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Bridal revisited
As a category, wedding jewelry continues to defy the recession, luring retailers as well as designers from the more fashionable side of the business
By Victoria Gomelsky
July 30, 2009
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| In a tough economy, retail jewelers are leaning on the bridal category. Bride wears platinum wedding ring with 0.82 carats of diamonds, necklace with 0.89 carats of diamonds and bracelet with 7.8 carats of diamonds, all by Henrich and Denzel of Radolfzell, Germany. Photo: Courtesy of Platinum Guild International. |
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Retail jewelers have a favorite aphorism, often cited in these financially turbulent times: "People are still getting married."
Used to sum up the state of the jewelry business, it deflects a basic truth about the recession's impact on sales: Bridal is for many jewelers the only bright spot in an otherwise lackluster, if not downright dismal, year.
At a time when consumption, even among the affluent, is down--way down--discretionary purchases such as watches and fashion jewelry have fallen by the wayside. By contrast, sales of engagement rings and other bridal items (you might call them "non-negotiable purchases") are steady, if not thriving.
"Bridal is healthy--it hasn't hit the downward trend yet," says Peter Ahee, president of Edmund T. Ahee Jewelers in Gross Pointe Woods, Mich., echoing the sentiments of couture jewelers nationwide.
In light of this scenario, the category is getting a fresh infusion of talent as designers from the more fashion-forward side of the business take refuge in bridal's safe haven.
"It's something my customers have been requesting for some time and was expedited by the current state of things," says designer Shaesby Scott of his first foray into the bridal category, a collection of women's and men's bands in 18-karat gold and platinum, shown for the first time at the Couture show in Las Vegas.
"One thing that was very important was to maintain the style of Shaesby, so you'll notice the dual textures I'm known for and the unusual shape of the stones," he says, citing a marquise-cut diamond surrounded by a thick gold bezel. "It's got a contemporary feel rooted in my background in design."
Shaesby is not the only one for whom necessity has been the mother of invention. Designer Penny Preville debuted a bridal collection this spring that Brides.com's Cari Wolfert described as having "a sleek modern feel with vintage elements." Wolfert singled out the "Aphrodite" engagement ring with an entwined shank and 0.68 carats of pave diamonds, which retails for $4,785 (without center stone).
The competition is getting so fierce that even designers with a foothold in the category have approached it with fresh eyes.
"Nobody has a pretty, feminine, affordable bridal collection in sterling," designer Leslie Greene says.
Until, that is, Greene stepped in to offer one. A couture designer who has long offered engagement rings in her signature filigreed style, Greene launched a collection of feminine, vintage-inspired pearl earrings and necklaces at the Couture show, positioning them as affordable bridesmaid gifts.
"Obviously, the bridal market is not dying," she says. "Everything has slowed down. Gold has slowed down. Thank God, I opened up the sterling silver line. Thank God, we're holding our own."
Center size does not hold
For manufacturers who already have a strong presence in the bridal category, the health of the business hasn't allowed them to rest on their laurels. Quite the contrary.
"We opened on Saturday this year to serve our stores because that's the busiest day of the week in jewelry stores," says Paul Tacorian, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Los Angeles-based Tacori. "And we started a three-week turnaround for special orders for our top platinum partners. We continue to be aggressive online. With The Knot and Brides.com, we spend a lot of money. Our SEO [search engine optimization] efforts continue to do well. It's about visibility."
Tacorian has personally embraced that view this year by stepping up his travel schedule, enabling him to make numerous appearances at key accounts around the country. The extra effort seems to have paid off--at a recent trunk show, a retailer sold 25 Tacori rings over the course of a single weekend, and special orders are up 10 percent compared with last year, Tacorian says.
All the promotion in the world, however, can't change the fact that bridal customers aren't spending as much money as they used to, evident in the diamonds they are choosing as center stones.
"They're going a bit smaller," Tacorian says. "It was a half to two carats before. Now, people are realizing that one carat's not so bad. Two to three carats might be a little excessive to start off with."
The important thing to remember is that, in spite of the trading down phenomenon, demand for bridal goods in terms of unit sales is consistent. Stephen Lussier, chairman of De Beers Botswana, says that in certain categories of rough diamonds, the company is even seeing some scarcity, namely, medium to higher-end bridal goods in sizes ranging from 50 points to 1.5 carats.
Another interesting development that has a direct link to the economy is an emerging interest in engagement rings featuring brown-diamond center stones. While white is still the color of choice for the vast majority of brides, there's no arguing that browns, the least expensive color of diamond, have a distinct price advantage.
"Money's tight, the economy stinks," says Sally Morrison, director of the Diamond Information Center. "This may be a huge opportunity to offer beautiful classic rings with a little less cost."
Eddie LeVian, design director and chief executive officer of Le Vian, was capitalizing on the momentum behind champagne- and cognac-colored diamonds by introducing the "Chocolate Vows" bridal collection at the JCK Show in Las Vegas. It builds off of his signature "Chocolate Diamonds" line, which he introduced in 2000, back when many retailers still considered browns off-color goods.
"Our take was that these are natural fancy-color diamonds, untreated," LeVian says. "They presented a wonderful opportunity for a designer for an affordable price."
The company soon rolled out a trademarked color-grading system, based on various flavors of chocolate: "Pavé Chocolates," "Chunky Chocolates" and "Chocolate Truffles," for example. Nearly a decade after being introduced, the collection is finally winning over the retail stalwarts. The popularity of the eco-movement along with the market's desire for less flashy, more understated jewels has played no small part in its wider acceptance.
"For some independents, the tide is changing and they're starting to realize it's a huge business they're missing," LeVian says.
A case for being incomparable
The growing interest in brown diamonds reflects the degree to which natural-color diamonds of all hues have been embraced by the high-end. Buoyed by their success at auction, they are poised to compete with their colorless-diamond counterparts for bridal consumers' share of wallet.
"The beauty of colored diamonds in the bridal category is that there's only one like it in the world," says Robert May, executive director of the Natural Color Diamond Association. "You have three dimensions: tone, hue and saturation, and they never quite hit the same. You can have a few pinkish-brown diamonds, all ovals, all intense, and you put them all next to each other and they all look different. One's a little more pink, one's a little more brown. When it comes to bridal, that's perfect."
As a marketing strategy, the one-of-a-kind comparison has legs primarily because it comes with a guaranteed margin--a colored diamond's uniqueness can't be price-shopped.
"In a market like this, everybody's looking around for what makes them different," May adds. "Colored diamonds are perfect for that."
In all its myriad incarnations, the bridal category ultimately owes its enduring success to what De Beers would describe as its "gift of love" symbolism. Poised against the backdrop of a world in flux, the value of an engagement ring or wedding band is meant to last forever.
Scott Kay, the bridal designer, is so secure in the power of that sentiment that he's growing his business while many are shrinking. Not only is he opening an exclusive, invitation-only salon in September--dubbed SK66 (an amalgam of Kay's initials, birth month and day), the store will not be open to the public, nor will its location be disclosed--he's also expanding his design and manufacturing facility by an additional 6,000 square feet this spring.
"Recent accelerated consumer demand for Scott Kay bridal and fine fashion designs has created the immediate need to expand the current design and jewelry manufacturing facility," said a company press release sent out in mid April.
"This space will be filled with soft lighting and changing music [depending on the day], allowing the mind to flow and allowing us to expand our various lifestyle collections," Kay says.
In light of the economic realities, straying beyond the bridal safety zone into the lifestyle arena is a bold move, indeed
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