Love From Venus has fashion jewellery covered
New exhibitors excite with originality
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This year’s Sydney International Jewellery Fair will feature more than 60 first-time exhibitors, many of which are new suppliers to the Australian market hoping to offer retail buyers something different.
According to Expertise Events managing director Gary Fitz-Roy, jewellery retailers are always on the look-out for the “next big thing” and with the Sydney Fair fast approaching, most exhibitors are finalising their ranges. This year’s Sydney fair has focused on attracting a wide range of new exhibitors that have something special to offer retailers. Jeweller spoke to a variety of the maiden exhibitors, asking them what they have in store for visitors.
Out of this world
Melbourne fashion jewellery supplier Love From Venus (LFM) has spent the last four years perfecting its collections and branding and now has around 30 jewellery retail stockists. It is planning to use the Sydney fair as a springboard into jewellery retail stores across the country for its pearl and colourful stones range.
“We started sourcing into Showcase Jewellers around a year ago, and now we’re finding other buying groups are starting to chase our brand, hence the reason we’re going to the show,” LFM co-owner Robert Hatzis told Jeweller. “We’ve got two segments to our jewellery, sterling silver for the jewellery industry and lower-cost silver-plated products for the gift industry.”
Hatzis said LFM saw a gap in the market, and planned to offer an alternative to the jewellery he expected would most commonly be displayed.
“No one out there is doing what we do, it’s more fashion oriented,” he said. “The industry is changing, there’s still a place for traditional jewellery and there’s a place for us too.”
On the cuff of success
Paulina Bulakova believes she is offering something new and different at the fair as well, and will launch ‘Successful Woman’, a range of women’s pearl cuff links.
Curtis Australia brings back glamour to writing
“We are the only company in Australia, and most probably the world, specialising purely in women’s cufflinks,” Bulakova said. “Women make up over 55 per cent of university graduate positions, and nearly 50 per cent of the workplace and the population in Australia. We believe that there is a huge potential for cufflinks to be perceived as jewellery for men and women in business, not just men.”
Bulakova has only recently made the switch to the jewellery industry, previously working in banking. She believed the fair would be a crucial starting point for Successful Woman.
“For an outsider like us, with no contacts or experience in this industry, the fair is an amazing opportunity to meet the retailers face to face, generate leads, research current trends and generally introduce our brand to the buyers,” she said.
Memorable pens
Meanwhile, Curtis Australia will be trying to write up a new definition of fine jewellery at its stand. While it offers several brooches, necklaces and bracelets, the supplier’s major focus is its elegant pen collection. Expect to see bejewelled fountain and ball point pens cased in sterling silver, gold, and resin, with intricate designs inspired by diverse subjects, including American politics, 19th century explorers, and even golf great Jack Nicklaus.
“It’s our writing instruments that set us apart from most jewellery suppliers,” Trevor Brown, product developer Curtis Australia, said. “As jewellers, we create and handcraft our fine pens in our own newly built facility, using our jewellery skills in particular to create something very distinctive.”
Successful Woman specialises in female cuff links
Brown said that Curtis Australia’s pens are bonafide jewellery because of the materials used.
“Every pen we make features a precious element,” he said, “be it a diamond in the clip of our Komo pen, to sterling silver highlights on many other models, to entirely solid silver. [Some are] even gold and gem-set too.”
Shoot to thrill
For retailers who can’t attend the fair, promotional product photos will become the best reference for deciding what new collections to stock. Jewel Photography will be exhibiting at the fair as a photography and video solution for visitors and fellow exhibitors, and will use a high definition television to display visuals of jewellery.
“These jewellery videos have never before been presented to the industry at a trade show by an Australian supplier or any other supplier for that matter,” photographic director Conrad Vanecek said. “A good or great photo of an item of jewellery will ensure that item and that brand has credibility in a consumer’s eyes, but present a video extending over 10 to 30 seconds then the jewellery comes alive with movement and takes it to the next level in promotion.”
Jeweller will be continuing to preview some of the exciting new developments from local and overseas-based suppliers in the weeks leading up to the fair.
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Posted August 07, 2012