Rapaport Magazine - November 2018

VOL. 41 NO. 11 NOVEMBER 2018

Can America bring jewelry manufacturing back to its shores?

OPINION

INTERVIEW

RETAIL

DESIGNER

Mining companies need to work on using clearer language in their public communications

Ahead of this month’s Geneva sale, Daniela Mascetti of Sotheby’s analyzes the estate market

Indian jewelers share the strategies they’re employing to combat sluggish trade conditions

Meet Lorenz Bäumer, who creates breathtaking pieces full of color and magic at his Place Vendôme boutique

Editor’s letter SELLING SUCCESS

A

Spotlight on this beautiful and innovative stack from Spinelli Kilcollin, a jewelry designer manufacturing in Los Angeles, California. Part of the new Galaxy collection, the Leo ring features five linked rings with more than 3 carats of micropavé cognac, champagne, grey and white diamonds, set in 18-karat rose gold, yellow gold and black-rhodium-plated silver.

IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE TO TRUST THOSE WHO SHOULD KNOW YOUR BRAND INSIDEOUT TO BE YOUR MOST EFFECTIVE AMBASSADORS

Sonia Esther Soltani EDITOR IN CHIEF sonia.soltani@diamonds.net

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DIAMONDS.NET

IMAGE: BEN KELMER

ED ITOR’S PICK

leah Arundale has a no-brainer, straightforward piece of advice for jewelers who want to make the coming two months a success: “So few people do anything that if you do anything, you’re ahead.”

In an interview with Joshua Freedman on the most recent Rapaport Diamond Podcast, the formidable founder of Jewelers Helping Jewelers, a Facebook group for the trade, elaborated on the idea of simply being active.

“It’s not a matter of what the idea is. You take whatever idea it is, and you just do it 100%. Put your all into it. Get the word out. Get these flyers.

Really go for it,” she counseled. This approach is key to gaining better exposure in an era when positive reviews are such a deal-breaker for businesses, Arundale noted. “It’s word of Google, word of Yelp, not word of mouth anymore.”

(To listen to the full interview, along with other insights into the holiday season and the state of the market, visit lp.diamonds.net/ podcast.)

As for ways to increase your business’s brand awareness, one of the most inspiring initiatives I’ve seen recently comes from the likes of Macy’s and Van Cleef & Arpels, which are turning to their own employees to act as influencers.

In a world that craves authenticity, it makes perfect sense to trust those who should know your brand inside-out to be your most effective ambassadors. No need to look farther afield for partners to promote your business when you have the greatest potential right under your roof. The key is to nurture it, and hopefully this will ensure that your sales figures are worth celebrating in the festive season.

CO N T E N TS IN-DEPTH

16 News

Industry: Everything changes, and some things stay the same.

Retail: Confidence high for holidays.

Mining: India weakness weighs on miners.

Movers & Shakers: Who’s coming, who’s going.

24 News analysis Diamond producers and indigenous landowners have developed a symbiotic relationship in Canada and Australia.

38 Page

COVER

32 Made in America With most manufacturing happening overseas, can the US rejuvenate its own jewelry production industry?

36 Profile High-fashion icon Lauren Kulchinsky Levison has a low opinion of online retail and the instant-gratification attitude that comes with it.

38 Interview Daniela Mascetti, Sotheby’s chairman of jewelry in Europe, talks about the draw of private collections and historic pieces.

40 Auction report

IMAGES: SOTHEBY’S; ANIL BHARWANI FINE JEWELLERY

Despite some star lots and heavy promotion, Sotheby’s Hong Kong proved unpredictable.

54 Page

26 Opinion Why do mining companies seem to have such trouble using clear language?

RETAIL

STYLE & DESIGN

51 Jewelry Connoisseur Designers are giving the ancient art of filigree a contemporary twist.

52 Show report Five jewelry trends from the September VicenzaOro fair.

54 Style Today’s take on polki jewelry blends Indian tradition with a modern look.

56 Designer Paris-based jeweler Lorenz Bäumer talks about the meaning behind his latest collections.

44 Retail profile

58 Legacy

The owners of Fox Fine Jewelry in Ventura, California, go the extra mile to help their community in times of crisis.

The Met explores the roles jewelry and self-adornment have played throughout history.

46 Retail insight

62 Colored gemstone

Indian players share their strategies for combating a slow local diamond market.

The winners of the 34th AGTA Spectrum Awards dazzle with a cornucopia of gems.

48 Retail trends Millennial consumers can be divided up into three main segments, says Platinum Guild International.

49 RetailRap How does your sales approach reflect your store’s philosophy?

MARKETS & PRICING 67 Trade report 69 USA 75 India 77 Israel 78 Antwerp 79 Hong Kong 80 Diamond data 85 Price List 97 RapNet price list 102 Directory 106 Calendar 108 The final cut

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COV E R

MADE IN AMERICA With most manufacturing happening overseas, can the US rejuvenate its own jewelry production industry?

BY LARA EWEN

DIAMONDS.NET

t’s a difficult time for US jewelry manufacturing.

Domestic production is in decline, while overseas factories are expanding their market share.

And it’s not likely to get better, according to a December 2017 report from IBISWorld, which predicts that the US jewelry-making industry will continue its downward spiral through 2022.

Already, it’s practically impossible to avoid overseas manufacturing. “There are vast factories overseas, and you either manufacture your own goods by being a partner with them, or you buy from them,” says Marc Feder, owner of Jay Feder Jewelers, which has a wholesale operation in New York and retail stores in Colorado and Florida.

“How many 5-point diamond melees do they mine in the US? None. Every piece of a piece of jewelry, every stone, is coming from somewhere that’s not the United States.”

Even companies that do manufacture domestically often need to compromise.

“There’s a lot of pride [in] buying product that’s manufactured in the US,” says Kathy Corey, vice president of merchandising and co-owner of Day’s Jewelers, which has stores in Maine and New Hampshire. “But a lot of the companies that manufacture in the US also manufacture overseas.

It’s a global environment, and the competition is fierce in diamonds, especially in the last 10 years.”

On top of that, there are governmental challenges that limit what companies can call domestically-made product. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) “doesn’t allow us to say ‘Made in the USA’ unless everything is mined here,” says Corey. “‘Made in the USA’ insinuates that all the parts are from the USA.”

A multi-pronged approach

If the US wants to rejuvenate its domestic production industry, it needs to make changes on multiple fronts, say industry professionals.

“Bringing manufacturing back to the United States is possible, but to see substantial growth in this sector, there must be a 360-degree approach,

from government to businesses to consumers,” posits Victoria Tse, founder and CEO of jewelry design house VTse in Pasadena, California.

“Ideally, the government would offer tax breaks and credits to incentivize companies to keep operations in the United States. Retail buyers should also make concerted efforts to focus on purchasing increased amounts of ‘Made in America’ products, and to adamantly promote and communicate the value and quality of these products to their customers.”

In short, she says, “there is no one solution.”

Of course, cost will always be a determining factor, and that’s where companies abroad have the advantage.

“Retailers are always looking closely at the cost of goods,” notes David J. Bonaparte, president and CEO of trade group Jewelers of America (JA). “As long as the quality is maintained in manufacturing, and there are sufficient quality control systems in place, retailers will continue to source goods overseas.”

Those cost savings give retailers more flexibility in how to merchandise and sell to consumers, Bonaparte says, but there are still domestic alternatives. “Manufacturing still does exist in the US, albeit far reduced from years ago. There’s a chance for specialty manufacturing to return on a small scale.”

Finding home-grown talent

But even if there’s demand and opportunity, the industry can’t do much without trained craftspeople. Local bench jewelers are gradually retiring, and there are fewer and fewer new ones stepping up to replace them.

“It’s a problem with all industries when it comes to [staffing skilled trade professionals],” remarks Corey. “So we’re trying to be proactive and groom interested people who want to learn the trade through an apprenticeship program. We start grooming them now — grow your own! As an industry, we need to wake up and be a lot more active in the training process.”

Tse, meanwhile, says it’s about sourcing as much as training. “There is still a wealth of qualified bench jewelers in America. The tricky part is locating the right jewelers for your manufacturing operation.”

Bench jewelers are an extremely niche market, she notes, which means that unlike in other industries, there are no go-to services that can match up companies with would-be employees.

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TH E FINAL CU T

ROCK MUSIC

Rapaport Magazine asks: What’s your favorite song about diamonds?

SALLY MORRISON, LIGHTBOX

ALAN BRONSTEIN, NATURAL COLOR DIAMOND ASSOCIATION (NCDIA) President My favorite song is “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” by Paul Simon. It has such a great rhythm, with African influence. When my three children were babies, I would dance them to sleep every night to the music. They would fall asleep in my arms.

It was my happiest experience. To this day, I still dance to the sound unconsciously whenever I hear the tune.

IMAGES: AGENCJA FOTOGRAFICZNA CARO/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; INTERFOTO/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

PAOLA DE LUCA, THE FUTURIST Founder and creative director My favorite song about diamonds is obviously “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” The song is perhaps most famously performed by Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.... .... From today’s perspective, Marilyn portrayed a representation of women of glamour, sexy yet sophisticated. Today, we are in the process of investigating new aesthetic codes, and women are battling for new rights. Diamonds and diamond-jewelry perception represent the evolution of society; from natural diamonds to lab-grown, the industry is beginning to face new challenges; the future is already here.

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DIAMONDS.NET

Chief marketing officer I have quite a few: Prince’s “Diamonds and Pearls,” Joan Baez’s “Diamonds and Rust” and Leonard Cohen’s “Diamonds in the Mine” would all be on the list. But I guess if I had to pick just one, it would be “Diamonds and Gold” by Tom Waits. He’s an awesome poet, and the song takes me back to the mid-’80s, when I was first living in New York. What I love is the juxtaposition of the lyrical writing about these two incredibly refined materials with the gravelly edge of his voice and the harsh reality of life on the street.

BEN MACKLOWE, MACKLOWE GALLERY President “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”

by Paul Simon is my favorite song, but because it’s not about jewelry at all. Paul Simon’s time in South Africa liberated his songwriting to such an extent that he was almost free-associating from one verse to the next. Obviously, since South Africa is the source of most of the diamonds in the world, it is a parable of wealth and privilege existing side-by-side with grinding poverty and want. However, for me, it’s really a song about how people treat one another and if we feel like we are loved, if people care about us, if we belong.