets. At Basel this year, sightholders demonstrated their commitment to the brand: Rosy Blue had a record-breaking 42-carat Forevermark fancy yellow diamond, shown below, and Pluczenik had a pair of matching 26-carat Forevermark round brilliants. According to the De Beers announcement, the Forevermark program will now also be available for diamonds from “responsible sources other than the DTC.”

Current plans are to formally relaunch the Forevermark brand in Hong Kong, China, and Macau in late 2008; Japan in early 2009; and Taiwan, India and South Africa in mid-2009. Although Forevermark diamonds have been available and advertised in pilot projects in most of those countries already, the brand will now be formally launched.

One change from the pilot projects is that Forevermark diamonds will now come with a grading report issued by De Beers.

“One of the key learnings from the pilots was that we believe with Forevermark we have the potential to create the world’s leading diamond brand,” says Lynette Gould, manager: media relations for De Beers Public & Corporate Affairs.  Gould confirmed that the reports will be standard grading reports with information on the 4Cs.

“Through the pilots we have seen high levels of consumer acceptance and interest in a branded diamond proposition.”

Previously announced plans to launch a pilot project in the Gulf in 2008 are on hold while the brand is established in Asia, Gould says. And the United States market? “While we believe the Forevermark could have the potential to be a worldwide brand, our focus is clearly on making it a success in Asia first,” Gould says.

The DTC finally announced its official list of DTC Sightholders for the 2008-2011 contract period. The complete Sightholder Directory is now available online. Despite the delay in announcing the list there are no big surprises. Modern Jeweler did miss two international sightholders in our March 2008 Global Diamond Directory: Diamanthandel A. Spira, the oldest sightholder, and Vijaydimon, who we listed as a Rio Tinto Select Diamantaire but who is also a DTC sightholder. As you might expect, we also included two companies in error: A.S. Exports (an expected new sightholder) and Bornstein. Apologies to the companies involved and to our readers for the incorrect information, which was our mistake entirely.

But what is most interesting about the new online DTC sightholder directory is the detailed information it provides about Sightholders in South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia, which will no doubt help jewelers and manufacturers who wish to support beneficiation in those countries. This is more information than has ever been available before about these companies and their operations, although most of them are part of bigger international Sightholder groups. And it is all accessible to consumers too: an important milestone in the progress the industry is making to bring diamond cutting and downstream employment to diamond producing countries in Africa.

One of the most entertaining parts of the Oscars tradition is the variety of “winners” and “losers” lists that come out after the event. It’s gone beyond the awarding of best picture, best actress, and so on, to best and worst dressed, best and worst jewelry, best and worst hair, best and worst couple, and on and on. At Oscars 2008, perhaps no one exemplified winning and losing more than Damiani. The Italian jeweler dressed Tilda Swinton, and received lots of publicity for its jewelry on the best supporting actress Oscar winner. (Another story entirely is Swinton’s baggy black dress, which looked like a leftover costume/cloak from the “Chronicles of Narnia,” and received a lot of worst dressed honors, which of course is still plenty of priceless publicity.)

But straight out of a Hollywood film, Damiani then made headlines around the world when, almost simultaneously, its Milan, Italy showroom was robbed of millions in jewelry. The thieves pulled off the dramatic heist in part by digging a tunnel from a building next door. Trying to put the best spin on the situation, Damiani released a statement supporting its victimized employees, saying that at least most of their “Masterpiece” collection was in LA at the Oscars. Thankfully no one was hurt. Nonetheless, it was surely much more publicity, and drama, than Damiani ever bargained for this Oscar season. - Matthew Kramer

It wasn’t as strong as the tide of red dresses. But there was an undeniable trend of long necklaces at this year’s Academy Awards. After years dominated by important earrings and bold bracelets, the decision by style icons like Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett, Best Actress Marion Cotillard, nominees Ellen Page and Laura Linney, and presenters Jennifer Garner and Keri Russell to choose an important necklace instead was a major shift in direction from years past.

Kidman wore the most important and prominent necklace of the night: an extraordinary rough and polished multistrand diamond sautoir designed by L’Wren Scott set with 7645 diamonds totaling almost 1400 carats. Russel’s multistrand necklace by H. Stern was also a very strong look.

The Federal Trade Commission just published a consumer alert on what to look for when purchasing jewelry. And it’s actually titled Puttin’ on the Glitz: What to Know When Shopping for Jewelry. Despite good intentions, the impact of these kinds of warnings are always somewhat negative in that they give the impression that jewelers are generally less than trustworthy. But this alert is even worse than most in that it doesn’t get the facts quite right.

Fortunately, an early gaffe about diamond weight being measured in “karats” has been corrected. But the pearl section is also a bit odd. It says that pearls can be “imitation, cultured or real.” Why they decided to use the word “real” instead of natural is a mystery but it might lead some consumers to conclude that cultured pearls aren’t real. The section on gold karatage is confusing too. In avoiding the use of percentages, they end up not explaining how karatage works or the difference between 18k and 14k.

And is it me or does the gemstone paragraph seem to be promoting lab-grown stones? Judge for yourself: “There’s a difference between laboratory-created gemstones and natural stones. Stones created in the lab are practically identical (visually, physically, and chemically) to stones mined from the earth. The big difference is in the cost: laboratory-created stones are less expensive than mined stones. Because they look just like natural stones, they must be identified as lab-created.” (Uh, yeah, the big difference couldn’t be that one is manufactured in any quantity and the other is occasionally found in the ground.)

One might ask where is the section on fake discounting? Where is the section on getting a laboratory report if you are buying diamonds online? Where is the section that warns consumers about all the counterfeits on eBay?

All in all, I think ethical jewelers can say, thanks but no thanks.

At Modern Jeweler, we love the Spectrum Awards because this gemstone jewelry competition organized by the American Gem Trade Association often discovers new talent, including great designers at retail stores across the country. (Just take a look at the spectacular winning designs in our February Issue, Colorful Champions.)

But every year at the AGTA press event that showcases all the entries our editors find a few pieces that we think really should have won. We think you would too. Now AGTA is offering all would-be jewelry design judges like us a chance to discover all the great jewelry in the competition that didn’t win a Spectrum Award. Images of all the pieces entered are available for viewing in the online Spectrum Awards Collection.

Some of our picks, pieces designed by Suz Andreasen, R. Bruce Henderson, David Clark, Klaus Kutter, and Sylva Yepremian are featured below. And believe me, there are plenty of other great designs we could have picked. Feel free to post links to your favorite pieces as well!

Now that the threat of the writer’s strike is over, fashion is celebrating the resuscitation of Oscar’s red carpet. So this week’s Grammys are being studied for clues to the main event coming up soon on February 24. And if the Grammys are any indication of what we’ll see in a week, don’t look for important necklaces on the stars this year.

Once again at this year’s Grammy Awards, the focus was on the wrist. The look of the night was the important cuff: one large bracelet with dimension rather than a stack of bangles as we saw at the last few award ceremonies. Beyonce’s zig-zag cuff by Lorraine Schwartz epitomized the trend, as did Rihanna’s 27-carat cuff by Chopard.

Earrings, for the most part, remain long, although they are often more prominent at the hair-down Grammys than the hair-up Oscars. But the bare-neck bejeweled-wrist trend was so dominant once again that it is likely to reign at this year’s Oscars as well.

Yes, yes, chandeliers are “over” but you know few can resist those long dangly diamonds that make every woman feel really dressed up. Long earrings are here to stay. So, Oscar stylists, just resign yourself and avoid the big necklace/big earrings clash. You don’t want your clients to be mocked by the fashion police like Nelly Furtado at the Grammys, who tried but failed to carry off a thick gold choker and long silver earrings with a strapless dress. It was the jewelry faux pas of the night.

If the first reports trickling in on holiday sales are accurate, the National Retail Federation’s estimate of 4 percent sales growth for the holiday season, the lowest since 2001, may have been too optimistic. The day after Christmas, some reports were that sales were flat. ShopperTrak and MasterCard Advisors have said that overall sales were up 3.6 percent, but excluding gas and auto purchases left a measly increase of only 2.4 percent. The International Council of Shopping Centers said Wednesday that same-store sales during the holidays would be “just below” projections for a 2.5 percent gain, although post-Christmas sales could erase that shortfall. Online sales, although still growing far faster than sales at stores, grew a bit less this year, up an estimated 19 percent this year to $26 billion. Online jewelry and watch sales, which grew a torrid 66 percent last year, may even have been down slightly this year, according to comScore.