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.

Trendy crafts may seem like an oxymoron, but one of the strongest trends in the urban scene is DIY handmade items. Knitting is coming back as a pastime. Hand decoration of shoes, shirts, and walls, with its aura of personalization, is replacing logos and brands as a signifier of taste. This influence is spreading into mainstream design as well, of course. In jewelry, hand finishes and organic-looking shapes that show the mark of the craftsman’s hand are a very strong trend. Those who don’t want to actually do-it-themselves represent a growing market for crafty entrepreneurs with an urban edge. One example of the hipster craft boom is the popular Renegade Craft Fair, which takes place twice a year in Chicago and once a year in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Last weekend 200 companies sold their handmade products at the Brooklyn edition of the fair, which has become an important style-spotting venue. Last year at the Renegade fair, for example, skulls, swallows, and branches were the most popular motifs. Skulls and branches were also very important in jewelry design last year and swallows are an important new motif this year. So what was the most important trend at this year’s Renegade fair? The handmade craft motif of the moment is sea life. The octopus and squid and other ocean creatures more creepy than cuddly are enjoying their moment in the spotlight (and on t-shirts, ties, cards, and hand-painted shoes.) Should we expect to see jewelry with tentacles? More than a few pieces were seen in Basel this year, including some spectacular South Sea pearl brooches by Autore (an octopus and even a jellyfish), so it’s quite possible.

We went to the shows in Vegas expecting to see a lot of new silver collections and we weren’t disappointed, despite the warming trend that has brought us more yellow and rose gold. The high price of gold, the importance of scale, the strong trend of blackened metals, and a new freedom of choice in “fine” materials have all combined to make silver, especially silver and gemstones, look like a pretty good option for many designers. And silver’s relative affordability helps designers create a fashionable look under $1,500 to tempt the self-purchasing woman consumer. In fact, there are so many interesting new silver collections that we’ll highlight a selection of them in our upcoming July issue. Gurhan’s new men’s collection (cufflinks below), a new upscale brand called Pure from Hot Diamonds, and a colorful almost over-the-top silver and pave sapphire collection called Calypso by Rina Limor by JR Gold (Calypso sapphire and silver necklace that retails for $1,300 below) are just the beginning. In fact there are so many new silver collections that you might think about asking all the vendors who have gold collections that sell well in your store if they have any new silver to show you. If they don’t, it may just be a matter of time.

Both the Couture and JCK shows are underway in Vegas.  There are lots of great new collections.  So far I’ve seen a lot of new silver collections, new men’s collections, and some over the top promotional items like a million dollar ice cream cone set with Lazare Kaplan ideal-cut diamonds.  Modern Jeweler’s new Jewelry Video Network has some previews of collections on that you won’t want to miss.  Check out our videos of the new Top Cat collection by Stephen Webster, the Vortex and Seedpod collections by Rodney Rayner, the Captured collection by Shaun Leane, and the chandelier collection by Mattioli.

Now that warm weather is here again, women wearing sundresses will suffer from the dreaded exposed bra strap syndrome. Margarita Couture has dedicated itself to solving this problem with decorative straps, including new straps adorned with freshwater pearls that are like pearl necklaces for your shoulders. Elite Pearl Straps retail for $35 a pair. The adjustable straps can be worn with any convertible bra (although the company recommends its Evolution by Margarita bra, a $44 five-in one push-up number.) Designer Margarita Reis, who invented the decorative bra strap in 2001, said the pearl straps were perfect for brides to wear with a wedding dress. The company has been test marketing the straps to shoppers at the four Margarita Couture kiosks in malls in Florida. Reis said that exposed straps can be tacky or fashionable, depending on the strap and the outfit, but that “standard white bra straps never look good because they aren’t designed to show.” Glad we cleared that up.

Although Ventura is known for mechanical chronometers in hardened titanium, the watch brand also has always included high-end digital watches, including the 1990 “watch” by Danish designer Flemming Bo Hansen which is in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2000, Ventura introduced the world’s first self-winding digital watch, SPARC, still the only of its kind. Ventura’s v-tec line of digitals features contemporary design and a unique operating system: instead of pushbuttons it uses a single cylindrical wheel-barrel, for scrolling through multiple functions just like on an iPod. Two new v–tec styles will be launched at the Basel fair this April: Kappa and Zeta. Kappa is a rectangular design by Swiss architect and designer Hannes Wettstein. The v-tec Kappa, shown below, is titanium which has been exposed to high pressure and heat under vacuum before being cooled by liquid nitrogenand covered with a layer of liquid glass coating to resist fingerprints and protect from scratches. If that’s not high-tech enough for you, there is a special matte-black ion-coated Kappa with an even harder surface. Kappa will be available in early summer starting at around $2,000. For high-tec women, the new v-tec Zeta is a smaller unisex version of the Sigma men’s watch, designed by Paolo Fancelli, who also designed the Sigma and the SPARC rx. The Zeta will be available in early summer starting at $ 1,600.

Abondance, a new jewelry collection by Faberge that will be launched at this year’s Basel fair, piles on gemstones in a profusion of different cuts, sizes, and colors set at different heights and accented with yellow and white gold discs and complex, guilloche enamel circles in pastel green adorned with stars. It’s delightfully too much.

The 2007 Baselworld watch and jewelry fair in Basel, Switzerland is scheduled for April 12-19, 2007. In the next few weeks we will bring you a preview of the abundance of new products that will be launched in Basel this year.

GoldVish, the luxury phone company that is affiliated with sightholder Dianish, will exhibit in Basel this year, displaying a million-euro diamond encrusted phone that is the ultimate in over-the-top functional luxury. The diamond-encrusted TV and the diamond iPod headphones are just publicity stunts in comparison, as GoldVish’s business model actually seems to be working (although the million-euro phone is definitely aimed at the large press contingent in Basel.) “GoldVish is ready to expand, market, and distribute the most exclusive cell phone brand on a global scale,” says Michel Morren, company founder. “There is no better location to take this important step than at Baselworld, the world’s leading show for the watch and jewelry industry.”

A look at the party pictures from Oscar night confirms what we saw on the red carpet. When it comes to jewelry, the new Hollywood uniform is an armful of bangles and cuffs and a bare neck, worn with a strapless or one-shoulder dress, usually embellished with beading or other ornamentation. The only individuality is on the ear, where there’s still a lot of variety: studs and clusters are becoming much stronger but chandeliers still have fans, especially actresses who like to wear their tresses long. Hoops and linear earrings also work well. So how does something like this happen? Do all the stylists wake up one day and decide it’s all about the wrist? (Modern Jeweler did do a fashion feature on the cuff last fall.) This wrist focus could be the most important jewelry style legacy of the Oscars. The balance and proportions seem to have shifted.