Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/56249
Ralph Lauren New Romantic earrings in white gold with diamonds, emeralds and black spinels. Bottega Veneta's fire opal black gold Teck necklace. The jewelry markeT worldwide is esTimaTed To be worTh a sTaggering $184 billion. b ut 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. 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 "Pro- ject: 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 editor Filipa Fino. "Look at the close-up shots of peo- ple'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 col- lections. "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-carpet- ready 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 ac- cessories," she shrugs. "And that's what they're willing to invest in now." 82 BAL HARBOUR Hermès' Centaure rings in rose gold, white diamonds and aventurine (top) and in rose gold and white diamonds (bottom). Hermes Caption goes here. V o g u e