The day before the New Year “Kommersant-Weekend” asked representatives of the largest jeweller’s companies how they saw the main 2008 trends.
Pierre Rainero from Cartier predicts that figurative highly expressive jewellery will still be in fashion. Thus, flora and fauna themes will maintain their positions, and it is possible, Pierre Rainero insists, that they will be accompanied by various ethnic styles.
Lawrence Graff, founder and chief jeweller of the British company Graff, is sure that white diamonds, as eternal classics, will remain, while colored diamonds won't surrender their positions as well. “I can’t speak about trends, as my aim is to seek and find priceless precious stones, which are beyond fashion,” says Mr. Graff. At the same time, he points out that these are the colored stones, which will rule the roost in the diamond market in 2008. As far as the jeweller’s styles are concerned, Mr. Graff believes that adult elegance and traditional diamond classics will come into fashion.
Favaz Gruosie from De Grisogono says that what people will value in jewellery most of all, is creativity and even impudence. He also points out that in the precious stones segment colored stones will be on the top. Colorfulness and brightness, these are the trends of the future in the opinion of De Grisogono founder.
The Italian Pasquale Bruni notes two trends important for him. The first one is the development of basic jewellery lines, traditional adornments of gold. The second one is the development of the adornment sector of ‘haute joallerie’ class. The jeweller also intends to focus on collections with a great part of multicolored stones. “We are going to offer the public completely novel stones in extraordinary color combinations”, confesses Mr. Pasquale Bruni.
The Yekaterinburg jeweller Mr. Vladimir Pichugov draws our attention to the blue topaz: “Today, the blue topaz is perhaps the most popular stone. It is democratically priced and beautiful. Some three year ago, we made rings and earrings with blue topazes just to show that there exists such a stone. And now, many know this stone, it has strong demand. Many jewellers know how to handle fianites, nobody would marvel at it any more, while manufacturers who deal in natural topazes are much fewer in number.”
Ms. Nina Orlova, Manager of the Exhibition “The Glint of Gems”, basing on the Orient Calendar thinks that adornments with stones of yellow colors - chrysolite, topaz, etc. - will be topical for 2008, and adds: “Bijouterie must also be very popular. The Rat 'likes' everything that glitters. Thin straps, bracelets and ajoure strings appeal to the Rat. Keep things that are more massive for another occasion. Accessories should rather be of gold than of “cold” metals, which remind of mousetraps.”
“We have taken into consideration the astrologists’ recommendations,” says Director of one of the jeweller’s shops in Chelyabinsk: “In our New Year shopwindows, one can see a variety of adornments with colored stones: sapphires, amethysts, rubies, emeralds, citrines and others.”
Among the various jewels of December, “Kommersant” puts special emphasis on the cocktail watch as “a jewel of prime importance”. A small cocktail watch has today become the most popular among precious gifts. People buy such watches even more often than rings, earrings and pendants.
Such popularity is easy to explain, it is just a matter of business. Cocktail watches now occupy a unique niche. It is a beautiful and eye-catching watch, very often with diamonds and other precious stones, and at the same time, one can wear it not only at cocktail parties, but also at work, in the office, on a business trip. Meanwhile, this watch, being a luxurious thing, will not need changing, if its owner decides to go out to a party or to the theatre. In other words, a cocktail watch is not a gadget at all, as it used to be earlier, but it is a very convenient and extremely expedient watch. For jewellers and watchmakers themselves this is a truly valuable commercial item.
In addition, today many jewellery and watchmaking companies offer replacement wristlets for cocktail watches. This invention dates back to 1947, when Boucheron began to complement its famous model, the rectangular watch Reflet, with five extra wristlets of different colors. Thus, having bought just one Reflet watch, the customer procured, in fact, several watches, which helped to economize and let women stay in the lap of luxury. Nowadays, the basic wristlet can be made of sateen or black lacquer crocodile, while extra wristlets are usually made of dyed sateens, mink or taffeta decorated with pearls or gold beads.
That is to say, once an haute-couture item, a thing of glamour and beau-monde, the cocktail watch has now become an essential thing one cannot do without, thinks “Kommersant”.
The necklace is also in the “Kommersant” spotlight. In its opinion, the trendsetting items include, among others, neck collars, or chokers, a jeweller’s innovation of the 1920-s. It is a very predaceous aggressive adornment; the necklace is as if choking your neck. An ‘all-the-go’ today, any choker will look very classy, no matter what material it is made of. It may be either platinum or gold with classic precious stones, it may as well be a thick velour neckband with gem appliqué, or a rhythmic bundle of colorful pearl strings embraced with diamond billets, or rough shark-ray skin, so much popular in the art-deco age.
Heavy full-dress necklaces imitating different couture items, such as mignonette, are products of a more conservative and traditional niche. They include wide or narrow gem “neckties”, short and long Indian scarves, “woven” from loose golden strings (such “scarves” may often be used as jeweled belts, and in this case they will be truly Indian adornments), “zip”-necklaces from Zip, zippers, etc. By the way, these zippers made of gold and decorated with natural diamonds do unzip!
Flower necklaces are at present at the peak of their success, “Kommersant” reads. This leading position is explained by the fact that in 2007 floristic themes were extremely popular. As this takes place, almost all major jewellers do their best to attain the closest similarity possible and to avoid any abstractions. Now, jewellers have commenced a kind of competition: which company will be the best at preserving and demonstrating the old art of certissage. Among orient and ethnic themes, the most popular is Indian, which was paid no regard in the period of Asian exotic boom, that is three-five years ago.
Ceremonial pearl strings are classics, though pearls came into fashion just two years ago. The white classic is forced away by the classic of colors.
