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Couture Communique E-Newsletter
April 16, 2009
Victoria Gomelsky
Executive Editor at the Nielsen Jewelry Group
Design Trends by Victoria Gomelsky
"WHERE IN THE WORLD IS VICTORIA?"
For the past eight years, I’ve marked the beginning of spring with a trip to Basel, where I mingle with thousands of jewelers at the Baselworld luxury watch and jewelry fair. It’s a lavish event, distinguished by multimillion-dollar parties and all-around extravagance. As I prepared for this year’s gathering, however, I couldn’t help but think that the atmosphere would inevitably feel different.
The Fair broke all attendance and sales records in 2008, capping six years of meteoric growth in the high-end watch business, a tough act to follow under any circumstances, much less in the midst of global recession. It seemed fitting that when I arrived in town, the weather was rainy, dreary and altogether un-springlike. Was this nature’s way of setting the tone for what was sure to be a lackluster Fair?
Conventional wisdom said "yes" but after walking the show and talking to exhibitors, I realized that my low expectations had set me up for a black-and-white experience when the reality was, in fact, only gray.
While traffic was noticeably down (by 12 percent, according to organizers), the aisles were hardly empty. Actually, there were plenty of signs that suggested business as usual: The turnstiles leading into Hall 1 were a mob scene, the press room ran out of lockers within minutes of opening, and the Campari Bar in the old town was swarmed with familiar faces every night, when crowds of raucous jewelers showed up for rounds of beer and whiskey.
Seen from one angle, nothing had changed. Or everything had. It was all a matter of perspective.
Let’s start with the thinned-out American contingent. Buyers from Ben Bridge, London Jewelers, Wempe, Saks, Bergdorf and Neiman’s all made the journey (lacking their customary entourages) yet plenty of their compatriots (including Cellini, Levinson Jewelers and Hyde Park Jewelers) stayed home.
Contrast that with the news that British designer Stephen Webster reportedly had a fantastic show. Even more surprising? He wasn’t the only one. Many exhibitors matched last year’s numbers even as once thriving markets (Russia, for example) continued to flounder.
In Webster’s case, the performance was partly attributed to brisk sales of an affordably priced silver collection. At Dior, however, reps boasted about “triple-digit growth” in the $10,000+ category and proudly showcased a new $1.3 million ruby and diamond Christal Tourbillon.
Even the party scene so iconic to Baselworld was replete with mixed messages: W Magazine cancelled its annual gathering at the Kunsthalle Museum but Breitling carried on with its legendary affair. The champagne-soaked booth parties reminiscent of years past were few and far between yet Chronoswiss, the German brand founded by watchmaking luminary Gerd Lang, had enough chutzpah to make its first Basel fête elegant, self-congratulatory, even a tad risqué. (Imagine bare-chested models painted with images of the brand’s new in-house Sauterelle movement sauntering amidst the crowd.)
All these conflicting reports suggested that the business of luxury had taken a hit from the economy but was still kicking—in some cases, rather vigorously—and that, based on feedback from American exhibitors, the next big event on the high jewelry calendar—the Couture show in Las Vegas—would benefit from the reduced attendance in Switzerland.
Design Trends by Victoria Gomelsky
EYE ON DESIGN
Baselworld establishes the year’s top jewelry trends. Here’s a review of the designs most in vogue in 2009:
Black and white
It
should come as no surprise that the clear contrast of black and white
is ubiquitous this season. From David Yurman’s new focus on black and
white diamonds to the countless showcases displaying pairings of, say,
black onyx and diamonds or white agate and black diamonds, the jewelry
industry’s favorite combination leaves no room for uncertainty.
Purple stones
Fashion’s
passion for purple has bubbled over into the jewelry sphere. Valente,
for example, extended its popular Althea collection to include a
prodigious use of rose de France amethyst while Mikimoto accented its
white South Sea pearls with purple sapphires. Representing such welcome
attributes as regal, powerful, wealthy and sophisticated, the color may
well symbolize that which the industry most desires.
Alternative materials
Designer
Roberto Coin used the occasion of Baselworld to display scores of new
designs with accessible price points made possible by his first-time
use of alternative and affordable materials such as reclaimed African
ebony wood, titanium and enamel. Look for lots of high-end designers to
jump on this bandwagon as their desire for innovation collides with
pricing pressures, resulting in scores of edgy new styles with
attractive buy-ins.
Silver
Speaking of affordable
materials, silver remains the metal with the most momentum behind it.
From Gurhan’s new Menage a Trois collection featuring pure 24-karat
gold paired with pure silver and darkened (rhodium-plated) silver to
Roberto Coin’s new Mestesso collection of “chocolate silver,” made
through a patented process, to David Yurman’s Silver Ice collection of
silver with diamonds, which represents about 40 percent of his sales,
the metal is, for obvious reasons, white-hot.
Aquatic motifs
With
summer around the corner, designers are newly embracing a favorite
design motif: life under the sea. Stephen Webster tipped his hat to the
theme with his Jewels Verne collection of aquatic oddities including
diamond-dusted fish bones, tails, scales, teeth, and fins, while
Australian pearl specialist Autore has grown its elaborate year-old
Oceania collection into a veritable aquarium of creatures, from an
ornate fish brooch fashioned from a baroque pearl to algae-inspired
earrings composed of lime-colored Tahitian pearls. One piece in
particular, the brain coral cuff covered with a blanket of graduated
blue sapphires and South Sea keshi pearls in every shade possible,
seemed well worth its $100,000 sticker price.
