Jewelry Business Guru by Cindy Edelstein

Handmade at NYGift Show - designer report

Traffic at the Handmade section of the NY Gift Show was slower than last year, said many, but the popular designer lines still had a good show.

And we had fun visiting with so many great friends.

Trends spotted at the show:

GREEN Jewelry is gaining a real toehold in our industry (see early post on Fair Jewelry Summit) and the latest to take the concept and run with it was Cynthia Gale of GeoArt. Her new Go Green campaign was attracting a lot of attention.
That's Cynthia on the right.                         

Another great green initiative is Julie Bergstein's (on the left) new locket collection for her eponymous line Just Jules. She combines vintage lockets, watch fobs and other trinkets with pearls and beads and chain to create contemporary keepsakes. She told us that she sold out by the second day -- she's on the hunt for more vintage lockets so if you see any/have any to sell -- email her from her website at www.justjules.com.

Stephen Estelle saw a great interest in his vermeil collection. His rationale? "They're simultaneously selling down with the economy (from the karat gold line) while feeling like you're keeping up because it's gold and not silver," said Stephen. Great understanding of the marketplace.

 

 

here's Suzanne Vaughan of Ann Sportun looking as cool and graceful as the jewels!

Can you see the size of those baroque pearls in front of her! To die for!

Over at Somer's Jewelry owner at Hilary Randolph told us that her gold WAS selling better than expected -- considering she's predominently a silver line this was surprising news indeed.

While at the Ann Sportun/Experimetal booth they were getting some traction for their diamond designs. These reports gave us hope that the year won't be as bad as we keep fearing it could be!

Accessories Circuit Ushers in New Year

The Accessories Circuit trade show was quite busy on Tuesday when we visited. This 3-day trade show is always fun for us since we get to see more than jewelry -- every accessories category along with some ready-to-wear is on display.

Given the current economic climate we were thrilled to see that many of our favorite designers were working away writing orders and a few were too busy to talk to us despite dropping by a few times.

What we did get to see were some terrific new spring lines and continued growth by some of today's most happenin' designers.

At Mizuki's booth we saw the designer herself chatting with Fragments owner Janet Goldman (middle) and CEO Marla Sabo (left) and we couldn't resist capturing their new year's smiles.

Mizuki's collection now features "stories" that help merchandise her prolific designs.  [TIP: Creating stories helps you and your buyers organize, refer to and display your different works cohesively]

Mizuki's new story in rose gold and rose quartz seemed particularly enticing for this spring.


Rose seems to be the word of the season -- rose gold, rose-cuts, rosey colored gems -- we were feelin' in the pink after a few hours at the show.

Susan Kalan had great reaction to her new 18k designs that she brought to supplement her 14k work -- giving optimism that fashionable designs can sell well at higher pricepoints. She sold both collections well with her Vitrine collection of translucent gems in large, diamond accented settings doing particularly well.



Saundra Messinger added some color to her signature matte silver designs  this season -- a beautiful way to continue her collection. Here she is modeling new bracelets for us!



Jamie Joseph (seen below with her adorable husband) added even more color to her line showing off soft pink Kunzite as often as she could in her "Saturn" necklaces which let the stone swing independently from the gold setting "orbiting" it. She's the originator of this concept and it's definitely fun and fashionable. Her choker bracelets were also getting a lot of attention because big color is where it's at this year!







Marquis shapes and cool colors were making all the news at the Pade Vavre booth. Many new styles featured flashing labradorite and moonstones  in marquis, rose cut and natural crystal shapes. Organic is the word for Pade with her emphasis on twiggy textures, natural found object forms like sharks teeth and lava  and uncut gems.


Many designers we met reported ending 2007 on the positive side -- again good news based on current economy and overall industry reports.

Watch here for our Jeweler's Resource end-of-year business survey results coming shortly.

JA's New Designer 30th Anniversary

The 30th Anniversary of the New Designer Gallery is going to be a great celebration -- and one everyone can share.

We're planning a lot of ways to celebrate. First, of course is to debut this year's New Designer Gallery and anoint one "New Designer of the Year." Over the years this award has been shared by: Whitney Boin, Diana Vincent, Steven Kretchmer, Eddie Sakamoto, Tom Kruskal, Penny Preville, Alex Sepkus, Susan Sadler and so many more.

This year we're adding a Designer Showcase Lounge to the show floor. This is the place for hanging out and reminiscing. We'll display memorabilia from 30 years of stars and maybe have a Designer Jewelry silent auction (to raise money for a Mort Abelson scholarship). Anyone can donate to the auction -- gives you a great promotional opportunity plus a tax right-off!

We're going to have an Alumni Dinner on Monday, July 30th in Manhattan. Restaurant to be announced shortly (it'll be a prixe-fix dinner) and all are welcome. This is going to be a great designer-centric glorifying/reminiscing schmoozefest.

And lastly, we're creating a special supplement to National Jeweler magazine ... ALL ABOUT DESIGNERS!

This 32-page mini-magazine is going to feature the history of the New Designer Gallery, it's most memorable alumni and more. It's definitely going to be the kind of publication that people will save for years to come.

And... we have limited space for advertising in this keepsake. Savvy designers are going to want to save some of your marketing dollars for this one-in-a-lifetime publication. It comes out July 1st and is bundled with National Jeweler (which reaches all jewelry stores) plus a bonus mailing to my top 500 designer-centric retailers and is given away at July/August trade shows.

Email me at cindy@jewelersresource.com to get more info an the yearbook, the dinner and the whole shebang! It's going to be a MAJOR CELEBRATION for all.

30 Years of New Talent

The other reason I'm glad to join the Nielsen Jewelry Group is that this is the 30th Anniversary of the famed New Designer Room/Gallery at the JA Shows.

The reason I could make a business focused on the designer sector of the industry is because Mort Abelson, show director for the JA Shows in the 70's  (when the show was the only game in town and owned by the Jeweler's of America trade association) decided to spice up the trade show and invite "some young designers"  to exhibit with the industry big-guns.

Mort was a true trailblazer. He schlepped to the cow pastures of Rhinebeck to peruse the craft show that had recently started (the forerunner of the ACC Show). He trekked through countless "booths" (if that's what the tents could be called) to see if any of these "artisans" had something worthwhile to show.

And what he found was amazing. He met the 20-something David Yurman with long hair and flip-flops with his first-ever collection (beads, not cable!). He met Michael Good with his starter colection of undulating metal waves. He met so many of today's "masters" when they were young bucks bucking the system of anonymous, pendantic jewelry.

And he brought them to New York, gave them a "booth" and shined a spotlight on their budding talents. He invited the industry -- the suit-and-tie guys (or rather leisure-suit and sideburns, guys since it was the 70s afterall) -- to take a peek, try something new, dare to be different.

And he started an industry. 1977 was the birth of the American Designer Jewelry Movement and we're going to celebrate it's 30th anniversary at this summer's JA New York Show.

Couture

So this is a very exciting time for me to start working with the Nielsen Jewelry Group -- producers of Couture  and JA New York shows.

It's the first year that Couture is open to all valid buyers so it's the first time that many will be able to experience the "Couture difference."   Couture is a unique trade show in that it's not intended to serve all -- it's a targeted event that serves just the high-end/branded/designer-oriented sector of the fine jewelry business.

It offers an edited collection of several hundred vendors which represents a managable, cohesive buying experience.

Since Las Vegas is an ever growing orgy of stimuli -- both in terms of business and pleasure -- I think an oasis like this much needed.

I think it's the perfect time for this kind of change in our world.

As business guru Dan Pink is fond of saying ... "Bigger isn't better. Better is better."