Key Words for High Jewelry These Days? Intriguing and Intricate.

New York Times

04-07-2025

Despite sky-high gold prices, turbulence in the diamond market and global political and economic uncertainty, the high jewelry presentations in Paris next week are the latest sign of a strong — one might even say glittering — jewelry market.
'There is an appetite for jewelry that stands out and focuses on rare stones as well as intriguing designs,' Donatella Zappieri, a jewelry business consultant specializing in strategic management and a lecturer at Bocconi University in Milan, said in an email. 'That also has laid the foundations for a new era in one-of-a-kind jewelry.'
So even as luxury giants such as LMVH and Kering reported declines in first quarter global sales, there has been little sign of a drop-off in the $32.2 billion in jewelry sales that Bain and Company reported for 2024.
The attraction has not solely been for classic gems such as diamonds and emeralds, or precious metals like platinum. The presentations in Paris — and those shown recently in other alluring locations — have included lesser-known stones, unusual materials and inventive techniques. And certain designers' creations flirted with art world notions of scale and purpose.
'From the standpoint of history, what's striking is how intricate jewelry constructions have become,' said Mathieu Rousset-Perrier, the curator of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Jewelry collections at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
'It's much like what we have been seeing on the runway at couture,' he added. 'The question is: Where is the saturation point?'
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