Jewellery a la mode
By Stuart Braun
Should the jewellery industry be a follower of fashion? In today's trend-savvy world, is jewellery increasingly becoming a fashion accessory? STUART BRAUN reports.
Though jewellery and fashion have always been bedfellows, the tendency for jewellers to ignore prevailing fashion trends is becoming perilous in today's cutthroat and increasingly 'fashion-forward' market.
A new crop of progressive jewellery retailers and suppliers see jewellery as a dynamic adjunct to a broader fashion identity, and are less inclined to rely on traditional 'statement' pieces designed in an aesthetic vacuum. The aim is to remain relevant to a younger, fashion-savvy demographic - with highly disposable incomes - that makes purchase choices based on their fickle fashion whims.
In Australia, fashion labels like Karen Walker, Mimco and Gail Sorronda are synonymous with a new wave of high-profile apparel/accessories brands that produce everything from costume to fine jewellery. These ranges are not traditionally pitched to represent a special moment in the wearer's life or a symbol of romantic attachment. Instead, they constitute part of a synthesised fashion identity, one borne from the trends and styles that permeate a proliferating and globalising mass media, from TV to magazines and the internet.
Likewise, high-end fashion labels like Gucci, Prada and Burberry are launching extensive jewellery lines that cash in on a fashion pulse flowing strongly through an increasingly style-conscious world.
The challenge for traditional jewellery retailers is to become part of this world, and to come in from the fashion cold.
Karen Walker, the hugely successful New Zealand fashion and jewellery designer (her range sells in over 150 stores worldwide), is transforming the jewellery world by shunning traditional ideas about jewellery and retailing.
Ranging from silver rings and charm bracelets for under $1,000, to fine jewellery items made of diamond, gold, pearl and platinum for up to $15,000, Walker's jewellery has a quirky, high-fashion edge (note the 'girl with an axe' pendant or pearl choker with skull and heart diamond clasp). Clare Barker of Vogue Australia wrote of the range: "Once thoughts of fine jewellery evoked geriatric diamonds, twin sets and pearls. Then along came Karen Walker to turn the whole thing on its head. Finally ... fine jewellery for the modern girl."
The Karen Walker range is rarely stocked by conventional jewellery retailers, as opposed to hip boutiques like Reiss, or upmarket accessory stores including Douglas and Hope. This is not surprising considering Walker's upstart attitude to traditional jewellery retailing, having stated in 2003, on the release of her jewellery range, that the pieces were not for the "girl who is waiting around for Mr Right to buy her a little solitaire".
As quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, Walker added: "Jewellery has lost its ritual and glamour and has little relevance to the modern woman who will quite happily spend $2,000 on a new handbag or $800 on a new pair of shoes but isn't at all interested in purchasing the predictable jewellery the market is currently dominated by."
In 2008, that "predictable" jewellery market is already changing.
"It's important to keep trying something different," says Julian Ammavuta of Victorian Diamond Traders, a Melbourne jeweller established in 1940. In the past year, Ammavuta has started stocking high-fashion lines from Burberry, Armani and Karen Walker.
"They're doing really well. We like fashion-conscious ranges because they're always changing, sell faster, and help us appeal to a lot of younger people in the area," Ammavuta says.
Travis Trewarne of Trewarne Fine Jewellers in Melbourne agrees that being fashion-forward is vital in today's industry: "It's very important that you have relevance," he says. "People like to see that you're up-to-date, they want to see evidence of this in your window display, even if they won't necessarily buy it."
Trewarne, a designer who won the Harper's Bazaar Diamond Guild Pink Diamond Award in 2005, and who stocks high-fashion jewellery from designer label Kenzo and others, admits his range is dominated by the same classical designs that have been selling for 10 or 20 years. However, he concedes that it is still important to stay abreast of the latest trends and appear relevant to consumers in this respect.
To help facilitate this sense of fashion awareness, Trewarne Fine Jewellers releases its own fashion-cum-jewellery magazine, Heist, to showcase its jewellery range alongside the latest fashion labels and trends, and to provide a forum for Melbourne's clothing and jewellery designers to collaborate and communicate their fashion-savvy message. This requires close appraisal, not only of the latest international collections, but the latest look in Hollywood.
"We recently went through a phase where Hollywood stars didn't wear necklaces, just long drop earrings," says Trewarne, adding that he was able to forecast this trend and reap the rewards.
Retailers must develop a close relationship with trend-savvy suppliers if they are to profit from the fashion-
conscious consumer. Upcoming fashion jewellery brand ANGI MAC - the accessories label launched in 2004 by Sarah and Angi MacFarland, both previously fashion designers and buyers - supply a growing band of boutiques and accessories stores who successfully stock dynamic jewellery lines that are highly-seasonal.
"It's very important to know what's in fashion, to know what's coming," says Sarah MacFarland. "We used to supply Myer three to six months out but it wasn't working," she says. "Now we supply smaller stores much more consistently. It's working a lot better for us."
Though ANGI MAC had developed a solid brand in only a couple of years, working in the traditional way with the big retailers made it much harder to compete. "The market was so competitive, it was much harder to stand out," she says.
This is fertile ground for smaller jewellery retailers who are willing to take risks with innovative and fashion-responsive lines, both in terms of fine and costume jewellery. The idea is to stock more dynamic ranges in smaller runs, to sell out fast, and then be ready to follow the next look, rather than be bogged-down with large stockholdings of out-of-date styles.
"The stock has to be gone within a month, it changes so fast. We don't have a lot of time, it has to be quick," MacFarland says.
And the formula has worked: "We've done really well this season against the low-cost labels because we're on the pulse and have a closer relationship with stockists."
These low-cost labels dominate proliferating discount accessory stores like Diva, which opened its doors in 2005 and now has nearly 100 outlets nationally. MacFarland notes that these low-cost retailers tend to purchase lines straight from China that are often more fashion redundant than forward. "Often jewellers are able to buy ready-made ranges overseas but they have no relevance to the fashion at home," says MacFarland.
For retailers and suppliers to remain adept followers of fashion, they need to closely monitor the latest Australian and overseas collections, trend-forecasting publications and fashion websites.
"You can't just sit there and put out your ranges. You really have to be on the pulse. This summer, we changed from medium-long necklaces to high, since high neckline tops and dresses, without much cleavage, are in. We're also trying pearl necklaces that don't interfere with the neckline," MacFarland says.
Venessa Vevers, accessories buyer and designer from high-profile Australian fashion label Alannah Hill, admits that, while the Alannah Hill range has a very specific look, she also needs to stay on top of trends through regular overseas travel and subscription to trend-forecasting websites like WGSN and InfoMat. Each give detailed weekly and monthly reports on the latest fashion trends, including jewellery, with InfoMat providing a trend fashion forum that keeps retailers and manufacturers current, from trend analysis, street style, store windows, runway and trade show reports, along with consumer trends that forecast the future of fashion design and retail sales.
Incorporating jewellery into the broader fashion culture has become vital in today's market, says Gail Reid, founder of au courant fashion label, Gail Sorronda, which has been distinguished by the bold use of jewellery design.
Tiffany & Co sponsored Gail Sorronda in the 2007 Designer Awards at L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, which saw the unveiling of the latter's contemporary jewellery line, marked by striking headpieces that use futuristic metallic designs.
"It is important to be relevant and appropriate in communicating a message; fashion is about sending messages," Reid says. "If jewellery brands are not congruent with prevailing trends it is going to make it harder to reach more people."
Reid agrees that consumers are demanding jewellery styles that reflect the consumer's fashion identity. "People as a whole want to fit in. If jewellery can keep pace with trends, it makes it easier for customers to ride the wave of the latest style," she says. "If jewellery can infiltrate the popular culture of fashion magazines, not just through advertising but integrate into editorial amongst the clothing, it presents a bigger picture that is easier for the consumer gaze to digest. It is all about alliances and what demographic you are trying to reach; its about perception, relevance and education."
Stronger identification with prevailing fashion trends will also help jewellery producers and retailers differentiate themselves within a highly competitive market.
"Differentiation is the key to gaining a following and ultimately creating a target market," says JP Then, founder of Australian fashion website, fashionreview.com.au. "For example, Chronicles of Never (innovative Australian streetwear jewellery from designer Gareth Moody) has ties to an established fashion label, Tsubi, and only stocks its brand in certain boutiques, creating an air of exclusivity. This is the same for Mimco," he says.
Mimco, founded in Australia in 1996 by Amanda Briskin, is among Australia's leading fashion accessory brands - its jewellery line includes necklaces and (charm) bracelets characterised by bold, unique materials including carved lava rocks, acetate and silver plated brass.
"Mimco is not only popular amongst Australian females, but is internationally recognised, with a host of celebrities constantly being photographed wearing Mimco products," says Then. With nearly 20 dedicated Mimco shops located in Australia, David Jones department stores exclusively stock the coveted Mimco brand, reinforcing the veneer of differentiation and uniqueness that is vital to fashion jewellery retailing.
Jewellery retailers have an opportunity here to develop exclusive relationships with fashion-conscious brands, and thus create a key point of differentiation. Travis Trewarne believes that fine jewellers can also combine classic styling with current trends to create their own fashion niche.
"We interpret trends and combine them with the timeless appeal of classic pieces to differentiate ourselves."
This requires constant remodelling and innovation in accordance with the fickle whims of the growing consumer fashionista. It also requires an appreciation of celebrity trends.
"During Christmas we sold a huge amount of South Sea pearl drop earrings because newsreaders were wearing them. Women tune into Temptation for the first five minutes to see what Livinia Nixon is wearing, and tune in at the end of the show to see who supplied the outfit. It's like the way Oprah popularised the circle necklace," says Trewarne.
For retailers to cash in on fast-changing trends, they need suppliers who can be innovative in a short time-frame. ANGI MAC, for instance, prides itself on a fashion dynamism facilitated through interchangeable designs. "We're very flexible. We can swap beads; we can easily changes things. It's unique in that way," says MacFarland.
Though 50 per cent of ANGI MAC's stock is made in China, it's significantly altered when it gets back to Australia, depending on what the clients want. ANGI MAC produces four basic lines and 10 new pieces a month across the range. New colour ranges and styles are essential.
"We need to get it right every season, otherwise stockists will move on," MacFarland says.
Jewellery manufacturers and retailers worldwide have been looking to the fashion industry to stay competitive and arrest declining sales. Italian jewellers, once the leading force in the world jewellery market, have ceded their cachet to India due to the emerging nation's lower prices and improved quality.
Now, however, they are arresting this decline by forging closer relationships with high-profile fashion companies to co-produce accessory and jewellery lines.
"Jewellery is more and more a fashion accessory," said Francoise Izaute, president of the Italian Jewellers Club, in a Reuters article from January 2007. Izaute proceeded to cite relationships between manufacturers and fashion houses like Gucci and Versace.
Trewarne notes that this alliance is already having a big impact at the retail level. "The big fashion houses are doing a lot more jewellery," says Trewarne. "Gucci, for instance, has now brought out an entire jewellery range."
Trewarne notes that, even in Australia, fashion labels like Cartier or Gucci increasingly dictate jewellery styles and sales: "When these labels come out with a particular look, everyone follows."
Ammavuta admits that much of his inspiration comes from regular trips to the Gucci and Prada stores. "I'm always looking to stay up-to-date," he says.
It follows that new jewellery ranges are being launched at major fashion collections - note Tiffany & Co's high-profile sponsorship of the Melbourne Fashion Festival. And in a world where fashion collections generate huge mainstream publicity, it's a sure way to generate buzz and maybe snag a few celebrity customers.
Reid notes that recent spring/summer collections from high-end fashion labels, such as Chanel, Marc Jacobs and Yves Saint Laurent, have shown a taste for bold, oversized pieces.
"I have noticed a play on extreme proportions. Fine, trinket, trash and treasure, vintage, floral, feminine jewellery reflective of the 70s bohemian/rock fashion resurgence is on its way out, replaced with industrial, acrylic, armour-like proportion jewellery of the futuristic fashion trends."
She has also noticed a resurgence in "quirkier accessories" like "Lego on chains".
Once these looks appear in the ubiquitous fashion magazines and internet sites that dictate what fashion-follwers wear, it's up to the retailers to make sure what's hot is reflected in the shop window.
Though timelessness and classic styling remains the mainstay of fine jewellery retailing in Australia, fashion-conscious ranges will help attract today's style-savvy consumer. And moreover, will ensure that retailers arrest customer drift toward boutiques and accessory stores that are attracting a growing chunk of the jewellery dollar.
Posted March 01, 2008