Trade gives champagne diamonds warm reception

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Trade gives champagne diamonds warm reception

By Victoria Gomelsky

May 06, 2009

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Brazil's H. Stern was among the first luxury jewelers to incorporate champagne diamonds into its repertoire. Pictured here is the designer's "Stars" brooch featuring thebrownish-colored stones.

When champagne diamonds were introduced to the American market in the early 1990s, retailers snubbed the brown stones, categorically dismissing them as cheap, low-quality, industrial diamonds.

"The connotation in the trade was that browns were no good," said Robert May, executive director of the Natural Color Diamond Association. "But the perception to the consumer was different. The perception was that they were valuable."

At the turn of the millennium, designers began to help bridge the gap between retailers' perceptions and consumer reality by taking advantage of the less costly browns to create experimental designs in warm, nuanced palettes. Once relegated to department stores and mass merchants, champagne diamonds, along with their darker-hued and more valuable cousins, cognacs, are now being co-opted by the high-end.

Brazil's H. Stern was among the first luxury jewelers to incorporate the stones into its repertoire. Seduced by "the ability to do color in diamonds with much better price points than pinks and yellows," Creative Director Roberto Stern said he was also drawn to "the fact that we could think bigger with cognac diamonds--wider distribution, frequent use, both one-of-a-kind and also collection pieces available in all stores."

Retailers, long schooled by De Beers and the Gemological Institute of America to value white, or colorless, diamonds as the top of the pyramid, were the only ones who still questioned the appeal of browns.

About a year and a half ago, Rio Tinto embarked on a campaign to convince them once and for all. The mining giant owns the Argyle Mine in Western Australia, the world's largest supplier of brown diamonds. To help stimulate demand among retailers, the company has launched a trade campaign that includes sales training for retailers, new marketing materials and a revamped consumer Web site, ChampagneDiamondCenter.com.

Yesterday, Rio Tinto announced the latest component of the campaign: a champagne-diamond jewelry-design competition that will culminate this fall in an exhibition of winning pieces that will travel to select retail stores around the country.

"We felt the next logical step was to do a design contest," said Rebecca M. Foerster, manager of the U.S. representative office of Rio Tinto Diamonds. "The downturn didn't make me think any differently about it. What better time to inspire design?"

Contest participants will join a competitive field. From the cloistered salons of Place Vendome to the workshops of up-and-coming designers, champagne diamonds have finally found their footing in the trade. The popularity of the eco-movement along with the market's desire for less flashy, more understated jewels, has played no small part in their wider acceptance.

"Very trendy now is to mix different types of stones and colors in the same pave setting," said Frederic Mathon of Mathon Paris, a well-regarded manufacturer.

The perception of browns, in certain precincts of the trade, is so lofty that some designers are touting them as the next big thing in bridal.

Eddie Le Vian, design director and CEO of Le Vian, needs no convincing. He is introducing Chocolate Vows, a bridal collection of brown-diamond engagement rings, at the JCK show in Las Vegas. Building off of Le Vian's signature Chocolate Diamonds range, introduced in 2000, the collection relies on a trademarked color-grading system based on various flavors of chocolate: Pave Chocolates, Chunky Chocolates and Chocolate Truffles, for example.

"For some independents, the tide is changing and they're starting to realize it's a huge business they're missing," Le Vian said.

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