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.