Hermes' Centaure Double and Centaure PM rings in rose gold with rose opal and diamonds.
By Mark Ellwood
When once it was set in stone that catwalk brands didn’t dabble in baubles, those rules are now being broken by some of fashion’s biggest names. Take Ralph Lauren, whose new gem range, heavy on black onyx and green agate set in white or rose gold, already has insiders raving. “Frankly, they nailed it,” says stylist Rob Zangardi, who’s responsible for keeping Jennifer Lopez and Rihanna red-carpet ready, and will likely lean heavily on this range. “They’re not typical chandelier earrings, for
example—they’re Art Deco-ish 1920s, 1940s looks.”
Ralph Lauren's Diamond Link necklace.
Then there’s Hermès, which unleashed creative director Pierre Hardy to design equestrian-themed pieces, like a diamond-set whip necklace and double hooves paved with diamonds; each piece in the aptly named Centaure collection is a nod to the marque’s horse-mad heritage. Dolce & Gabbana’s new 80-piece jewelry range reflects the design duo’s obsession with the opulence of Sicily (albeit with a liberal dash of Like a Virgin-era Madonna), replete with bejeweled crosses, black jade rosaries and even ceramic icons of the Virgin Mary.
Hermes' Centaure GM rings in rose gold and white diamonds and rose gold, white diamonds and aventurine.
Bottega Veneta launched its jewelry line in 2006 but has expanded the range each year since then—the latest collection, inspired by magpie-like gem collecting British royal Queen Mary of Teck, includes colored gemstones for the first time. Masterminded by visionary creative director Tomas Maier, each of the 18-carat chains are handmade in his home town of Pforzheim, near Germany’s Black Forest, over the course of more than a week; the style echoes Bottega’s signature Intrecciato, as does the scoring that twinkles behind each cabochon-cut stone.
Louis Vuitton is so committed to its new range of jewelry—a globetrotting assortment of statement necklaces and rings from creative director Lorenz Bäumer—that it will open a stand-alone store dedicated to the collection on Paris’ Place Vendôme later this year. (Expect that jewelry range to expand, too, given LVMH’s recent $3.7 billion acquisition of Bulgari.)
Earrings from the new Dolce & Gabbana fine jewelry collection.
But why are fashion brands mining the potential of making jewelry now? Undoubtedly, there’s a clear financial opportunity: the jewelry market worldwide is estimated to be worth a staggering $184 billion, with the United States the largest single market. But only 12 percent of the gems sold come from major brands; the rest is small-scale production by local firms—at least for now.
Bottega Veneta's black gold and Madeira citrine quartz Teck necklace.
But the boom in branded jewels is also symptomatic of a wider cultural shift— accessories, once an afterthought, have become an obsession. See the recent “Project: Runway” spinoff tasking designers to dream up bags, shoes and jewelry, and the upcoming Fino File, an online magalog entirely focused on accessories and helmed by onetime Vogue editor Filipa Fino. “Look at the close-up shots of people’s arms, the stories dedicated to people’s wrists everywhere,” explains Leah Chernikoff, executive editor of fashionista.com. She suggests this shift in focus has only occurred in the last six months. “The photographer Tommy Ton has become synonymous with an image of a wrist stacked with bracelets holding a clutch and an invitation on the way to a fashion show.” (Style slaves even have a new name for this phenomenon: ‘the arm party,’ as coined by manrepeller.com’s Leandra Medine.) A-list stylist Zangardi sees yet another reason for the rise of these new collections. “Brands in general are appealing more to the red carpet than they did in the past—it’s not unusual for a smaller designer now to offer us 15 red-carpetready dresses when in the past he might have had one or two in a season. And this is another example of that,” explains Zangardi. Of course, jewels designed by Ralph Lauren will also pair more naturally with an RL gown—one brand can cover every facet of an outfit. Plus the bigger budgets of globe-spanning marques mean they can offer a wider selection of red carpet-ready styles, like that 80-piece Dolce & Gabbana collection, versus the half-dozen or so often produced by smaller specialist jewelers. But it’s Chernikoff who identifies what is arguably the most powerful driver of this newfound obsession for accessories. It’s a by-product of a fresh practicality among luxe-lovers, that savviness that’s appeared since the Great Recession. “People want to have really good basics and make them look different with accessories,” she shrugs. “And that’s what they’re willing to invest in now.”
