Modern Jewelry Trends

Platinum Guild International USA continues to introduce impressive training and marketing programs. Now PGI has developed an on-line platinum sales training program for retailers and jewelers titled, “Platinum First.” Designed as a 30 minute, interactive training module, the program offers a comprehensive education on the value of platinum, providing sales associates the tools they need to educate and effectively sell platinum to their bridal customers.

The course’s objective is to contextualize why offering a customer platinum first is a smart selling technique. Research shows that sales associates who show platinum to a customer as a first choice, and are confident in their knowledge about platinum, almost double their chances of making the platinum sale. It’s another useful program to help boost the confidence of sales associates as they sell those pure, rare, and eternal platinum bridal rings to those brides-to-be.

Before launching it in 2008, PGI test piloted the introductory program with over 100 sales associates from two leading regional chains and two independent retailers. PGI is also developing more on-line training programs and new modules will be added throughout the year. For more information, visit www.platinumlearning.com.    — Matthew Kramer

I’ve been thinking about all the wonderfully creative designers I met at the Vegas shows. Sometimes it’s all too easy to focus on a known brand or designer, but what about something new? What stood out from a “new” designer, someone debuting at the show, or at least someone new to me?

In the designer center, I enjoyed viewing the collection from Andrea Lucille Designs. The contemporary collections featured a lot of natural and organic forms, elegant and delicate pieces, some with an architectural but light feel to them. Styles are created with hand fabrication and casting, polished and textured surfaces in sterling silver and 18k gold, gemstones, and pearls. The “Gavarnie” collection featured overlapping textured square wires, giving pieces form and depth. “Modern Hammer” featured jewelry with hammered links in shapes, swirls, leaves, and shells. “Willow” featured delicate branches, stems, and calla lilies with gemstone and pearl drops.

Price points ranged from $60 to $6,000, from cascading necklaces to a new and affordable under $250 collection. From stunning necklaces, cocktail rings, and bridal styles to a wide variety of sterling silver and gemstone designs, Andrea Lucille has a playful and exciting collection. The “Gavarnie” sterling silver cuff shown here features cultured freshwater pearls, with a suggested retail of $750. For more information, call (718) 930-3461 or visit www.andrealucilledesigns.com.     — Matthew Kramer

The best category for new launches this year is for cute little impulse items.  I’m thinking of Old World Chain’s irresistible chat charms, the new Hershey’s kiss pendants, all the great new initials out there, and lucky charms galore.

Simmons Jewelry has another great new nostalgia-fueled idea. Remember having a lucky penny when you were young?  I’m not old enough to have put pennies in my loafers but I do remember the lucky penny my mother gave me in my first little purse. The new Simmons trademarked and patented “Penny Pendants” feature a shiny new penny set in a sterling silver pendant line.  They even have a little sterling silver purse pendant with a penny tucked inside.

The Penny Pendants line is a collaboration between Simmons and designer Dana Michele, who has a decade of experience in designing and manufacturing jewelry and children’s toys sold in major retailers including Toys ‘R’ Us and FAO Schwartz.

The designs are suspended from a 36-inch chain so they can be easily grabbed to make a wish. And the pendants are priced perfectly for this market, retailing for $99.   The impulse-attracting styles may have many retailers believing the adage “See a penny right side up, all day long you’ll have good luck.”

At the recent Couture show, Scott Kay launched a new collection of men’s wedding bands in a proprietary alloy called “SK Cobalt.”  The company isn’t releasing details or images at this point but brand spokesperson Dan Scott did confirm that the bands are made from an alloy that contains cobalt.  Bands are about the same weight at palladium bands and have a standard white metal appearance.  The collection in the new alloy will allow the brand to compete against the price-points of tungsten carbide and titanium bands.  “It won’t shatter like tungsten, it’s a molten metal,” Scott says.

Because retail blogger Shanu Guliani has already remarked on the similarity between black titanium bands displayed at the Scott Kay booth this year and styles from the Edward Mirell brand, which has a patent on black titanium, it is perhaps worth noting that Edward Mirell also sells rings in a patented cobalt alloy called “CobaBlue,” that has a similar appearance to the new SK Cobalt.

Taking a “break” from the rows of jewelry aisles, I attended the Gemological Institute of America’s first “Mini” Jewelry Career Fair on May 31 at the JCK Las Vegas show. But it was hardly mini. It was perfect timing considering the economy and the challenges the jewelry industry has faced. Approximately 200 job seekers attended the panel discussion, and received coaching sessions and information on jewelry career opportunities.

The “Job Success in Today’s Market” panel included John Green of Lux Bond & Green; Matthew Green, sales director of Europe, Middle East, and Asia for John Hardy; Joel Schechter of Honora; and Phyllis Bergman of Mercury Ring Corporation. It was inspiring to hear John Green speak about his family’s business, and the passion he has for his job. Joel Schechter’s “Top 10” list of qualities employers and job seekers should look for and have was equally informative. Speaking of passion, as Schechter mentioned, shouldn’t we all love Mondays? If you don’t, the next GIA career fair is scheduled for October 16, 2009, at its Carlsbad headquarters.

Looking towards the future, GIA has developed an on-line multimedia format for its distance learning courses in gemology and jewelry sales. This “eLearning” program is available for its Accredited Jewelry Professional diploma and “Diamonds & Diamond Grading” program. Courses include audio, video for hands-on demonstrations, interviews with experts, instructor lectures, and “see it for yourself” segments. For more information, call (800) 421-4250 or see a demonstration at www.gia.edu/elearning.

GIA also just became a member of the Responsible Jewelry Council, an international nonprofit organization committed to promoting responsible ethical, human rights, social, and environmental practices in a transparent and accountable manner. From the RJC to career fairs to eLearning, it’s reassuring to see GIA keep its vision focused on both the current and future generations of the jewelry industry.     — Matthew Kramer

Modern Jeweler’s June 2009 issue featured 89 Finds Under $500 retail because we heard from retail jewelers across the country that entry-level price points are the most important part of the market right now.

Once we started searching for them, we were surprised to be able to feature so many great affordable styles, including new designs from brands who are known for high-end fashion jewelry. But, turns out, we just uncovered the tip of the iceberg.

At the recent JCK show, at booth after booth we saw attractive, impulse-worthy jewelry that retails under $500. In fact, affordable styles were the most important trend at the show this year. (We saw so many, and heard from so many exhibitors that these were the styles that were selling, that we will be featuring Finds Under $500 in every issue going forward.)

Of course, many of these well-priced styles are in sterling silver, like these bamboo-inspired designs from John Hardy, below.  These earrings, which retail for $295, are fashionable forward-facing hoops, a trend, with concentric shapes, another trend.  Add in natural texture and the fact that they are sterling and under $500 and you have a show-full of trends in one.

For a couple of weeks now, the editors at Modern Jeweler have previewed some of the beautiful and unique jewelry collections that have launched at Couture and JCK Las Vegas 2009. Now we are back from Vegas, and we admit to still being a little jet lagged, a little cocktail partied-out—and it’s quite curious how our wallets always seem a lot lighter back here in New York. But we are also energized by the new twists, new designs, and new jewelry directions we saw at the shows. So are you ready for more great new designs?

Italian designer Marco Bicego has expanded into the men’s market with the “L’Uomo” collection. The line debuted in the U.S. at Couture with 55 styles (150-plus pieces) including rings, cuff links, bracelets, and chains in 18k yellow, white, and rose gold. Other styles include black and white diamonds, colored enamel, and leather. Retail prices range from $520 to $8,000. Through the use of hand-woven coils and hand-etched gold satin finishes, Bicego’s architectural collection takes inspiration from the New York skyline and its metropolitan landscape.

“With this collection, every man will be able to express his individuality and fine tune his personal style for a unique, effortless look,” says Bicego. For more information, call (415) 249-3800 or visit www.marcobicego.com.    — Matthew Kramer

The coolest thing that debuted at the JCK show this year wasn’t a jewelry design or a rare gemstone, although it was tucked away in a pocket.  Stuller has a new iPhone application, Live Diamond Try-On, that makes shopping for an engagement ring fun enough (and portable enough) to do in a bar with your friends.

Live Diamond Try-On works like the “Build a Ring” tools you see on jewelry websites, allowing you to choose a Red Box Diamond and then a Stuller setting in white or yellow gold and then showing you how the ring you chose looks with that size and shape diamond.

But then it goes beyond the expected into the 21st century. You can use the camera on the iPhone to take a picture of your hand and try the engagement ring on, pinching the screen to resize the image to fit your finger. Then you can capture the picture of the ring on your hand and email it or post it on Facebook to see what your friends and family think. (Or show it to your friends in the bar. Then try the ring on their hands or put it on their heads like a tiara.) In the future Stuller will be adding men’s bands too (so you can see how that cute guy at the bar would look while wearing one.)

And there’s more: after you create your ring and try it on, you can use the phone and its GPS to find the nearest retailer who carries it.  You can even see the store’s location on a map (and get directions and a phone number too.)

Talk to Stuller about how you can make sure your store is listed when the application launches this fall.

Silver is the biggest overall trend at the JCK Las Vegas show, which opened yesterday.  A strong emphasis on affordable price points is persuading many manufacturers who’ve never designed in silver before to launch new collections.  But even companies who are already known for great-looking affordable silver are launching new lines with an even more inexpensive price point.  Case in point: Starhaven, the popular designer silver line, which has now launched Starlets, a collection of affordable charms that retails for just $110.

SES Creations has launched the Perfect Twogether collection of classic three stone styles with matching bands that fit snugly against the engagement ring. Designs include round, princess, emerald, Asscher, cushion, and oval three stone styles as well as settings with rounds flanked by pear shape, trillion, tapered baguette, half moon and trapezoid shapes. The collection is available in 14k, 18k, and platinum.  See the collection at JCK booth 15129.