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COUTURE International Jeweler 286/1 BaselWorld 2009 www.couturejeweler.<strong>com</strong><br />
<strong>IN</strong>TERNATIONAL JEWELER<br />
BASELWORLD 2009
1330 West Avenue - Suite 1102 - Miami Beach FL 33139 - USA - info@operajewels.<strong>com</strong><br />
Distributor USA
1330 West Avenue - Suite 1102 - Miami Beach FL 33139 - USA - info@operajewels.<strong>com</strong><br />
Distributor USA
When a simple gesture reveals great feelings.<br />
Emotions__madE in italy<br />
diamond strings<br />
designed by Carlo Palmiero<br />
in Valenza
www.palmierogioielli.it
Made in Italy and Distributed by Davite & Delucchi - Customer service phone 0039 0131 941731 - patent models - www.davitedelucchi.it<br />
CHARME COLLECTION<br />
MADE <strong>IN</strong> ITALY<br />
VICENZA ROMA MILANO TAORM<strong>IN</strong>A BASILEA NAPOLI LAS VEGAS TOKYO NEW YORK<br />
BAHRA<strong>IN</strong> DUBAI MADRID LONDRA SAN PIETROBURGO DUBL<strong>IN</strong>O ATENE
Davite & Delucchi<br />
Davite & Delucchi interprets the elegance<br />
and charm of the deco crossover ring<br />
in white gold and diamonds.<br />
Designer Fausto Delucchi
E D I T O R ’ S L E T T E R<br />
Mickey, Oscar<br />
and me<br />
Los Angeles is rarely thought of as a hub of the diamond and<br />
jewelry trade, but during one week of the year it matters more<br />
than all the other centers <strong>com</strong>bined. I realized this in February,<br />
when a visit there happened to coincide with Oscar week.<br />
Even though I grew up in LA, the Hollywood of popular<br />
imagination eluded me because I lacked an entree into its<br />
exclusive circles. This time, armed with invites to a few Oscar<br />
gatherings, I had every intention of soaking up the spectacle.<br />
My first stop was Erica Courtney’s 10th annual Oscar party at the W Hotel in Westwood. The designer,<br />
profiled in this issue’s special report on ethical jewelry, has teamed up with the Tanzanite Foundation on<br />
a collection featuring the rare, blue-violet gemstone. It seemed only fitting in this milieu of outsize<br />
personalities that a flawless 525-carat specimen with a rich, velvety sheen was the example on display.<br />
Next up was the Thompson Hotel in Beverly Hills, where H. Stern was hosting a suite. International<br />
Communications Director Andrea Hansen had brought a collection of baubles gorgeous enough to<br />
woo the most snobbish of stylists, the real fashion powers in Hollywood. She showed me vintage cuffs<br />
from headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, an 80-carat diamond necklace worn by pop princess Fergie during<br />
her recent nuptials, and the new Giverny collection, described in this issue’s global brands feature. But<br />
not even these stellar jewels could guarantee H. Stern a coveted red carpet endorsement.<br />
Meanwhile, down the street, at the iconic Beverly Hilton Hotel, another Oscar suite hosted by the PR<br />
firm TMG was in progress. I arrived just in time to watch a crew from the TV show Access Hollywood<br />
tape a segment on Sethi Couture’s ornate diamond jewelry. TMG was hoping to dress Slumdog<br />
Millionaire’s Freida Pinto in something extravagant. (Good luck, I thought; they were hardly the only ones.)<br />
My stay in the mythical Hollywood ended at the Spirit Awards for independent films, a raucous,<br />
irreverent ceremony held on Santa Monica beach on the day before the Oscars. As a guest of Piaget,<br />
a premier sponsor, I sat behind the table occupied by the crew from The Wrestler, including director<br />
Darren Aronofsky, his partner, actress Rachel Weisz, and the star of the film, Mickey Rourke. Every time<br />
the cameras panned to Mickey (which was often, given that he won for best actor and the film won for<br />
best feature), there I was in the background, giggling at my image on the big screens flanking the stage.<br />
When Mickey, a gregarious and gracious if somewhat strange personality, learned we were with the<br />
<strong>com</strong>pany responsible for outfitting him with a luxury watch, he pulled back the sleeve of his silk jacket<br />
and flashed a Piaget Polo in white gold with diamonds. “Is that you?” he asked no one in particular.<br />
The gesture made me wonder what the brand actually meant to him. Like the other celebrities Piaget<br />
dressed that day (Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba and Alec Baldwin, to name a few), Mickey almost<br />
certainly wore what his stylist had chosen for him after some intense brokering. I doubted his own taste<br />
figured much into the equation. It was a simple but revealing moment. The Oscar dressing game is an<br />
illusion we collectively — and happily, might I add — embrace. Why? Because much of our industry’s<br />
success <strong>com</strong>es down to helping the Hollywood myth sparkle even more seductively.<br />
Victoria Gomelsky<br />
Editor<br />
vgomelsky@couturejeweler.<strong>com</strong>
Italian Jewellery<br />
ANDREOLI s.r.l<br />
Vicolo dei Sarmati 1/A - 15048 Valenza (AL) Italy<br />
tel. +39 0131 946665 - Fax +39 0131 946095<br />
e-mail: andreoli@andreoli-gioielli.<strong>com</strong> - www.andreoli-gioielli.<strong>com</strong><br />
presenti alle fiere - present at the fairs<br />
BASEL Halle 2.2 Stand E90 - LAS VEGAS JCK - NEW YORK - VICENZA Pad. B Stand 661
I N T H I S I S S U E<br />
no 286 - 1/2009<br />
On the cover<br />
14 Global Luxury How are the world’s<br />
leading luxury brands greeting this tumultuous<br />
year? Judging by their bold spring collections, a<br />
lot less conservatively that you might have<br />
guessed.<br />
34 SPECIAL REPORT:<br />
Ethical Jewelry<br />
There’s no denying the zeitgeist: In a world gone<br />
mad for money, one way to promote luxury is to<br />
make sure it’s affiliated with the right ideals.<br />
Designing for a cause 38<br />
42 Tastemakers This issue’s influencers — a<br />
medievalist, a video artist, an artisanal crafts advocate<br />
and a cutting-edge retailer — project pure passion.<br />
Nicole Mackinlay Hahn 42<br />
Tania Machado 44<br />
Liliane Jossua 45<br />
50 Influences Jewelry inspired by the<br />
unlikeliest of icons.<br />
Picchiotti<br />
«A 10 ct. fancy yellow cushion<br />
diamond is the focal point of this<br />
important ring. Belonging to the<br />
Unique Diamond Collection,<br />
the cushion is enhanced by a<br />
special «trellis-workmanship»<br />
where each single diamond is<br />
set in its own box creating an<br />
irregular grate. Typically<br />
Picchiotti, it clearly denotes<br />
Picchiotti’s mastery in working<br />
with calibrated stones.»<br />
Cover Feature on page 12<br />
BaselWorld Hall 2.2 Booth B30<br />
www.picchiotti.it<br />
50<br />
16<br />
36<br />
44<br />
42<br />
19 Couture Spotlight<br />
The good, the green and the<br />
utterly gorgeous is how we’d<br />
characterize our spring jewelry<br />
feature. Not all of the jewels<br />
are green in the philosophical<br />
sense of the word, but that’s<br />
okay. Even if they’re green in<br />
appearance only, just think of<br />
them as spreading the word.<br />
31<br />
24<br />
22
Vicolo dei sarmati, 1/A - 15048 Valenza (AL) - Italy<br />
tel. (+) 39 0131 946665 - fax (+) 39 0131 946095<br />
e-mail: andreoli@andreoli-gioielli.<strong>com</strong> www.andreoli-gioielli.<strong>com</strong><br />
Presenti alle fiere di: BASILEA - NEW YORK - LAS VEGAS (Couture JCK) - HONG KONG (edizione di settembre) - VICENZA - VALENZA
I N T H I S I S S U E<br />
46 Designer Roundup The royals of<br />
Saudi Arabia, collectors of art jewelry, lovers of fine<br />
colored stones and fans of modern Indian style would<br />
applaud our designer fantastic foursome.<br />
52 Couture Practices Online used to be a dirty<br />
word in the fine jewelry sphere, but a coterie of sophisticated<br />
Web entrepreneurs are gradually helping to change that.<br />
52<br />
47<br />
48 56<br />
46<br />
47<br />
D E P A R T M E N T S<br />
Editor’s Letter 06<br />
Marketplace:<br />
Vicenza 48<br />
The First fair in Vicenza<br />
set the stage for a<br />
showdown between<br />
Italian jewelers who side<br />
with trends or tradition.<br />
Advertiser/<br />
Editorial Index 55<br />
Freely<br />
Speaking 56<br />
Under new show<br />
director Liz Hitchcock,<br />
the Couture event<br />
in Las Vegas is<br />
undergoing a subtle<br />
transformation.<br />
The Official<br />
Jewelry Magazine of<br />
Couture 2009<br />
© COUTURE International Jeweler, 25 route des Acacias, CH - 1227 Genève, Switzerland<br />
Tel. +41 22 307 78 37, Fax +41 22 300 37 48, Help desk: jricher@europastar.<strong>com</strong><br />
49
C O V E R S T O R Y<br />
Modern, vibrant<br />
concepts by Picchiotti<br />
Picchiotti needs little or no introduction. Founded in<br />
1967 by Giuseppe Picchiotti in Valenza, Italy, today the<br />
jeweler from the ‘City of Gold’ is renowned worldwide.<br />
12 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
The latest addition to the vast Royal Star Collection is this<br />
beautiful parure of a necklace and earrings. In 18 carat<br />
white gold, the central stars are enhanced by a cluster of<br />
buff-top square rubies, surrounded by white diamonds and<br />
outlined by a fine line of black rhodium. An innovative, elegant<br />
and sophisticated design.<br />
Picchiotti’s understanding of jewelry and the<br />
industry in general, his long-term <strong>com</strong>mitment<br />
to excellence, sound business ethics and the<br />
rich tradition of artistic excellence <strong>com</strong>bined<br />
with a modern twist, ensures that the family-run<br />
business will enjoy continued success.<br />
Picchiotti’s sophisticated and distinctive jewelry<br />
is created entirely in-house and Giuseppe<br />
Picchiotti himself oversees every aspect of the<br />
design and production process, and yet spends<br />
much of his time searching the world for the<br />
rare stones which highlight his collections.<br />
Often, his travels result in the discovery of<br />
stones of such incredible size, beauty and<br />
uniqueness that they be<strong>com</strong>e the inspiration<br />
for his signature pieces. He is above all a<br />
connoisseur of colored gemstones – which<br />
feature as a highly recognizable trademark in<br />
the Picchiotti collections.
New challenges<br />
With the current challenging economical<br />
environment in mind and an evolution in<br />
consumers’ needs and tastes, Picchiotti has<br />
been gradually introducing new lines inspired by<br />
modern concepts and vibrant fashions that<br />
blend together to give an enduring style with<br />
what is clearly a distinctive motif. These collections<br />
include inventive designs and settings that<br />
have been conceived to be worn as an<br />
‘everyday’ accessory. However, every piece of<br />
jewelry that emerges from the workshops still<br />
reflects the high standards of quality and craftsmanship<br />
associated with Picchiotti and is<br />
ac<strong>com</strong>panied by a certificate of authenticity. In<br />
addition, each and every piece in the exclusive<br />
collections is stamped with the ‘Picchiotti’<br />
signature mark. This seal is the purchaser’s<br />
assurance that the jewelry is a genuine creation<br />
by Picchiotti.<br />
Picchiotti’s jewelry is favored by the fashion<br />
conscious, well-dressed, sophisticated woman,<br />
one who does not like to show off, but who<br />
appreciates the beauty of these finely designed<br />
and treasured pieces of jewelry and is very<br />
much aware of the fine craftsmanship behind<br />
Picchiotti creations.<br />
2009 Collection Highlights<br />
To further enhance the unique elements of its<br />
signature pieces, Picchiotti has made extensive<br />
use of one of the rarest and purest metals to be<br />
found on earth: platinum.<br />
Picchiotti’s signature pieces feature important<br />
diamond, emerald and sapphire necklaces,<br />
earrings and rings enhanced by platinum that<br />
give a classic, yet contemporary look.<br />
These collections are designed as a showcase<br />
for the different cuts of the precious stones<br />
chosen by Picchiotti: exquisite and unique solitaires<br />
as rare and eternal as the platinum in<br />
which they are set. The jewelry is simple yet<br />
unique, modern but still classic, in short, a<br />
genuine reflection of contemporary femininity.<br />
A very refined and elegant brooch, the Feather, is the<br />
expression of Picchiotti’s talent in reproducing the <strong>com</strong>plex<br />
beauty found in nature and giving it life as a piece of jewelry. Of<br />
a sinuous and elegant shape, this 18 carat white gold brooch<br />
features sparkling white diamonds and an elegant, thin line of<br />
buff-top baguette sapphires.<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler l Basel 2009 l 13
G L O B A L L U X U R Y<br />
What recession?<br />
Based on the spring collections from the giants of the<br />
jewelry world, the consensus is clear: No matter how<br />
unpredictably the economy behaves, luxury goes on.<br />
Bulgari<br />
Chances are good that even the casual observer, if asked to<br />
characterize the jewelry made by Bulgari, would describe it as bold,<br />
colorful and utterly recognizable. The firm, founded in Rome by a<br />
Greek immigrant named Sotirios Voulgaris, celebrates its 125th<br />
anniversary this year, cementing its place among the pantheon of<br />
20th century jewelers. The occasion has prompted a return to the<br />
styles that made the house famous: namely, a series of haute joaillerie<br />
pieces, including this cabochon aquamarine and ruby ring, that<br />
<strong>com</strong>bine the finest stones with a bigger-than-life approach to design.<br />
14 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
CCartier<br />
Cartier’s new Trinity collection, an updated version of an iconic<br />
motif in which bands of pink, white and yellow gold are intertwined,<br />
makes evident the mystical power of threes. You might say the<br />
bands represent friendship, love and fidelity; past, present and<br />
future; or simply a distinct brand of French elegance. But one thing<br />
is certain: Whether it’s the Trinity XXL bracelet, entirely paved with<br />
126 carats of diamonds; a coiled sautoir; or the Trinity Crash ring<br />
shown here, good tidings <strong>com</strong>e in threes.<br />
Katel Riou © Cartier 2009
Chopard<br />
CChanel<br />
Chopard debuted the Happy Diamond line in 1976 as a tuxedo<br />
watch for men but over the past three decades, it’s be<strong>com</strong>e closely<br />
linked to the brand’s jewelry. Featuring free-floating diamonds<br />
sandwiched between thin slices of bezel-set crystal, the collection<br />
wel<strong>com</strong>es yet another variation into its midst with this spring’s<br />
launch of the Teddy Bear pendant in 18-karat rose gold. Set with<br />
three mobile diamonds, the pendant also <strong>com</strong>es in a mini version,<br />
conveniently just in time for Mother’s Day.<br />
Coco Chanel preferred the camellia to the rose — “for its sobriety,<br />
its almost geometrical roundness and the classical arrangement of<br />
its perfectly regular petals” — so it’s no surprise that the house she<br />
built has made the white flower its emblem. Paired with one of<br />
Mademoiselle’s timeless little black dresses and glistening with<br />
diamonds, the camellia, seen here in the Fil de Camelia bracelet, is<br />
a seductive flower, indeed.<br />
De Beers<br />
With the Diamond Trading Co. focusing its marketing message on<br />
the notion of owning “fewer, better things,” it makes sense that its<br />
retail progeny, De Beers, is back to promoting the classics. Simple<br />
studs, bridal basics and straightforward solitaires, as in this selection<br />
of single-stone pendants, will be front and center throughout the<br />
<strong>com</strong>pany’s global network of retail stores this spring, proving that<br />
when times get tough, the tough embrace that which is timeless.<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler l Basel 2009 l 15
G L O B A L L U X U R Y<br />
DDior<br />
That Dior Artistic Director Victoire de Castellane is one of the most<br />
extravagant personalities in Paris goes without saying. Simply look at<br />
her jewels. The former costume designer and descendant of French<br />
aristocracy creates ornate, gem-set pieces — including this Carnivora<br />
Devorus ring from Dior’s new collection of garden-inspired confections,<br />
in yellow gold with diamonds, tsavorite garnets, sapphires,<br />
Paraíba tourmalines and lacquer — that never fail to capture her<br />
motto: “It’s not because it’s real that it has to be boring.”<br />
MMikimoto<br />
16 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
HH. Stern<br />
Not long ago, baroque pearls were seen as sub-par, mis-shapen<br />
lumps of pearlescence, valued, sure, though not nearly as highly as<br />
their round counterparts. The design renaissance of the 21st century<br />
has squelched that belief and has instead elevated the baroque<br />
pearl from reject to rarefied. Witness the new Baroque Couture<br />
collection from Mikimoto, whose one-of-a-kind jewels, like this<br />
diamond-accented pendant, prove that the distinctive shape<br />
of the baroque pearl is by far its most charming attribute.<br />
Giverny, the village in northern France where Claude Monet kept his<br />
garden, his lilies and his home, lends its name to H. Stern’s new<br />
collection of rose gold leaf-shaped pendants and rings dusted with<br />
beige diamonds. The Brazilian jeweler is sticking to a favorite theme —<br />
the colors, textures and elements found in nature — but has decided<br />
that a global brand needs a global approach to style, promising that<br />
more collections inspired by the world’s gardens are to follow.
TTiffany & Co.<br />
PPiaget<br />
Tiffany & Co. dug into its archives to develop its new Keys<br />
Collection of pendants and charms evoking a time of keepsake<br />
boxes, diaries, steamer trunks and country manors, all the while<br />
channeling the jeweler’s great legacy. Designs of vintage skeleton<br />
keys are rendered in medallion or heart shapes, decorated with<br />
flowers or diamonds, and suspended from fine 18-karat gold,<br />
platinum or silver chains. Designed to be worn alone or layered, the<br />
keys, in Tiffany’s expert hands, are nothing less than talismans.<br />
Piaget celebrates life on the high seas with its new Limelight Paradise<br />
collection, a clever take on the yachting lifestyle. From the coralinspired<br />
diamond pendant at left to a bracelet strung with whimsical<br />
charms such as an 82-carat citrine cut to resemble a pineapple, to<br />
a series of cocktail rings that take their mandate all too literally (one<br />
ring, called “Sex on the Beach,” features a pink tourmaline center<br />
stone accented by a peridot lime), Piaget offers a vicarious escape<br />
to the tropics, even, or perhaps especially, for the deskbound.<br />
VVan Cleef & Arpels<br />
The art of gardening is the ultimate expression of man’s desire to<br />
tame nature, but each culture approaches the task differently. The<br />
French garden is a masterpiece of spatial geometry, while the classic<br />
English version is overflowing and unruly. The Italians emphasize<br />
nature’s relationship to architecture. In the Orient, harmony, balance<br />
and tranquility are key. At Van Cleef & Arpels, the new Les Jardins<br />
collection offers a glorious tour of this sublime garden universe, with<br />
jewels, like these Pavillon d’Or sapphire and diamond earrings from<br />
the Orient series, that speak to the enchanting power of Eden.<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler l Basel 2009 l 17
C O U T U R E S P O T L I G H T<br />
The green<br />
years<br />
When it <strong>com</strong>es to color palettes,<br />
Mother Nature knows best<br />
Green is a paradox. Signifying nature and money to<br />
some, poison and envy to others, it’s a color that has<br />
long projected contradictory images. In this, our first<br />
ever green-themed issue, we attempt to settle the score.<br />
It’s easy to defend green when you see the trend and color<br />
pages that follow. They pay homage to jewelry in gorgeous<br />
shades of green — grass green, mint green, lime green, and,<br />
of course, emerald green — as well as to multihued jewels that<br />
rely on green as the cohesive force keeping all the other<br />
colors together (not unlike Mother Nature herself).<br />
We’ve also included jewelry celebrating green as a philosophy,<br />
a concept and a way of life, be it through its use of<br />
recycled materials, its glorification of botanical forms or its<br />
rendering of animals, from butterflies to frogs. Ultimately, we’d<br />
like to explore the best ways in which to fuse a concern for<br />
the earth’s resources with our industry’s legendary attention<br />
to beauty because soon enough it will be unseemly, if not<br />
impossible, to segregate the two.<br />
Green may indeed be the new black but let’s be clear: Our<br />
love for the old black (not to mention the old white, blue,<br />
orange and yellow, the colors most in vogue this season) has<br />
not wavered. In that spirit, we kick off with a collection of<br />
statement necklaces that look good no matter the color.<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler l Basel 2009 l 19
C O U T U R E S P O T L I G H T<br />
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Photo provided by D'Orazio & Associates<br />
20 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
5<br />
The Necklace<br />
Affair<br />
6 7<br />
Who cares about the dress when<br />
bold and beautiful collars are the<br />
mark of a true fashionista?<br />
1. Necklace in 18-karat gold with carved turquoise bead and turquoise, and ebony and blue<br />
zircon pendant clasp by Katy Briscoe, Houston 2. Bochic abalone shell, diamond and raspberry<br />
tourmaline necklace on Marisa Tomei at the 13th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards,<br />
Beverly Hills, Calif. 3. Necklace in 18-karat gold with green tourmaline by Yvel, Jerusalem<br />
4. Venus necklace with silk cord, shells, corals, pink gold and rubies by Fabio Salini, Rome<br />
5. Soleil necklace in 18-karat gold by Calgaro, Vicenza, Italy 6. Tea<br />
Time one-of-a-kind necklace in 18-karat gold with cabochon-cut<br />
rose quartz, topaz, aquamarine, turquoise, citrine, amethyst<br />
and sapphire by Tous, Barcelona 7. Necklace in 24karat<br />
and 14-karat rose gold with Jasper cabochons<br />
by Devta Doolan, Devta Doolan Jewelry, Portland,<br />
Maine, for the 2009 AGTA Spectrum Awards<br />
8. Disc bib necklace in 18-karat gold by DML for<br />
1<br />
Gold Expressions, Vicenza, Italy 9. Dancing<br />
Elephant tiger’s eye necklace from the Wild Things<br />
collection in fine silver and 22-karat gold vermeil by JJ<br />
Singh Jewelry, Washington, D.C.<br />
9<br />
8<br />
Photo courtesy of AGTA and Robert & Orasa Weldon
E M O T I O N S<br />
I N F I N E J E W E L L E R Y<br />
B E A U T Y I S C R E A T E D B Y<br />
E MOTIONS.<br />
I T C O M E S O U T O F T H E H E A R T<br />
A N D S H I N E S B R I G H T L I K E T H E<br />
S UN.<br />
WWW.BLUMER. DE<br />
Blumer GmbH Manufacturer of fine jewellery Luisenstraße 60 75172 Pforzheim Germany<br />
Tel.: +49(0)7231-1383- 0 Fax: +49(0)7231-1383-290 E-Mail: info@blumer.de Internet: www.blumer.de
C O U T U R E S P O T L I G H T<br />
22 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
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7<br />
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Photo provided by D’Orazio & Associates<br />
On the Money<br />
There’s no going wrong with jewelry<br />
that evokes both nature and the<br />
bounty of riches it bestows<br />
1. Large teardrop ring in 22-karat gold with emerald and rosecut diamonds by Nancy<br />
Chapman, Houston 2. Cuff and ring in 22-karat yellow gold by Amrapali on Camilla Belle<br />
at the 12th Annual Hollywood Film Festival’s Award Gala Show, Beverly Hills, Calif.<br />
3. Archi ring in platinum with rectangular-cut chrome green tourmaline and diamond<br />
melee by Tanagro, New York 4. Triple-strand emerald necklace in 18-karat gold by<br />
Mia Katrin for Jewel Couture LLC, Fleetwood, N.C. 5. Samoan earrings<br />
in sterling silver and black rhodium with resin by Angelique de Paris,<br />
Allentown, Penn. 6. Heart Breaker pendant in 18-karat white and rose gold<br />
with diamonds and tsavorites by Sartoro, Bangkok 7. Lucky Animals<br />
Grenouille ring in 18-karat gold with peridot by Mathon Paris, Paris<br />
8. Earrings in 18-karat yellow gold with green amethyst and diamonds<br />
by Al Coro, Cologne, Germany 9. Degustateur ring from Arte-<br />
Facto collection in 18-karat gold with emeralds and diamonds<br />
by Isabel & Canseco, Oviedo, Spain 10. Fancy yellowish<br />
green diamond ring in 18-karat white gold with diamond<br />
melee by Nice Diamonds, New York.<br />
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8<br />
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11. Duo ring in 18-karat gold with emeralds by Yael Sonia, New<br />
York 12. Huge apple green early 20th century vase available through<br />
41 Main Antiques and Collectibles at Vintage & Modern, Inc.<br />
(VandM), New York 13. Earrings in 18-karat gold with tsavorites<br />
and diamonds by Atelier Minyon, Ankara 14. Biodegradable<br />
canvas tote with recycled leather and 18-karat gold plated chain and<br />
leather handles by CC Skye, Los Angeles 15. Huge ring in 18-karat<br />
yellow gold with chrysophrase and diamonds by Boaz Kashi, Tel<br />
Aviv 16. Capri Plus necklace in black rhodium plated gold with<br />
chrysoprase by Roberto Coin, Vicenza, Italy 17. Two ring in 18karat<br />
white gold with hand-carved green jadeite trimmed with cognac<br />
diamonds by tête-à-tête limited, Bangkok 18. Precious Beads<br />
mixed aqua necklace in 18-karat gold with champagne citrine jewel<br />
bead clasp by David Yurman, New York 19. Dolce & Gabbana<br />
Stone sunglasses at Ilori, Cincinnati, Ohio 20. Bracelet in pink gold<br />
with brilliants and prasiolite by Casato, Rome 21. Opal green<br />
handbag by Shana London, London.<br />
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Eternal Blooms<br />
Unlike fresh flowers, the jeweled<br />
variety make up in longevity<br />
what they lack in scent<br />
1. Apple blue floral handbag by Shana London, London 2. Paisley Lace pendant in 18-karat<br />
white gold with natural green and white diamonds by Sethi Couture, San Francisco 3. Day<br />
Lily earrings in 18-karat gold with plique a jour transparent enamels, garnet centers and garnet<br />
grape drops by Leila Tai Jewelry Design, New York 4. Leaf earrings in 18-karat white<br />
gold with graduated pink sapphires, tsavorites and diamonds by Sartoro, Bangkok 5. Glacée<br />
bracelet in matte sterling silver by Tous, Barcelona 6. Three-Finger U ring in high-karat gold<br />
with granulation, oxidized silver and purple spinels by Patricia Tschetter, Dallas 7. Dionea<br />
rings in white and yellow gold with white diamonds and sapphires by Io Sì, Valenza, Italy<br />
8. Zorab rubellite tourmaline flower ring in rose gold with diamonds on Scarlett Johansson<br />
at the premiere of her film “He’s Just Not That Into You,” Los Angeles 9. Wilton House necklace<br />
in 18-karat gold with emeralds, pink and white diamonds by Van Cleef & Arpels, Paris.<br />
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10. Iris rings in 18-karat gold with diamonds,<br />
sapphires, garnets and tsvaorites by Paolo<br />
Piovan, Padua, Italy 11. Primavera Colore<br />
ceramic tile by Bardelli, Milan 12. Daisy<br />
Chain necklace in 18-karat rose, white and<br />
yellow gold with pink, blue and yellow<br />
sapphires by Janet Deleuse, San<br />
Francisco 13. One-of-a-kind necklace with<br />
antique 17th century Satsuma vignettes<br />
(porcelain-like material hand-painted with<br />
enamel) framed in pure 24-karat gold by<br />
Gurhan, New York 14. Flower ring in 18karat<br />
yellow gold with pear-shaped reddish<br />
brown opaque natural fancy color diamonds<br />
and white melee by Rahaminov<br />
Diamonds, Los Angeles 15. Art Nouveau<br />
earrings in 18-karat yellow gold with brilliantcut<br />
diamonds and fired enamel by<br />
Masriera, Barcelona 16. Kimi shoes with<br />
luxury kimono fabric by Hetty Rose, Milan<br />
17. Botanicals Orchid brooches in sterling<br />
silver with enamel and CZ by Angelique de<br />
Paris, Allentown, Pa. 18. Florada Orchid<br />
earrings in 18-karat yellow gold by Carla<br />
Amorim, São Paulo, Brazil 19. Couture<br />
Collection Fleur d’Amour rings in 18-karat<br />
white and rose gold with Tahitian and South<br />
Sea cultured pearls, diamonds and/or<br />
sapphires by Schoeffel, Stuttgart, Germany.<br />
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Eden’s<br />
Bouquet<br />
Mimicking nature, these<br />
technicolor jewels use<br />
green as their glue<br />
1. Bijou de Création pendant in white gold with pink tourmaline, peridot<br />
and diamonds by Gay Frères, Annemasse, France 2. Kiss Me-Love<br />
Me earrings in white gold with rock crystal, agate, amethyst, coral and<br />
diamonds by Suzanne Syz, Geneva 3. Kaleidoscope X2 ring in platinum<br />
with crystal surrounding diamonds, amethysts, aquamarines, fire<br />
opals, topaz, citrines, garnets and tourmalines by J.W. Currens, New<br />
York, for the 2009 AGTA Spectrum Awards 4. Pop crystal<br />
handbag by Shana London, London 5. Earrings in 18-karat gold<br />
with opal drops, tourmaline and peridot by Paula Crevoshay,<br />
Albuquerque, N.M. 6. Tricot bracelet in 18-karat gold with Tahitain<br />
pearls, emeralds and white diamonds by Utopia, Milan 7. Lucky<br />
Animals turtle ring in 18-karat white gold with opal, diamonds and<br />
colored stones by Mathon Paris, Paris 8. Baroque necklace in 22karat<br />
gold with pink tourmaline, aquamarine, peridot and golden beryl<br />
by Anabelle, Palm Desert, Calif. 9. Mulitcolor pendant in pink gold<br />
with diamonds and colored stones by Ninetto Terzano, Valenza,<br />
Italy 10. Jaipur necklace in yellow gold with prism-cut colored stones<br />
by Marco Bicego, Trissino, Italy.<br />
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11. Vine bracelet in 18-karat gold with tsavorites, amethysts, rubies,<br />
diamonds and moonstones by Paula Crevoshay, Albuquerque,<br />
N.M. 12. Platinum earrings with pink tourmalines, teal blue green<br />
tourmaline briolettes and diamonds by Ricardo Basta for<br />
PGI, Los Angeles 13. Colibrì Mosaic by Sicis, Milan<br />
14. Boulder opal and emerald ring in 18-karat gold by Jane<br />
Taylor, Amherst, Mass. 15. Cufflinks in 22-karat and 18-karat<br />
gold with bi-color watermelon tourmaline slices by Jack Bigio,<br />
Basser & Bigio LLC, New York, for the 2009 AGTA Spectrum Awards<br />
16. Pod bracelets in reclaimed silver with various semiprecious stones by<br />
Nina Basharova, New York 17. Dim Sum rings with lemon quartz and citrine on<br />
gold-plated silver with hand-knotted green jade silk by tête-à-tête limited, Bangkok<br />
18. Croco cuffs and ring in 18-karat gold with diamonds by Hellmuth on Rihanna at<br />
the Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Party, Los Angeles 19. Nymphéa ring in 18-karat gold with<br />
tsavorites, pink sapphires and diamonds by Van Cleef & Arpels, Paris.<br />
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Moonstruck<br />
Great whites abound in<br />
this season’s dreamy<br />
selection of jewels<br />
1. White Bakelite bangle with diamonds, rubies and pearl lions in 14karat<br />
gold and silver by Bochic, New York 2. Rose-cut diamond<br />
earrings and matching bracelet by Amrapali on Freida Pinto at the<br />
14th Annual VH1 Critics’ Choice Awards, Santa Monica, Calif.<br />
3. White agate and gold ring by Idalia.<strong>com</strong>, New York 4. Chain<br />
bracelet in 18-karat gold with pearls by Schofer, Pforzheim, Germany<br />
5. Flagship Collection platinum bracelet with rose gold fleur de lis set<br />
in white pearlescent enamel, accented with diamonds by Beaudry,<br />
Los Angeles 6. African Scent necklace in pink gold with warthog teeth<br />
and leopard pattern pavé-set brown, black and white diamonds by<br />
Fabio Salini, Rome 7. Chic Chic earrings in white gold with pearls<br />
and diamonds by Stefan Hafner, Valenza, Italy 8. Moonstone ring<br />
in platinum with diamonds by Stephen Russell for PGI, New York<br />
9. Plastic white handbag by Shana London, London.<br />
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Fade to Black<br />
Black is back with a vengeance,<br />
which begs the question:<br />
Did it ever leave?<br />
1. Sara pendant in 18-karat black gold with diamonds by Cresber, Córdoba, Spain 2. Platinum<br />
and diamond cuff bracelet from the 1940s and platinum bracelet from the 1930s, both by<br />
Fred Leighton, on Liv Tyler at the 2008 Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute<br />
Annual Gala, New York 3. Diamond and onyx ring in 18-karat gold by Davite & Delucchi,<br />
Valenza, Italy 4. Cuba Libre earrings in 18-karat gold with diamonds and black quartz by<br />
Carla Amorim, São Paulo, Brazil 5. Black Flowers tile by Viva, Sassuolo, Italy 6. Sandals<br />
by Gianvito Rossi, Milan 7. Juliet Flower ring in 18-karat white gold with black onyx and<br />
diamonds by Rhonda Faber Green, Los Angeles 8. Jacaranda Pod earrings in 18-karat<br />
gold with diamonds by Sarah Graham, San Francisco 9. Hematite and diamond cufflinks<br />
in white gold by Deakin & Francis, Birmingham, England 10. Pure Pyramid diamond<br />
bracelet in 18-karat white gold with diamonds and onyx by JJ Number 8 Jewelry,<br />
Orange County, Calif.<br />
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Stuck on Blue<br />
From topaz to turquoise,<br />
some stones are guaranteed<br />
to make a lasting impression<br />
1. Concerto bracelet in white gold with sapphires by Roberto Coin,<br />
Vicenza, Italy 2. Twinkle Twinkle Gem Drop earrings in 18-karat gold with<br />
aquamarine by Jane Taylor, Amherst, Mass. 3. Ring in 18-karat yellow<br />
gold with a chalcedony cabochon, turquoise cabochons and diamonds by<br />
Erica Courtney, Los Angeles, for the 2009 AGTA Spectrum Awards<br />
4. Byzantine turquoise ring in 24-karat gold by Doris Panos, New York<br />
5. Samarcanda bracelet in white gold with enamel, diamonds, blue<br />
sapphires and blue chalcedony by La Nouvelle Bague, Florence, Italy<br />
6. Chopard diamond bracelet and earrings on Kate Winslet at the<br />
SAG Awards, Hollywood, Calif. 7. Blue and white Korean or Chinese<br />
ceramic Dragon vase available through Vintage Views Consignment and<br />
Consulting at Vintage & Modern, Inc. (VandM), New York<br />
8. Angel handbag with blue and white Swarovski crystals by Shana<br />
London, London 9. Nuage de Palekh ring in 18-karat gold with<br />
diamonds and blue lacquer by Marchak, Paris 10. Double strand<br />
turquoise drop necklace by Nancey Chapman, Houston.<br />
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Agent Orange<br />
&<br />
Yellow Fever<br />
Let the sunshine in with<br />
a jewel in one of the<br />
year’s hot new hues<br />
1. Precious Bead flat-faceted lemon citrine necklace with 18-karat gold sculpted<br />
cable disks by David Yurman, New York 2. Champagne Bubbles earrings in 18karat<br />
yellow gold with 27.76 carats of natural rough diamonds and micro pavé<br />
diamond accents by Diamond in the Rough on Alicia Keys at the Vanity Fair<br />
Academy Awards Party, Los Angeles 3. Ring in 22-karat gold and sterling silver<br />
with orange sapphire and gold granulation leaves by Patricia Tschetter, Dallas<br />
4. Mid-century table lamps by Vintage and Modern Inc. (V&M), New York<br />
5. Undivided Holiness brooch in 18-karat gold, silver, copper and bronze with<br />
yellow and black treated diamonds by Yehuda Kassif, Tel Aviv 6. Sunburst<br />
brooch and pendant in 18-karat white and yellow gold with mandarin garnet and<br />
diamonds by Tamir, New York 7. Dreamcatcher earrings in 18-karat gold with<br />
citrine by Io Sì, Valenza, Italy 8. Harvest Angel butterfly pendant from Beyond<br />
Color collection in 18-karat gold with rose quartz, pink tourmaline, rhodolite garnet<br />
and moonstone by Paula Crevoshay, Albuquerque, N.M. 9. Marlena yellow<br />
handbag by Liz Lange for Essentials Brands, New York. 10. Ring in 18karat<br />
gold with cognac quartz and diamonds by Brüner, São Paulo, Brazil.<br />
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Rhapsody<br />
in Wood<br />
Jewelry fashioned from<br />
exotic woods is the<br />
epitome of eco-chic<br />
1. Lacquered Chinese cabinet by Vintage & Modern, Inc.<br />
(VandM), New York 2. Enlightened unique ebony cuff with Swarovski<br />
gems by Christine J. Brandt, New York 3. Necklace in 18-karat<br />
gold with wood and diamonds by Brüner, São Paulo 4. Wood necklace<br />
in 18-karat yellow gold and walnut wood by Tous, Barcelona<br />
5. Sunday in the Jungle Running Zebra bracelet in ebony wood and<br />
18-karat gold with micro mosaic natural color stones by Maya<br />
Jewels, New York 6. Sheaok wood earrings in rose gold with faceted<br />
salmon colored tourmaline by Scheffel Schmuck, Munich, Germany<br />
7. Antler armchair in the Continental style available through Nina<br />
Gris<strong>com</strong> at Vintage & Modern, Inc. (VandM), New York<br />
8. Amaranth wood ring in red gold with amethyst by Scheffel<br />
Schmuck, Munich, Germany 9. Sunday in the Jungle butterfly<br />
perfume pendant in 18-karat gold with a carved tiger shell butterfly and<br />
a purple heart wood bottle with ebony wood and diamonds by Maya<br />
Jewels, New York 10. Sunglasses in sapele pommele wood by<br />
iWood ecodesign, Louisville, Ky.<br />
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Still Life<br />
Whether they fly, crawl or<br />
jump, critters that glitter<br />
are whimsical works of art<br />
1. Adam & Eve gold aqua handbag by Shana London, London<br />
2. Chameleon brooch in 18-karat gold with colored stones by Palmiero,<br />
Valenza, Italy 3. Frogs in gold with brilliants and precious stones by Pieriz,<br />
Naples, Italy 4. Vintage platinum and 75-carat diamond cuff bracelet by<br />
Fred Leighton on Sarah Jessica Parker at the world premiere of her<br />
film “Sex and the City,” London 5. Frog brooch in 18-karat white and yellow<br />
gold with opals, moonstones and pink sapphires by Gregore Morin, Gregore<br />
Joailliers, Santa Barbara, Calif., for the 2009 AGTA Spectrum Awards<br />
6. Papillon brooch in black and white enamel on yellow gold by<br />
Commelin, Paris 7. Butterfly brooch in platinum with natural color<br />
diamonds by Amgad, New York 8. Dreaming in Color one-of-a-kind<br />
butterfly ring in 18-karat white gold with uncut rose colored diamonds and<br />
pavé diamonds by Michael M, Los Angeles 9. Brooch in white gold<br />
with diamonds and emeralds by Andreoli, Valenza, Italy 10. Tribal<br />
Energy pin in silver by Celegato Jewels, Vicenza, Italy.<br />
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SPECIAL REPORT<br />
ETHICAL JEWELRY<br />
34 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
Style and<br />
In the world of fine jewelry, doing good and looking<br />
>> Victoria Gomelsky<br />
Climate change is almost what the bomb was when I was a kid in<br />
the ’50s,” Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys New York,<br />
says when he walks onto the stage for the final presentation of<br />
the 10th annual New York Fashion Conference. This year’s theme?<br />
“Green: Sustainability, Significance and Style.”<br />
Launching into a hilarious anecdote about his youth in Great Britain,<br />
Doonan brings three days of panel discussions about weighty issues of<br />
ecological and social import to a spirited, if irreverent, close. The gathering<br />
has covered everything from the scourge of “dirty gold” to the<br />
future of green fashion, and while the messages have been meaningful,<br />
the energy in the room has, as with any extended event, gradually been<br />
sapped from the room.<br />
Doonan does his best to enliven the audience. In recalling his initial<br />
resistance to decorating Barneys’ windows with an earth-friendly green<br />
theme for the 2007 holiday season, he cuts right to the chase:<br />
“Let’s face it — it can be a bit earnest at times,” Doonan says, referring to<br />
the by-now obligatory need for <strong>com</strong>panies to tout their green credentials.<br />
“We added some style, humor and a bit of glamour in there,” he<br />
continues, describing his own cheeky approach to the theme: windows<br />
populated by elves clad in recycled Metro cards and a “Rudolph the<br />
Recycling Reindeer” display made entirely of recycled aluminum cans.<br />
“You don’t have to be earnest and super-crunchy. That’s the vibe I got<br />
from people on the street. They were grateful that we’d married those<br />
two concepts.”<br />
By poking fun at the clichés of the green movement while simultaneously<br />
honoring it, Doonan makes a strong case for luxury goods that are<br />
at once stylish and socially responsible.<br />
The high-end jewelry industry has had a similar awakening. Over the<br />
past three to five years, the selection of high-ticket jewelry described as<br />
either green, sustainable, ethical, fair trade, fair made, charitable, causebased<br />
or “conscient luxury” has increased exponentially. The degree of<br />
green chatter in the jewelry business, famous for its conservatism and<br />
insularity, is today so great that it’s be<strong>com</strong>e abundantly clear even the<br />
old-timers have embraced the zeitgeist.<br />
Civic style URTH brand jewelry, including the pieces on this page designed by Stephen<br />
Webster and the leaf pendants on the opposite page by Pippa Small, uses “ethical gold”<br />
sourced from <strong>com</strong>munities – including the one pictured at left in Tipuani, Bolivia – that are<br />
expected to meet the firm’s fundamental values or agree to conform to them. In return, they<br />
receive a portion of profits to improve their quality of life and mining practices. Ruff&Cut, a<br />
New York-based jeweler that uses diamonds mined in Sierra Leone, takes a similar approach,<br />
channeling its profits to local organizations such as the Muddy Lotus Primary School.<br />
Tipuani <strong>com</strong>munity photo provided by Urth Solutions
sensibility<br />
good don’t have to be mutually exclusive<br />
Muddy Lotus Primary School photo provided by Ruff&Cut<br />
But what does being “green” truly mean in a business that lacks a<br />
shared understanding of fair trade, not to mention an officially sanctioned<br />
third-party process to certify its products as such? One way to<br />
understand the movement is by looking at it as the industry’s collective<br />
effort to develop smarter, more efficient and sustainable practices to<br />
source and produce its goods. And one case to study, in particular, is that<br />
of Tiffany & Co., the iconic American retailer that has, in many respects,<br />
set the tone for how the luxury jewelry business addresses its <strong>com</strong>mitment<br />
to social and environmental responsibility.<br />
“I’m not about to tell you we’ve painted the blue box green, but sustainability<br />
is good business,” Michael Kowalski, Tiffany chairman and CEO,<br />
says at the outset of the Green conference. “We sell objects that matter,<br />
things that last: the very antithesis of excess. We owe it to our customers<br />
and to the earth itself.”<br />
The <strong>com</strong>pany’s initiation into the realm of corporate responsibility<br />
came in 1995, years before the movement came into vogue, when it<br />
opposed the development of the New World Gold Mine outside of<br />
Yellowstone National Park, a project Kowalski described as “a reputational<br />
disaster in waiting.”<br />
Then came the conflict diamonds crisis, a period of time in the late<br />
1990s when stones mined in African war zones were sold to finance<br />
ongoing conflicts. It was a high-profile publicity nightmare, not exclusive<br />
to Tiffany but damaging all the same. “We were unprepared,” Kowalski<br />
says. “However, to the industry’s credit, there was quick mobilization. We<br />
became strong and vocal advocates for the Kimberley Process, and the<br />
result has been an effective control system.”<br />
In 2001, Tiffany’s refusal to be implicated in other consumer confidence-threatening<br />
issues led it “to move beyond industrywide structure<br />
and take control of our own supply chain,” Kowalski says.<br />
Not only did the firm create its own diamond unit, Laurelton Diamonds,<br />
it also advised vendors that it would be scrutinizing their sourcing<br />
methods. By 2004, Tiffany had discontinued the sale of two precious<br />
resources: Burmese rubies, banned by the U.S. government because of<br />
human rights abuses in that country, and coral, whose conservation environmentalists<br />
say is critical to protecting the health of the oceans.<br />
Aided by the four-year-old Council for Responsible Jewellery<br />
Practices, a worldwide diamond and gold jewelry supply chain initiative<br />
of which Tiffany was a founding member, the <strong>com</strong>pany has also tackled<br />
the issue of “dirty gold,” a term for gold mined through practices that<br />
wreck the environment.<br />
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Photo provided by Ruff&Cut<br />
SPECIAL REPORT<br />
ETHICAL JEWELRY<br />
According to the nonprofit No Dirty Gold, founded in 2004 by human<br />
rights groups Oxfam America and Earthworks, the production of one<br />
gold ring generates up to 20 tons of waste, including toxic cyanide and<br />
mercury runoff. In the most egregious cases, gold mining also destroys<br />
landscapes and displaces <strong>com</strong>munities, impacting mostly indigenous<br />
peoples in countries such as Ghana, Indonesia and Peru.<br />
While a <strong>com</strong>pany the size of Tiffany is expected — and can afford — to<br />
be a model of corporate righteousness (by sourcing the majority of its<br />
gold and silver from a single U.S. mine that upholds its considerable<br />
standards), scores of smaller jewelers have turned to recycled or<br />
reclaimed gold to assure their customers that they, too, have<br />
confronted the industry’s inconvenient truths.<br />
“When I saw the No Dirty Gold Web site, I was shocked by<br />
how much devastation there is in metals mining,” says Toby<br />
Pomeroy, a boutique designer based in Oregon. “I thought, ‘I can’t do<br />
it, I can’t contribute to this kind of destruction.’”<br />
In 2005, Pomeroy asked Hoover & Strong, the largest metals refiner<br />
in the United States, if they would set aside their scrap gold and silver<br />
for him to recycle. Since that encounter, interest in the <strong>com</strong>pany’s<br />
reclaimed metals program has spawned a brand of its own: Harmony<br />
Metals and Gems, which consists of 100 percent recycled precious<br />
metals paired with conflict-free diamonds and fair trade gemstones.<br />
For Pomeroy, it all boils down to a single point: “How can we bring<br />
ethics to an industry that has operated without accountability?”<br />
Company benefits The Medallion bracelet by Tracy Matthews Design, Star earrings by<br />
Ruff&Cut, Boulder Cluster ring by Todd Reed and Large Lotus ring by Oria for Ruff&Cut all<br />
use diamonds provided by Ruff&Cut, as part of its effort to promote “socially responsible<br />
luxury.” Transparency and beneficiation, or the re-investment of profits in the <strong>com</strong>munities<br />
where the diamonds are sourced (such as the one the Sierra Leonean diggers in the photo<br />
above call home) is at the core of the <strong>com</strong>pany’s philosophy.<br />
36 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler
SPECIAL REPORT<br />
TOPIC<br />
The good news is that thanks to the jewelry trade’s newfound environmentalist<br />
zeal, that question no longer prompts an un<strong>com</strong>fortable silence.<br />
Not everyone, however, agrees on the best approach. Take Urth Solution,<br />
for example. The Beverly Hills, Calif.-based <strong>com</strong>pany’s URTH brand<br />
jewels, a chic selection of designer pieces made by the likes of Pippa<br />
Small and Stephen Webster, are made from gold mined by artisanal and<br />
small-scale miners in Bolivia and Madagascar. In exchange for their gold,<br />
Urth pledges to ensure “a fair price while providing much needed<br />
resources, skills, education and technology through programs funded by<br />
the sale of URTH products.”<br />
“We have an independent minerals and sustainability expert to<br />
develop a set of standards with a more attainable entry point based<br />
on the values of our <strong>com</strong>pany: dignity, peace, development, <strong>com</strong>munity,<br />
ecology, family, health and justice,” co-founder Meyghan Hill says.<br />
“So, for example, we will purchase from a <strong>com</strong>munity that mines using<br />
mercury if, through our reinvestment program funded by the profits of<br />
URTH jewelry, they will participate in a mercury management and<br />
reduction course.”<br />
Urth’s marketing materials, which describe the business as a “marriage<br />
of luxury and altruism,” reflect a sensibility that has only recently be<strong>com</strong>e<br />
if not quite <strong>com</strong>monplace then certainly not unique in the trade. Another<br />
example of the effort to help consumers effect change with their jewelry<br />
purchases <strong>com</strong>es by way of Ruff&Cut, a two-year-old jewelry <strong>com</strong>pany<br />
based in New York specializing in rough diamonds sourced from Sierra<br />
Leone, the country most ravaged by blood diamonds.<br />
“Our goal is to create an invisible cord that ties the land and the people<br />
who bear the stones to those who wear them with singular conscience<br />
— a spiritual cat’s cradle, if you like, of beauty & rawness, of source &<br />
provenance, and of purity & distinction, all draw-stringed together,” states<br />
the <strong>com</strong>pany’s core philosophy.<br />
To that end, explains founder and CEO Wade Watson, Ruff&Cut sells<br />
not only its own brand of jewelry featuring Sierra Leonean diamonds but<br />
also pieces designed by Todd Reed, Me&Ro and Tracy Matthews. On the<br />
Web site, concerned customers will find explicit remarks about where the<br />
materials have been sourced and how much money from their sale will<br />
go to nonprofit partners.<br />
Watson is operating on the conviction that even, or perhaps<br />
especially, in a down market, jewelry that promotes lofty ideals<br />
gives consumers an extra incentive to buy. Yet given the dismal<br />
realities of the marketplace, he and his fellow activist jewelers are<br />
equal parts sanguine and concerned about their prospects.<br />
“As a whole, I don’t really think the industry gets it yet,” Watson says.<br />
“In the end it will be driven by the consumer and their desire to make the<br />
world a better place.” ■<br />
FPO Caption Old The goldNavaratna, Oregon goldsmith or nine Toby Pomeroy had an epiphany in 2005, when he learned about<br />
gemstone, turtle brooch the No at Dirty left Gold pays campaign, homage to formed a a year prior to put an end to irresponsible gold mining<br />
traditional Hindu belief practices that the that world wreak rests havoc atop the on the environment and devastate <strong>com</strong>munities. Consequently,<br />
back of an elephant which Pomeroy stands began atop a using turtle. what The nine he calls “eco-gold,” referring to metal that’s been recycled or<br />
gems that decorate the shell reclaimed, are fashioned as in in this an pendant astrologi- and cuff bracelet.<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler l Basel l Basel 2009 2009 l 37<br />
l 5
SPECIAL REPORT<br />
ETHICAL JEWELRY<br />
Cause and effect<br />
These four jewelers have made social responsibility a cornerstone of their work<br />
Blue streak Erica Courtney’s 18-karat<br />
gold, diamond and tanzanite earrings<br />
and Tanzanite Aurora necklace with pink<br />
sapphires were the product of her partnership<br />
with the Tanzanite Foundation.<br />
Lori Bonn<br />
Erica Courtney<br />
One of the many things that struck designer Erica<br />
Courtney on her trip to Tanzania last summer was the<br />
local Maasai tradition of wearing red and blue together.<br />
In the bright sunlight, they looked violet, much like the color<br />
of tanzanite, the gemstone discovered there in 1967.<br />
“Of course they have worn these colors long before tanzanite<br />
was discovered, but it’s as if the Maasai were telling us that the<br />
tanzanite was in the earth by the way they dress,” Courtney says. “I thought that was<br />
very poetic in a way, since the tanzanite find has given them so much opportunity:<br />
money, schools, roads, jobs, tourists buying their wares.”<br />
Courtney saw those opportunities first-hand thanks to her collaboration with the<br />
Tanzanite Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and promotion<br />
of tanzanite. Upon her return to Los Angeles in September, Courtney arranged for 10<br />
percent of the proceeds from the month’s sales at her Robertson Boulevard retail store<br />
to go to the Community Uplift Program, set up by the foundation to help sustain medical<br />
clinics, <strong>com</strong>munity centers and educational programs in the area where tanzanite is mined.<br />
“I personally have plans on financially helping two schools and visiting every year to<br />
spend time with them,” Courtney says. “My heart has been absolutely stolen!” ■<br />
A few years ago, jewelry designer Lori Bonn attended a luncheon in<br />
San Francisco to raise money for the indigenous people living in the<br />
Amazon rainforest. At the end of the fundraiser, the hostess made<br />
an announcement: The entire event, she said, had been staged<br />
with a net-zero impact on the planet, thanks to a clever approach to carbon offsetting.<br />
“It was an epiphany for me because, until then, I couldn’t find anything green that<br />
wasn’t also ‘granola,’” Bonn said, recalling the gathering as ultra-sophisticated, in stark<br />
contrast to the “crunchy” aesthetic she had previously associated with green activism. “It<br />
didn’t occur to me that you could be stylish and socially responsible at the same time.”<br />
Although the Oakland, Calif.-based designer had always endeavored to ensure her<br />
jewelry, most of it produced in Bali, was manufactured under progressive<br />
standards, the luncheon proved to be a turning point. She now<br />
promotes her collections, including the Chrysalis line of recycled silver<br />
and speckled chalcedony jewels, under the “Clear Conscience” label,<br />
an umbrella term meant to convey that her jewels “tread lightly on the<br />
planet while respecting every person along the supply chain.” ■<br />
38 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
All clear Lori Bonn’s Chrysalis collection,<br />
including this Kaleidoscope cuff<br />
bracelet with smoky quartz, citrine and<br />
white quartz and Round Dot ring with<br />
polka dot chalcedony, is designed to be<br />
worn with a “clear conscience.”
Jaipur photos by Victoria Gomelsky<br />
>><br />
Monique Péan<br />
The kings<br />
FPO deck here, the artisans of Gem Palace<br />
have created<br />
Todd Reed<br />
Motorized rickshaws, mopeds, hand-drawn carts and cows<br />
dominate the relentless traffic on Jaipur’s dusty M.I. Road,<br />
except for the block that houses the esteemed Gem Palace,<br />
where tour buses are a conspicuous and everyday presence.<br />
Todd The Reed retail began store—a experimenting Jaipur institution with raw since diamonds 1852, in when the early the<br />
1990s, maharaja long who before ruled the the idea city, of “socially capital of responsible India’s Rajasthan jewelry” entered province,<br />
the appointed trade’s the lexicon. Kasliwal Fast family forward crown 15 years, jewelers—conjures and not only have images rawof<br />
diamonds such fabulousness be<strong>com</strong>e among Reed’s visitors much-admired that it is now (and a regular much-mimicked) stop on the<br />
trademark, tourist circuit, the like industry the pink-honey<strong>com</strong>bed has finally <strong>com</strong>e Palace around of to the Winds idea of and<br />
sourcing hilltop Amber responsibly. Fort. Credit That, goes however, to eighth-generation doesn’t mean Munnu the Boulder, Kasliwal,<br />
Colo.-based the creative designer genius behind is doing Gem things Palace’s differently. treasure trove, and his<br />
brothers, “I always Sudhir called and it ‘right Sanjay, relationship,’ who manage which the means retail and doing wholesale things for ends the of right the reasons business<br />
along regardless with their of the cousins, out<strong>com</strong>e,” Ajay Reed and Pappu says. “It’s Kasliwal. always Even something the ninth my generation customers is cared represented,<br />
about, my in the style form — and of Munnu’s I don’t mean son, my Siddharth, aesthetic who style recently but my social joined style, the business. my civic style.” Under<br />
the It family’s helps that careful Reed stewardship, has worked Gem with Palace a single earns diamond as much supplier respect for 12 from years, contemporary a sixth-<br />
jewel-lovers generation family as it did business under in the New maharajas’ York that patronage. buys rough from eco-friendly locations and<br />
can “It’s trace the mother its sources. lode,” Last confirms year, he a partnered well-groomed with Ruff&Cut, American the woman, New cooing York <strong>com</strong>pany over a pair thatof<br />
carnelian builds designer earrings jewelry and matching collections ring around on a diamonds sunny December mined in Sierra afternoon. Leone, She’s channeling a media<br />
buyer a portion from of Maryland profits to on <strong>com</strong>munity a two-week organizations holiday with based her husband there. It’s in a far Rajasthan. cry from A Reed’s visit to<br />
Gem early days, Palace when and the hilltop language Amber to define Fort. these Credit ideas goes didn’t to exist, eighth-generation but, as they say, Munnu better<br />
late than never. “Maybe this is the time in jewelry when change happens,” he says. ■<br />
FPO Caption Jaipur is called the “Pink City” because of the pink stucco walls that surround its carefully<br />
Ruff planned loveold Todd quarter, Reed built prefers by ruler raw Jai diamonds Singh in because 1727. The they Hawa have Mahal, a less processed or Palace of aesthetic the Winds, that’s top more left,<br />
is in one line of with its enduring his eco-friendly icons. Lying lifestyle. just This outside necklace the old is made city, on with traffic-choked 18-karat recycled M.I. Road, gold Gem and Palace silver; raw is a<br />
retail diamond store-cum-tourist cubes, macles, magnet, octahedrons; regularly natural besieged color by rose-cut jewelry diamonds; lovers who and have white <strong>com</strong>e rose-cut to see diamonds, designer FPO while<br />
the cuff bracelet features 18-karat yellow gold, silver, raw diamond cubes and colored brilliants.<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler l Basel<br />
2009 l 3<br />
SPECIAL REPORT<br />
TOPIC<br />
When her younger sister passed away unexpectedly in 2005,<br />
Monique Péan, then a banker with Goldman Sachs, turned to jewelry<br />
as a form of therapy. Today, the <strong>com</strong>pany she founded in her sister’s<br />
memory is at the forefront of a growing movement to help<br />
consumers effect change with their purchases.<br />
“The whole idea behind my collection was to <strong>com</strong>bine my love for art, business and<br />
philanthropy,” Péan says. “My father worked in development growing up, so I had the privilege<br />
of traveling to over 40 countries. And I felt indigenous art and culture is so rich, but<br />
it had never been at the forefront of the luxury market.”<br />
The fall 2007 Bering collection, featuring smooth shards of fossilized walrus, caribou<br />
and wooly mammoth ivory sourced from the Alaskan Inupiaq and Yup’ik tribes living in<br />
the Arctic Circle and set in 100 percent recycled gold, was the product of her freshman<br />
effort. Ten percent of proceeds are directed to the Alaska House, a gallery in Fairbanks<br />
dedicated to preserving and promoting Alaska native arts.<br />
Péan’s second collection, called Charity Water after the New York nonprofit of the<br />
same name, features chunky stones designed to evoke clean or contaminated drinking<br />
water, thereby drawing attention to the 1.1 billion people who live without access to safe<br />
drinking water. Each sale provides clean drinking water to 10 people for 20 years. ■<br />
Sure things Every element in Monique Péan’s collection has been ethically sourced. From top, this hemimorphite<br />
and recycled yellow gold necklace includes 4 carats of “conflict- and devastation-free diamonds”<br />
on a sustainably gathered stingray cord while the Mzibia agate necklace features fossilized woolly mammoth<br />
ivory set in 18-karat recycled yellow gold with a conflict- and devastation-free diamond clasp.
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TASTEMAKERS<br />
NICOLE MACK<strong>IN</strong>LAY HAHN<br />
The poetry behind<br />
the purchase<br />
Using her lyrical style of video art, Nicole Mackinlay<br />
Hahn puts an original spin on conscious consumerism<br />
Imagine picking up an Ethiopian silk purse at the trendiest luxury boutique<br />
in town and focusing not on the purse but on a 30-second video showing<br />
the Malagasy man who helped make its raw silk, as he chases his friend<br />
around their village, waving a silkworm on a stick.<br />
“I want people to be more emotionally attached to where their things<br />
<strong>com</strong>e from,” says Nicole Mackinlay Hahn, a video artist whose Reap What<br />
You Sew project goes a long way in establishing such a connection.<br />
Using documentary-style footage shot in Africa and then distilled into an<br />
interactive video piece called Mirror/Africa (which includes the silkworm clip<br />
described above), Reap What You Sew offers a fascinating glimpse into<br />
the supply chain that connects African <strong>com</strong>munities to the American<br />
consumers who buy the fashions they produce.<br />
Mackinlay Hahn, an ac<strong>com</strong>plished video artist,<br />
launched the project in 2005, when the Edun<br />
clothing <strong>com</strong>pany took her to Lesotho to shoot<br />
footage they hoped to use in “an advocacy video<br />
to tell their brand story.”<br />
“It was my weird initiation into fashion,” Mackinlay<br />
Hahn recalls. “I could not believe how many people<br />
touched one garment of clothing.”<br />
The trip marked the beginning of her love affair<br />
with the continent. She has since returned five<br />
times. On those trips, she traced more designer<br />
goods back through the supply chain — including<br />
fashion from Duro Olowu, beauty products<br />
from Philip B and jewelry by Devon Paige<br />
McCleary — making sure that at least some of<br />
their <strong>com</strong>ponents were sourced or produced<br />
in Africa.<br />
Mackinlay Hahn then created hundreds of<br />
30-second video clips that play through an interactive and transparent<br />
domelike sculpture that she installed as a temporary public art project at<br />
Barneys New York in May 2008 and hopes to bring to additional retail<br />
venues this year. When consumers pick up one of the items she tracked, a<br />
special bamboo tag prompts them to scan it at the nearby installation.<br />
Depending on where the item originated or was produced, they see clips of<br />
Madagascar, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Uganda, Tunisia, Ghana or South Africa.<br />
Mirror images Nicole Mackinlay Hahn’s crystal ball-like sculpture plays clips from Mirror/<br />
Africa, the video footage that lies at the heart of her ambitious Reap What You Sew project.<br />
It’s an interactive exploration of the supply chain linking <strong>com</strong>munities in Africa, such as the<br />
one pictured at right, to the American consumers who buy the goods they produce.<br />
42 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
Mackinlay Hahn says she was driven to<br />
create the project — and the feature-length<br />
documentary film it inspired, due to premiere<br />
in 2010 — after recognizing she could harness<br />
the Web’s interactive and touch-screen technology<br />
to convey information “way beyond<br />
[what could be contained in] the tag.”<br />
She stresses that her work isn’t intended<br />
to preach but to delight, inspire and celebrate.<br />
More poetic than information-driven,<br />
the videos suggest that “you still need entertainment<br />
value in order to get an emotional<br />
reaction in a transactional environment.”<br />
One sign that she has succeeded appears<br />
in a clip that could end up in the documentary,<br />
which Mackinlay Hahn has structured around<br />
the experiences of consumers using the<br />
installation. A middle-aged Barneys shopper<br />
is shown watching one of the videos. “I like to<br />
know that my consumerism isn’t hurting<br />
someone else,” says the woman, making Reap<br />
What You Sew’s point, exactly. ■
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E-mail: alpilex@pandora.be
TASTEMAKERS<br />
TANIA MACHADO<br />
44 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
Craft master<br />
Under Tania Machado’s stewardship, Brazilian artisans<br />
are bringing their eco-friendly designs to the world<br />
Jewelers may know Minas Gerais as the Brazilian state where the bulk<br />
of the country’s precious stones are mined (the name, in fact, translates<br />
to “General Mines”) but the region is also rich with talented artisans who<br />
have taken advantage of local materials to produce a range of arts and<br />
crafts distinguished by their respect for the earth.<br />
In 2001, Tania Machado recognized the need to promote these crafts —<br />
mostly home décor items made from seeds, ceramic, glass, fiber, wood,<br />
paper, soapstone and ironwork — to an international audience, thereby<br />
generating in<strong>com</strong>e for poor families while encouraging recycling and environmentalism.<br />
Thus, the EcoArts program was born.<br />
As an offshoot of a Brazilian nonprofit called Instituto Centro CAPE,<br />
which helps prepare artisans to sell their work abroad, EcoArts represents<br />
a collective of eight artisans, whose products are sold bearing a seal — IQS,<br />
or Sustainable Quality Institute — guaranteeing they are socially fair,<br />
ecologically correct and economically viable.<br />
“Today, the whole world is worried about the environment, and recycling<br />
is well-respected by everyone,” says Machado, who is based in<br />
Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais. “But in the case that the<br />
improvement of the economic situation of poor people is attached to the<br />
product’s good price, it’s even better.”<br />
Among the artisans in the EcoArts stable is Maria Diniz. She uses coffee<br />
husks and grounds, rice husks and cardboard boxes to make decorative<br />
bowls. Leonardo Bueno makes furniture and household items by recycling<br />
the wood from shipping pallets, while Cristina Duarte recycles raw glass to<br />
fashion unique works of glass art.<br />
In 2007, the program to which they belong exported more than $2 million<br />
of artistic handicrafts to the United States. (A similar program exists in<br />
Europe and is managed by a Lisbon-based <strong>com</strong>pany, Vitória Regia.)<br />
The Brazilian government has been instrumental in nurturing EcoArts,<br />
whose existence is made possible through a collaboration between several<br />
organizations, including APEX, Brazil’s trade and investment promotion<br />
agency, and the Central Mão de Minas, a nonprofit aimed at helping artisans<br />
navigate the <strong>com</strong>plicated world of exporting. Despite the economic<br />
downturn, Machado is optimistic that EcoArts will continue to thrive.<br />
“We believe we have enormous growing potential,” she says. “There are 8.5<br />
million artisans in Brazil. In the state of Minas Gerais there are 500,000, and<br />
only about 300 are currently exporting products to the USA. But in order to<br />
proceed we must continue looking for buyers. It’s necessary to adapt products,<br />
improve some of the technological processes for customs and trade<br />
barriers, and continue showing the creative work of the Brazilian people.” ■<br />
Reduce, reuse, recycle The EcoArts collective promotes the work of Brazilian artisans who<br />
work with different recycled materials. Márcio Ferreira, for example, uses scrap iron to make his<br />
signature ants, while other artists work with glass, shown here in a delicate petal-like sculpture,<br />
or banana or coconut fibers, used to make decorative bowls.
The girl from Paris<br />
In 2005, Liliane Jossua set a precedent by opening the<br />
first multibrand retail shop on tony Avenue Montaigne<br />
Avenue Montaigne, in the 8th arrondisement of Paris, is arguably the<br />
world’s most illustrious shopping street. A mecca for high-fashion<br />
devotees, it’s lined with grand facades bearing the names of prestige<br />
brands with a global following: Valentino, Gucci, Chanel and Dior, to<br />
name but a few.<br />
So sought after are the goods on Avenue Montaigne that in December,<br />
thieves stole diamond necklaces, gem-studded rings and luxury watches<br />
worth $108 million from the Harry Winston salon in one of the most ambitious<br />
— and successful — heists in history.<br />
Yet the street’s monobrand domination can feel a bit monotonous. This<br />
explains why the ultra-chic Montaigne Market, the street’s first multibrand<br />
emporium, has a distinct edge.<br />
Opened in 2005, the store boasts a high-low mix of designer merchandise<br />
that calls to mind the well-edited closet of a very stylish friend. This<br />
season’s new acquisitions include Elizabeth & James, the sophomore<br />
collection from Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen; retro-fabulous designs from<br />
Halston, the icon of 70s style; and the moody, phantasmagorical jewels of<br />
Fendi scion Delfina Delettrez.<br />
But these are merely the tip of the iceberg; co-founder Liliane Jossua has<br />
excellent and varied taste, which <strong>com</strong>es through in the store’s assorted<br />
collection of jewelry. Besides Delettrez, Aurélie Bidermann, Repossi, Garrard,<br />
and John Isaac, a vintage Rolex dealer, are among the collections on display.<br />
Fashion formula Liliane Jossua has perfected a buying strategy for Montaigne Market, the<br />
first multibrand boutique to open on Paris’s grand shopping street. Accessories, in the form of<br />
colorful Lanvin handbags, outrageous Brian Atwood platforms and très interesting jewels from<br />
TASTEMAKERS<br />
LILIANE JOSSUA<br />
A Parisian who studied fashion at Esmod in<br />
Paris, Jossua moved to Saint Barth with her<br />
family 16 years ago. It was there that she cut<br />
her teeth at retail with her first store, Calypso.<br />
“When my oldest daughter was 10 we<br />
decided to go back home to Paris and then<br />
it was time to open something here,” she<br />
recalls. “We thought Avenue Montaigne was<br />
an amazing place for its history and we<br />
could find there the same customer I was<br />
used to working with in Saint Barth.”<br />
Montaigne Market’s white wall, lacquer,<br />
and leather interior, designed by architect<br />
Johannes Zingerle, is the perfect showcase<br />
for Jossua’s myriad finds. Supported by her<br />
business partner, Alain Celhay, she makes<br />
all the buying decisions, gravitating to<br />
designers such as Alaia, Givenchy,<br />
Alexander McQueen and Balmain. Readyto-wear<br />
constitutes about 60 percent of the<br />
store’s inventory; the rest is made up with<br />
accessories, from Lanvin handbags to<br />
Gianvito Rossi heels.<br />
“When you buy one of those it’s a clever<br />
choice,” she says. “You will keep the clothes<br />
and wear them again next season mixed<br />
with new ones. Time is not anymore to<br />
spend for eccentric and expensive things<br />
you’ll wear once.” ■<br />
the likes of Fendi scion Delfina Delettrez, make up 40 percent of the store’s merchandise. Photo provided by Montaigne Market<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler l Basel 2009 l 45
DESIGNER ROUNDUP<br />
SHAHPOUR JAHAN<br />
Royal engagements<br />
Pleasing princesses is jeweler Shahpour Jahan’s specialty<br />
Not long ago, Shahpour Jahan, a jeweler based in<br />
Geneva, took an order from a young Saudi princess<br />
who wanted a necklace “she could wear every day.”<br />
A diamond-laden jewel anchored by a 9.5-carat fancy pink<br />
pear-shaped stone is what he created for her.<br />
With clientele drawn from the royal families of the Persian<br />
Gulf, the Jahan family business, a seventh-generation affair<br />
that dates back to Tehran in the 1800s, has a different relationship<br />
with its customers than do most jewelers.<br />
“A person has a doctor, a lawyer, and we consider ourselves<br />
an advisor,” Shahpour, the <strong>com</strong>pany’s creative director, says.<br />
“We give them a service. We take their old jewelry that has<br />
no value, and we update it.”<br />
When there is a major wedding, it’s not just the bride who<br />
is expected to shine. Mothers and grandmothers are also<br />
draped in jewels and will often bring their old pieces into<br />
one of the <strong>com</strong>pany’s three boutiques in Geneva, Riyadh or<br />
Jeddah to get a fresh re-working. A Jahan design album<br />
with a collection of dull photos documenting these quintessentially<br />
1980s jewels (so passé looking they might as well<br />
be in neon) is a testament to this. Shahpour then re-imagines<br />
the pieces, sometimes as stylish scarf necklaces or as<br />
long cascades of stones.<br />
The emphasis, it’s clear, is on the latter. “The real value to<br />
us as jewelers is in the stones,” Shahpour says. “Like land,<br />
antiques, paintings, the point is you have jewelry that will look<br />
good years from now. It’s not supposed to be like fashion.”<br />
From a floral collar of sapphire and diamond roses to the<br />
suite of almond-sized Colombian emeralds about to be set<br />
into a diamond and white gold parure, the classic jewels<br />
46 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
that are Jahan’s bread and butter begin at 200,000 Swiss<br />
francs (about $175,000 at current exchange rates) and top<br />
out around 2 million Swiss francs.<br />
Jahan’s singular <strong>com</strong>mitment to providing a traditional,<br />
albeit modernized, selection of jewels to customers who<br />
have patronized the store for decades has placed it in a<br />
good position to ride out the current economic downturn.<br />
Based in Geneva since 1980, when Shahpour’s father began<br />
using Swiss workshops to manufacture the jewelry he sold<br />
in Iran, the <strong>com</strong>pany has a reputation for creating sumptuous<br />
parures of the highest quality.<br />
“Of course you feel it,” Shahpour says of the credit crunch.<br />
“But high-level pieces like that always keep their value. If<br />
people are getting married, we are good.”<br />
In order to ac<strong>com</strong>modate the gift-buying proliclivities of<br />
clients who hail from the Gulf region, the <strong>com</strong>pany also<br />
stocks a reasonably priced selection of glam watches and<br />
perfumes, all on display in the Geneva boutique.<br />
Situated in a prime location on the city’s famed Rue du<br />
Rhône, the store opened in 1995 and was expanded and<br />
renovated two years ago into a stylish black-and-white<br />
showroom of 200 square meters. Neighbors include practically<br />
every major luxury name in the watch and jewelry<br />
business, but that doesn’t faze Shahpour.<br />
“We like that we have <strong>com</strong>petitors,” he says. “When you<br />
go into a garden, you don’t just want to see roses.” ■<br />
Bridal boom Shahpour Jahan, the seventh generation of the Jahan<br />
family business, has what many would consider the perfect plan to ride<br />
out this year’s economic turbulence: If the royal familes of the Persian Gulf<br />
who make up his clientele continue to get married, “we are good,” he says.
Mad about hue<br />
Elke Berr evolved as a designer when<br />
she succumbed to her love of color<br />
Trained as a gemologist nearly two<br />
decades ago, Elke Berr began<br />
her designing career making<br />
tried-and-true styles featuring precious<br />
stones, such as rubies, sapphires and<br />
emeralds, in classic yet predictable<br />
settings. “The value was given by the<br />
stone itself, while the design was not<br />
the central interest of the jewel,” she<br />
says. Fast-forward 20 years, and Berr’s work is anything<br />
but conventional. It includes a slew of precious and<br />
semiprecious pieces in special cuts like the<br />
bubble-cut, mirror-cut, wave-cut and ice-cube cut.<br />
Read on to discover her creative turning point.<br />
Who: Elke Fechner-Berr, Elke Berr Creations,<br />
Genève Age: 44 Home base: Geneva, Switzerland<br />
What: Feminine, trendy jewelry with colored<br />
gemstones in 18-karat gold Where to buy: Best<br />
The namesake<br />
If you believe in omens, former banker<br />
Manju Jasty is living her destiny<br />
Born in the Indian state<br />
of Andhra Pradesh and<br />
raised in the suburbs of<br />
New York City, designer Manju<br />
Jasty spent her childhood summers<br />
touring Indian holy sites such as<br />
Tirupati, where a famous golden idol<br />
enchanted her. After college, she<br />
pursued investment banking, until she<br />
could no longer deny her fascination with gems and jewels,<br />
nor, perhaps, her destiny: Manju’s first name is derived from<br />
the Sanskrit word for “jewel box.”<br />
Who: Manju Jasty Age: 33 Home base: New York City<br />
What: Manju Jasty Fine Jewels Where to buy: Barneys<br />
New York or by appointment at www.manjujasty.<strong>com</strong><br />
Philosophy: Wearing fine jewelry should be a physical<br />
jewelry shops in<br />
Switzerland, Paris,<br />
Monaco, Munich, Milan,<br />
Kiev, Dubai, Doha and Jeddah<br />
Philosophy: A passion for gems, life and women who know<br />
what they want. My jewelry should be their favorite piece<br />
and make them look different, happy and passionate about<br />
life, at reasonable prices. Inspiration: Unusual stones and Girard<br />
cuts, and traveling. I capture the colors, trends and people Sarah<br />
in different countries. Gemstone preferences: Stones with by<br />
effects, like star rubies, moonstones, black star diopside and<br />
quartz in all colors, cut in unusual shapes. Design epiphany:<br />
At a certain point, coinciding with my son Raphaël’s birth<br />
photographed<br />
seven years ago, I felt a drive to create jewelry for everyday<br />
ring<br />
wear, for myself and for a passionate, trendy woman, and I<br />
started designing with semiprecious stones and pearls.<br />
Dream clients: The ones who take the risk to promote Lepoultier;<br />
a new name and stand behind me Breakthrough<br />
Rudy<br />
moment: One year ago, I started to sell in Ukraine by<br />
and the Middle East Training: I was a gemologist<br />
and gemstone dealer before launching my own<br />
collections. Retail price range: $800–$50,000 ■<br />
photographed<br />
A heart for stones Seven years ago, gemologist Elke Berr began<br />
creating designer pieces like this necklace strung with lemon quartz<br />
drops and ring featuring a wave-cut smoky quartz. Necklace<br />
pleasure as well as a source of joy. Inspiration: All things<br />
beautiful, from the shapes of the Taj Mahal to the shape of a<br />
calla lily. Gemstone preferences: Diamonds: a simple<br />
and elegant statement, but a statement nonetheless.<br />
Design epiphany: When my mom gave me permission<br />
to deconstruct a necklace and earrings I had<br />
inherited and I realized I could refashion it into something<br />
I would use and thoroughly enjoy wearing.<br />
Dream clients: Julianne Moore and<br />
Charlize Theron Breakthrough<br />
moment: Meeting Julie Gilhart<br />
(fashion director of Barneys) the<br />
day I resigned from banking. I ran<br />
into her a few months later, at which<br />
point she admired my earrings (of my own<br />
design) and suggested I schedule an appointment<br />
with her office. Training: Design is self-taught;<br />
construction I learned by working with<br />
artisans in India. Retail price range:<br />
$4,000–$150,000 ■<br />
Homage to India Manju Jasty’s Indian heritage<br />
is reflected in these bell-shaped earrings<br />
and carved emerald necklace.<br />
DESIGNER ROUNDUP<br />
ELKE BERR AND MANJU JASTY
MARKETPLACE<br />
VICENZA<br />
Brave new world<br />
At the First fair in Vicenza, the Italians were split on whether the secret<br />
to their long-term success lies in promoting classic jewelry or fashion<br />
Veterans of the international trade fair circuit know<br />
there are two kinds of exhibitors at the First show,<br />
held every January, in Vicenza: Those who produce<br />
eminently chic, if fleeting, fashion jewelry and those for<br />
whom “made in Italy” is a battle cry for pieces that stand the<br />
test of time.<br />
As business philosophies, they couldn’t be more different,<br />
yet for the 1,700 <strong>com</strong>panies that showcased their newest<br />
merchandise at the goldsmith fair in mid-January, these two<br />
approaches represent flip sides of the same Italian coin.<br />
The first approach is, arguably, the one that defines Italian<br />
merchandise in the greater context of the global jewelry<br />
scene, and the First fair is, naturally, where the trendiest of<br />
such trendy merchandise makes its debut. This year, the<br />
pieces most in vogue included those featuring black and<br />
white gemstones in matte and polished forms, ornate bib<br />
necklaces best suited to women with statuesque features<br />
(not to mention long necks), variations on the traditional<br />
diamond tennis bracelet using a mix of semiprecious<br />
stones and varying shapes, and a heavy dose of jewels<br />
evoking feathers, animals and leaves.<br />
“Our industry is getting closer to the models and rhythms<br />
of fashion and is observing that trends of fashion and style<br />
merge with trends in our own sector,” Domenico Girardi, the<br />
48 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
fair’s new general director, said at a press conference. “It<br />
will be necessary to innovate more quickly, to speed up, and<br />
the business models will be different.”<br />
Girardi’s fellow organizers are, it seems, in full agreement.<br />
Witness the show’s new Glam Room, unveiled at the Choice<br />
event in September and enhanced for the 2009 gathering.<br />
The pavilion of 26 exhibitors is dedicated to jewels that<br />
<strong>com</strong>bine precious materials with alternative elements, such<br />
as wood, glass, ceramic, ebony, Perspex and steel.<br />
By 2010, noted Girardi, the Glam Room “will be<strong>com</strong>e an<br />
independent pavilion where we celebrate the conjugation<br />
between fashion and jewelry.”<br />
Yet the notion of jewelry as accessory is at odds with the<br />
way many of Vicenza’s finest exhibitors see their work.<br />
In discussing his <strong>com</strong>pany’s plans for Baselworld, for<br />
example, Umberto Picchiotti, of the Valenza-based manufacturer,<br />
said: “We will concentrate on more valuable pieces<br />
and won’t do as much fashion or design collections. We<br />
never did.”<br />
Likewise, Isaac Levy, founder of Yvel, the Israeli pearl<br />
jewelry manufacturer, said he would focus his merchandise<br />
Glam slam The entrance to the Vicenza fair’s new Glam Room, which<br />
General Director Domenico Girardi describes as “an independent pavilion<br />
where we celebrate the conjugation between fashion and jewelry.”<br />
Photo by LaPresse provided by Vicenza Fiera
on higher-ticket items that required<br />
the same amount of effort to sell as<br />
lower priced goods. He also noted<br />
that his global marketing strategy<br />
hinged on finding “pockets of wealth”<br />
rather than conquering entirely<br />
new markets — a reflection of how<br />
thoroughly globalized our world has<br />
be<strong>com</strong>e: affluent consumers are invariably<br />
jet-setters, meaning their wealth<br />
is as mobile as their high-tech phones.<br />
“You cannot target a country today,”<br />
Levy said. “You have to focus on a group<br />
of people. For example, we don’t sell in<br />
Belgium, but we sold to a group of Belgians.<br />
We have a couple of wealthy people in<br />
Kuwait and Dubai. It’s about targeting the<br />
right customer.”<br />
At the First fair, however, it was clear the<br />
Italians were struggling to define, or even<br />
recognize, who that might be.<br />
“We’re still trying to understand what to do,”<br />
said a woman at the Andreoli booth. “I think<br />
everybody’s in crisis. We haven’t seen any<br />
Americans. The first day was noticeably quiet,<br />
and it’s supposed to be the strongest.”<br />
Export statistics tell an equally disheartening<br />
story. According to figures released by Italy’s<br />
National Statistics Institute, the value of<br />
jewelry and gold exports for the first three<br />
quarters of 2008 fell by 5.54 percent<br />
<strong>com</strong>pared to the same period in 2007. “The<br />
data is linked to the strongly negative<br />
performance of the month of August<br />
(-71%), but partially balanced by<br />
the good performance registered<br />
in the month of September,”<br />
according to the Institute’s statement.<br />
One of the report’s bright spots<br />
affirmed that the United Arab<br />
Emirates is now Italy’s chief export market,<br />
with a 16.4 percent share representing a<br />
14.56 percent increase from 2007 to 2008<br />
— numbers that squared<br />
perfectly with sentiment on the<br />
show floor.<br />
“Abu Dhabi,” Picchiotti said,<br />
referring to the capital of the UAE, “seems<br />
to be the next hot place.” ■<br />
New Italian style<br />
While black was ubiquitous<br />
in Vicenza this year, the<br />
selection wasn’t as somber<br />
as you might think.<br />
First things first Clockwise from top: Roberta<br />
Porrati’s Ibiza ring with black diamonds and pearls;<br />
Marco Bicego’s resplendent Jaipur bib necklace;<br />
Palmiero’s graceful green Feather ring; Paolo<br />
Piovan’s seductive snake necklace; Picchiotti’s<br />
white diamonds and buff-top baguette sapphires<br />
feather brooch; and Picchiotti’s classic emerald<br />
earrings reflect the diversity of designs found at<br />
the First fair in Vicenza. The big question? Should<br />
Italian jewelers focus on fashion jewelry, Italy’s<br />
traditional strong suit, or timeless designs that<br />
transcend fashion to ensure their success during<br />
what promises to be a challenging year?<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler l Basel 2009 l 49
I N F L U E N C E S<br />
50 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
<strong>com</strong>petitions<br />
Winning brew<br />
A quirky contest inspires designers to re-imagine an<br />
unglamorous deli cup as a coveted piece of jewelry<br />
New York City has no shortage of icons. There’s the Statue of Liberty, of<br />
course, and the yellow taxicab, the Empire State Building and Times<br />
Square. One symbol that rarely gets its due, however, is the blue-andwhite<br />
Greek paper coffee cup — the one emblazoned with the words<br />
“We Are Happy to Serve You” — used by diners and coffee vendors<br />
across the five boroughs.<br />
A number of enterprising designers who exhibit at the Couture show<br />
have done much to change that. In the NY Couture Jewelry Designer<br />
Challenge, held earlier this year at the JA New York show, they were<br />
asked to transform the instantly recognizable cup into a unique piece<br />
of wearable jewelry. They responded with a wealth of unconventional<br />
styles that were voted on by the Couture <strong>com</strong>munity and displayed at<br />
the show, thereby elevating an unglamorous deli cup to its rightful place<br />
among the Big Apple’s more celebrated trademarks.<br />
Chad Allison designed the winning piece, a diamond and sapphire<br />
pendant incorporating the cup’s distinctive Greek border motif into a<br />
subtle tribute to a vintage only-in-New-York aesthetic. The other jewels<br />
also reflected just a hint of coffee inspiration. One clever designer,<br />
however, took the mandate rather literally.<br />
“Use this and you don’t burn your fingers with the hot coffee,” said<br />
runner-up Heather Moore of her gold coffee cup holder that transforms<br />
into a bangle and armband. “When you’re done with your drink, put your<br />
cup in the recycling bin, slip the pieces on your wrist and you’re stylin’<br />
for the day!”<br />
Hold the sugar New Yorkers love their coffee, so they’re sure to love these coffee-inspired<br />
jewels. Clockwise from bottom: Chad Allison’s winning pendant features diamonds and blue<br />
sapphires in 18-karat white gold. Gurhan’s pendant is set in his trademark 24-karat gold.<br />
Heather Moore’s coffee cup holder/bangle (shown with and without coffee) is, without<br />
doubt, the contest’s most clever submission, while Vibes’s pearl necklace, in a more subtle<br />
approach to the design brief, includes a mere hint of the cup’s iconic motif.
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ONL<strong>IN</strong>E LUXURY<br />
Online luxury, reconsidered<br />
A fresh crop of sophisticated Web. 2.0 sites are courting the high end with renewed vigor<br />
The luxury industry’s experience with the Internet should<br />
be counted in dog years: For every seven years of<br />
Web-based progress in other fields, luxury providers<br />
have inched along by just one.<br />
Look, for example, to the online jewelry market, and you’ll<br />
find that for most of its lifespan it’s been the domain of<br />
schlock merchants, con artists and loose stone dealers<br />
eager to dispense with the fripperies of romance in favor of<br />
promoting goods at bargain-basement prices.<br />
Just consider this quote from Jim Schultz, founder of<br />
DirtCheapDiamonds.<strong>com</strong>, which appeared in an article in<br />
COUTURE’s sister magazine, National Jeweler, seven years<br />
ago: “DirtCheap is doing so well because we have a practical<br />
attitude,” he said. “We don’t romance the stone. Because we’re<br />
not face-to-face with a customer talking about a stone, we’re<br />
just looking at the facts. I think people appreciate our candor.”<br />
While it’s true that price — and, more meaningfully, value —<br />
continues to be critical to the allure of buying luxury products<br />
online, the notion that e-tailers eschew story, tradition and<br />
a <strong>com</strong>mitment to service has gone away as surely as<br />
Facebook has replaced Friendster in the social networking<br />
sphere. These days, the Internet is, without doubt, home to<br />
the jewelry industry’s most promising action.<br />
“[We’ve made] the empirical case directly from the voice<br />
of the wealthy consumer for luxury brands to make their<br />
Web sites the centerpiece of their online and offline strategies<br />
since 2006,” says Milton Pedraza, CEO of the New<br />
York-based Luxury Institute. “Nevertheless, the traditional<br />
luxury industry has been slow to adopt Web 2.0.”<br />
52 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
The term “Web 2.0” refers to changing trends in the use<br />
of Internet technology and design that strive to enhance<br />
creativity, <strong>com</strong>munications, secure information sharing,<br />
collaboration and functionality.<br />
Pedraza notes, “Innovators such as Gilt, Ideeli, A Small<br />
World, Portero, Vivre, CoutureLab and several off-the-radar<br />
players such as Bespoke Global, are gaining traction online<br />
via membership models, global <strong>com</strong>munities, and by aggregating<br />
categories of bespoke luxury designers and<br />
producers in one-stop-shop destinations.”<br />
This phenomenon is bound to grow. In light of the<br />
faltering global economy, more old-school jewelry merchants<br />
are adopting Internet-only policies, thereby ducking the<br />
enormous expenses associated with running brick-andmortar<br />
operations.<br />
“We’ve got Madison Avenue products with the value only<br />
an online store can offer,” says Pinny Kaufman, a New York<br />
diamond wholesaler who recently launched Idalia.<strong>com</strong>, a<br />
luxury fashion jewelry site aimed at female self-purchasers.<br />
“I don’t feel anyone’s targeting this niche. The industry standards<br />
are mall-type Web sites.”<br />
For guidance, Kaufman studied the Web’s luxury visionaries,<br />
Net-a-Porter and Vivre, two sites that established, early on,<br />
reputations for expertly curating collections of high-end<br />
designer goods, from fashion to accessories to home décor<br />
The real deal Plenty of Web consumers are wary of shopping online due<br />
to questions of authenticity. To battle the thriving online knock-off market,<br />
Portero.<strong>com</strong> carefully vets its products to guarantee their genuineness. At<br />
Idalia.<strong>com</strong>, the focus is value: “Madison Avenue products” at online prices.
items, that appealed to discerning shoppers precisely<br />
because they fused the experience of browsing a luxury<br />
print catalog with the Web’s user-friendly technologies.<br />
“The two together blend to form a potent mix that’s hard<br />
to resist,” wrote The Luxe Chronicles in a February 2008<br />
blog post praising both Net-a-Porter and Vivre. “I’ve often<br />
<strong>com</strong>pared shopping on these sites to shopping directly<br />
from the pages of your favorite print magazine, only better.”<br />
More recently, CoutureLab, a next-generation version of<br />
Net-a-Porter (given that its owner, Carmen Busquets, was<br />
one of the latter’s original backers), has charmed luxury<br />
consumers with its chic selection of one-of-a-kind and<br />
limited-edition designer merchandise, sourced from around<br />
the world. No small part of the two-year-old site’s appeal lies<br />
in its crisp photography, stylish layout and engaging content,<br />
like the bios describing each designer represented on the<br />
site — including jewelers such as France’s Lydia Courteille,<br />
Spain’s Vicente Gracia and Kenya’s Carolyn Roumeguere.<br />
For purposes of Web site marketing and search engine<br />
optimization (“SEO” in Web 2.0 lingo), the content quotient<br />
is key — a fact that Beladora, a two-year-old estate jewelry<br />
site based in Beverly Hills and affiliated with estate dealer<br />
Kazanjian Bros., has used to its advantage.<br />
“We’re creating content that makes our site useful and<br />
helps the Google rankings,” says CEO Nancy Revy, adding<br />
that a flexible approach to pricing (read: no triple-key markups)<br />
and reliable customer service are the site’s strong suits.<br />
“What’s amazing about this business is the amount of<br />
trust you build up with people who have never heard of<br />
you,” Revy says. “How do you instill confidence online? We<br />
respond to every e-mail and call within 24 hours. We are<br />
literally a 24/7 shop.”<br />
At Portero.<strong>com</strong>, the secret to establishing customer<br />
loyalty is a fanatical devotion to authenticity. Launched<br />
in 2004, the <strong>com</strong>pany was one of eBay’s largest<br />
sellers of pre-owned luxury timepieces and handbags<br />
until its founders decided to create their own site in<br />
2007, in part to escape the suspicions that seemed to<br />
taint the online marketplace, said Stephanie Pfair, the<br />
<strong>com</strong>pany’s outgoing vice president of merchandising.<br />
“For a long time, online was considered the breeding<br />
ground for counterfeiting and the easiest way for counterfeiters<br />
to disseminate their product because it’s anonymous<br />
and accessible,” Pfair said. “Portero was created with the idea<br />
there could be a legitimate secondary market for authentic<br />
luxury products online, giving customers all the benefits of<br />
online — price and value — without fearing counterfeits.”<br />
Even the Place Vendôme luxury brands are getting in on<br />
the game. One-hundred-and-fifty-year-old Boucheron, for<br />
example, recently announced that it was extending its e<strong>com</strong>merce<br />
operations to the United States.<br />
“Because Boucheron has always underlined elegance with<br />
a touch of audacity, it today turns toward investing in the<br />
Internet and the opening of a new online store,” CEO Jean-<br />
Christophe Bédos said. “The Web is a modern opportunity to<br />
be present worldwide and an answer to Boucheron’s goal to<br />
take service to its clients one step further.”<br />
A clarion call to other luxury providers to unambiguously<br />
embrace the Web’s possibilities? You bet.<br />
“Look for all types of traditional luxury goods and services<br />
providers to begin to imitate the techniques of these luxury<br />
innovators, or to acquire them,” Pedraza predicts, referring to<br />
sites such as CoutureLab. He even goes so far as to tout<br />
the nascent field of “m-<strong>com</strong>merce,” or transactions conducted<br />
via mobile devices like iPhones and Blackberries, as the<br />
next big development in luxury marketing.<br />
In other words: e-tailers, start your (search) engines. ■<br />
Tactical moves CoutureLab’s magazine-like approach to content has<br />
made it a hit among the fashion cognoscenti. For estate dealer Beladora,<br />
a <strong>com</strong>mitment to answering calls and emails within 24 hours has helped<br />
convince shoppers that there truly is a person at the other end of the line.<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler l Basel 2009 l 53
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TEL +41.22.307.7837 • FAX +41 22.300.3748 • jricher@europastar.<strong>com</strong><br />
Accounting<br />
Business Manager Catherine Giloux • TEL +41 22.307.7848 • cgiloux@europastar.<strong>com</strong><br />
Credit Manager Alexandra Montandon • TEL +41 22.307.7847 • amontandon@europastar.<strong>com</strong><br />
International Headquarters<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler, Rte des Acacias 25, PO Box 1355, CH-1211 Geneva 26, Switzerland<br />
NIELSEN JEWELRY GROUP<br />
Group Vice President Bailey Beeken • bailey.beeken@nielsen.<strong>com</strong><br />
Group Show Director, Couture Liz Hitchcock • liz.hitchcock@nielsen.<strong>com</strong><br />
Group Publishing Director Chris Casey • ccasey@couturejeweler.<strong>com</strong><br />
Editorial Director Whitney Sielaff • wsielaff@couturejeweler.<strong>com</strong><br />
COUTURE International Jeweler • Europa Star Watches • National Jeweler<br />
JA New York • Couture 2008<br />
Couturejeweler.<strong>com</strong> Group Brand Manager<br />
Claude Hemmerich • claude.hemmerich@nielsen.<strong>com</strong><br />
Nielsen Retail Group<br />
Senior Vice President, Retail David Loechner<br />
Vice President, Digital Strategy John Lerner<br />
Vice President, Manufacturing & Distribution Jennifer Grego<br />
Vice President, Audience Marketing Joanne Wheatley<br />
Vice President, Marketing Services Drew DeSarle<br />
Nielsen Business Media<br />
President Greg Farrar<br />
Senior Vice President, Human Resources Michael Alicea<br />
Senior Vice President, Marketing Mark Hosbein<br />
Senior Vice President, Finance Sloane Googin<br />
Senior Vice President, Media & Entertainment Gerry Byrne<br />
Senior Vice President, Brand Media & Corporate Development Sabrina Crow<br />
Senior Vice N President, Retail David Loechner<br />
Senior Vice President, Building & Design Joe Randall<br />
Senior Vice President, Central Services Mary Kay Sustek<br />
Vice President, Licensing Howard Appelbaum<br />
Vice President, Manufacturing & Distribution Jennifer Grego<br />
Vice President, Audience Marketing Joanne Wheatley<br />
Printed in Geneva by SRO-KUNDIG<br />
© Copyright 2009 by COUTURE Interntional Jeweler<br />
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form<br />
without the written permission of COUTURE International Jeweler
E D ITO R IAL & ADVE RTI S E R S I N D EX<br />
A<br />
Al Coro, 22<br />
Alpilex, 43<br />
Amgad, 33<br />
Amrapali, 22<br />
Anabelle, 26<br />
Andreoli, 7, 9, 33, 49<br />
Angelique de Paris, 22, 25<br />
Atelier Minyon, 23<br />
B<br />
Bardelli, 25<br />
Barneys, 34, 42<br />
BaselWorld, CIII<br />
Basser & Bigio LLC, 27<br />
Blumer, 21<br />
Boaz Kashi, 23<br />
Bochic, 20<br />
Boucheron, 53<br />
Breuning, 11<br />
Brüner, 31, 32<br />
Bulgari, 14<br />
C<br />
Calgaro, 20<br />
Carla Amorim, 25, 29<br />
Cartier, 14<br />
Casato, 23<br />
CC Skye, 23<br />
Celegato Jewels, 33<br />
Chad Allison, 50<br />
Chanel, 15<br />
Chopard, 15, 30<br />
Christine J. Brandt, 32<br />
Commelin, 33<br />
Couture Show, 51, 56<br />
CoutureLab, 52-53<br />
Cresber, 29<br />
D<br />
David Yurman, 23, 31<br />
Davite & Delucchi, 4-5, 29<br />
De Beers, 15<br />
Deakin & Francis, 29<br />
Devta Doolan Jewelry, 20<br />
Diamond in the Rough, 31<br />
Dior, 16<br />
DML for Gold<br />
Expressions, 20<br />
Doris Panos, 30<br />
E, F<br />
EcoArts, 44<br />
Elke Berr, 47<br />
Erica Courtney, 30, 38<br />
Eurostar, 40-41<br />
Fabio Salini, 20<br />
Fred Leighton, 29, 33<br />
G, H, I<br />
Gay Frères, 26<br />
Gianvito Rossi, 29<br />
Gregore Joailliers, 33<br />
Gurhan, 25, 50<br />
H. Stern, 16<br />
Heather Moore, 50<br />
Hellmuth, 27<br />
Hetty Rose, 25<br />
Hoover & Strong, 36<br />
Iberjoya, 55<br />
Idalia, 52<br />
Ilori, 23<br />
Io Sì, 24, 31<br />
Isabel & Canseco, 22<br />
iWood ecodesign, 32<br />
J, K, L<br />
J.W. Currens, 26<br />
Jane Taylor, 27, 30<br />
Janet Deleuse, 25<br />
JJ Number 8 Jewelry, 29<br />
JJ Singh Jewelry, 20<br />
Katy Briscoe, 20<br />
La Nouvelle Bague, 1, 30<br />
Leila Tai Jewelry Design,<br />
24<br />
Liliane Jossua, 45<br />
Liz Hitchcock, 56<br />
Liz Lange for Essentials<br />
Brands, 31<br />
Lori Bonn, 38<br />
Luxury Institute, 52<br />
M, N<br />
Manju Jasty, 47<br />
Marchak, 30<br />
Marco Bicego, 26, 49<br />
Masriera, 25<br />
Mathon Paris, 22, 26<br />
Maya Jewels, 32<br />
Mia Katrin for Jewel<br />
Couture LLC, 22<br />
Michael M, 33<br />
Mikimoto, 16<br />
Mirror/Africa, 42<br />
Monique Péan, 39<br />
Montaigne Market, 45<br />
Nancey Chapman, 22, 30<br />
Net-a-Porter, 52-53<br />
Nice Diamonds, 22<br />
Nicole Mackinlay Hahn, 42<br />
Nina Basharova, 27<br />
Ninetto Terzano, 26<br />
O, P<br />
Oria for Ruff&Cut, 36<br />
Palmiero, 2-3, 33<br />
Paolo Piovan, 25, 49<br />
Patricia Tschetter, 24, 31<br />
Paula Crevoshay, 26-27, 31<br />
Piaget, 17<br />
Picchiotti, CI, 12-13, 48-49<br />
Pieriz, 33<br />
Pippa Small for URTH, 35<br />
Portero, 52-53<br />
R<br />
Rahaminov Diamonds, 25<br />
Ramon, 18<br />
Rhonda Faber Green, 29<br />
Ricardo Basta for PGI, 27<br />
Roberta Porrati, 49<br />
Roberto Coin, 23, 30<br />
Ruff&Cut, 35, 36, 37<br />
S<br />
Sarah Graham, 29<br />
Sartoro, 22, 24<br />
Scheffel Schmuck, 32<br />
Schoeffel, 25<br />
Sethi Couture, 24<br />
Shahpour Jahan, 46<br />
Shana London, 23, 24,<br />
26, 30, 33<br />
Sicis, 27<br />
Stefan Hafner, CII<br />
Stephen Webster for<br />
URTH, 34<br />
Suzanne Syz, 26<br />
T, U<br />
Tamir, 31<br />
Tanagro, 22<br />
Tête-à-tête limited, 23, 27<br />
The Fifth Season, CIV<br />
Tiffany & Co., 17, 35<br />
Toby Pomeroy, 36, 37<br />
Todd Reed for Ruff&Cut,<br />
36, 39<br />
Tous, 20, 24, 32<br />
Tracy Matthews Design<br />
for Ruff&Cut, 36<br />
URTH, 34, 37<br />
Utopia, 26<br />
V, W, Y, Z<br />
Van Cleef & Arpels, 17,<br />
24, 27<br />
Vicenza Fiera, 48-49<br />
Vintage & Modern, Inc.,<br />
23, 30, 31, 32<br />
Viva, 29<br />
Vivre, 52-53<br />
Yael Sonia, 23<br />
Yehuda Kassif, 31<br />
Yvel, 20, 48-49<br />
Zorab, 24<br />
Salón Internacional de la Joyería,<br />
Platería, Relojería e Industrias Afines<br />
International Jewellery, Silverware,<br />
Watch and Auxiliary Industries Exhibition<br />
www.iberjoya.ifema.es<br />
9-13<br />
SEPTIEMBRE/<br />
SEPTEMBER<br />
2009<br />
ORGANIZA / ORGANISED BY<br />
L<strong>IN</strong>EA IFEMA / IFEMA CALL CENTRE<br />
LLAMADAS DESDE ESPAÑA / CALLS FROM SPA<strong>IN</strong><br />
<strong>IN</strong>FOIFEMA 902 22 15 15<br />
EXPOSITORES / EXHIBITORS 902 22 16 16<br />
LLAMADAS <strong>IN</strong>TERNACIONALES (34) 91 722 30 00<br />
<strong>IN</strong>TERNATIONAL CALLS<br />
iberjoya@ifema.es
FREELY SPEAK<strong>IN</strong>G<br />
LIZ HITCHCOCK<br />
Couture redux<br />
Show director Liz Hitchcock is giving the Americas’<br />
premier jewelry event a subtle makeover<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler, for those who haven’t read<br />
the fine print, is the official publication of the Couture show, the<br />
annual gathering of jewelry’s crème de la crème at the Wynn in<br />
Las Vegas during market week. The six-day event, beginning<br />
this year on May 28, has reigned as the single best networking<br />
opportunity for the American high-end jewelry <strong>com</strong>munity<br />
since 1994, when the Couture Jewellery Collection &<br />
Conference, as it was then known, made its debut in California<br />
before moving to Arizona. The show’s relocation to Las Vegas<br />
in 2005 ushered in a period of change. This year, Group Show<br />
Director Liz Hitchcock, new to Nielsen, Couture’s parent<br />
<strong>com</strong>pany, promises another dynamic event, including a greater<br />
focus on international exhibitors, a new take on the show’s<br />
popular design <strong>com</strong>petition and an expanded retailer program.<br />
COUTURE International Jeweler: Can you give us a little<br />
back story on Couture? Liz Hitchcock: It began as an event<br />
where North American retailers would meet and greet and<br />
network. As it grew with the popularity of U.S. designers, it<br />
became world-renowned. Because of the year’s turbulence,<br />
we’ve received a great deal of attention from the international<br />
<strong>com</strong>munity, which thinks that no other event around the world<br />
will have the same concentration of high-level designers.<br />
CIJ: How will this year’s show be different from years past?<br />
LH: We’ve expanded our retailer program. It’s always been<br />
catered to the “Cornerstone Retailers,” the top 100 retailers<br />
56 l Basel 2009 l COUTURE International Jeweler<br />
who have been loyal to the event since its inception. This year,<br />
Couture has attracted so many more top retailers that we’ve<br />
introduced the VIP program, which is the next top 300 retailers.<br />
CIJ: Why was it important to do that? LH: What’s most attractive<br />
about that next level of retailer is they’re actively seeking<br />
brands and designers and are more open in terms of their<br />
sourcing than perhaps the Cornerstone Retailers, who have<br />
long-term relationships with the major brands. So this is us<br />
making sure we recognize and host them in a certain way.<br />
CIJ: How will the design awards be handled? LH: This will be<br />
the 14th year of the Couture Design Awards [popularly known<br />
as the Town & Country Awards]. We’re expanding the program,<br />
enhancing the format, including celebrities and planning a great<br />
evening of entertainment. We’re hoping to add a few more<br />
categories and sponsors. They’ll be bigger and better than ever.<br />
CIJ: You’ve talked about bringing more international retailers<br />
to the show. How are you reaching out to them? LH: We have<br />
a lot of internal Nielsen resources that we’re tapping into. We’ve<br />
launched five international Web sites in the past seven months,<br />
all in the specific language of the markets they serve: Brazil,<br />
Latin America, China, Russia and India. We have the widest<br />
global reach of any other business-to-business <strong>com</strong>pany in the<br />
jewelry industry, bar none.<br />
CIJ: Do you expect Couture to evolve into an international<br />
event that happens to be in America, or will the focus always<br />
be on its roots here? LH: The focus of the retailers will always<br />
be toward the Americas. But we’ve always enjoyed international<br />
attendance because Las Vegas is fun, the Wynn is a<br />
world-class venue and we promote worldwide. We’d like to<br />
continue to grow the international participation of fine jewelry<br />
and watches. If you’re the exclusive carrier of a designer known<br />
in luxury circles, that’s something that differentiates you and<br />
gives people a reason to buy from you. Our hope is to give our<br />
retailers a better opportunity to find those brands.<br />
One stop shop Couture is known for putting a cross-section of the world’s<br />
finest designers under one roof. For more info, visit www.couture09.<strong>com</strong>.
BASELWORLD<br />
THE WATCH AND JEWELLERY SHOW<br />
MARCH 26 – APRIL 2, 2009<br />
WHERE BUS<strong>IN</strong>ESS BEG<strong>IN</strong>S AND TRENDS ARE CREATED<br />
WWW.BASELWORLD.COM
Afrika Collection