Fashion jewellery has been taken to new dimensions by high-end catwalk designers who charge a fortune for base metals and crystals. Why do the public pay so much for so very little? David Jones is a pretty swanky spot, and its flagship store in Melbourne is the peak of splendor for well-heeled residents trying to find a bit of luxurious retail therapy. Needless to say, the accessories department reads like a who’s who of international designers, with labels including Jimmy Choo and Miu Miu fighting it out against Christian Louboutin’s known killer heels.
The jewellery counters are no less impressive in their label adulation, with names including Gucci and Emporio Armani taking centre stage. However in contrast to the fashion department, where top-quality tailoring and materials are de rigueur on the designer rails, couture brands seem to opt for base metals and precious metal plating with regards to their jewellery selections. If a Chanel jacket is the fashion equivalent of a diamond ring with respect to quality, isn’t it strange that a piece of Chanel jewelry is the equivalent of, for example, a Sports Girl blazer?
In Australia, consumers are swooping on these so-called designer jewellery items with an passion that seems recently lacking in the fine jewellery shop. Those in the jewelry business may well be understood for asking what the appeal is – after all, the costing of this designer jewelry is eerily equivalent to what one might have to pay out for a piece of jewellery using precious metals and precious gemstones, yet the ‘designer’ components are nowhere near as excellent. Find out more: Pear Jewellery
Take luxury e-tailer Net-a-Porter’s jewelry division (which ships to Australia), for example. A plexiglass crystal necklace from Miu Miu will set you back £250 ($380), while buyers can grab a “gold-tone” and crystal Lanvin cuff for £451 ($684). Why is it these types of brands can pull off asking so much, I hear you question?
In David Jones, the helper on the jewellery stand of the Bourke Street Mall store one weekday evening is a skilled sales agent. She has a skillful sales manner and is keen to help, yet ask her which pieces in her jewelry cabinet are created from gold and sterling silver and her sales pitch falters. She doesn’t know. The only brand she knows for certain is Gucci, which has both a superior 18ct gold jewellery offering that stretches into thousands of bucks, along with a more reasonably priced fashion jewelry range made of silver and base metals, which sells for hundreds of dollars. David Jones stocks the superior collection. The truth that this department store sales assistant doesn’t know which materials are included in these designer jewellery lines implies a potentially worrying shift in consumer attitudes to jewelry.
As Pam Danziger, US-based luxury retail expert and president of Unity Marketing, points out – designer costume jewellery is nothing new: “Didn’t Coco Chanel start the whole trend toward costume jewellery?” But what is unique is this blowup of couture labels in the jewellery world and clients’ perceptions of it. For instance, did you know Roberto Cavalli, Lanvin, Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent, Guess and DKNY all have jewellery lines? Even though these fashion houses specialise in quality accessories, none have been down the higher end jewellery path. Danziger says fashion, versus materials, is what’s significant for these brands: “Designers are really returning to their roots, offering fashion and style to their customers rather than venturing into the true high-ticket jewellery world. If fashion is key, look rather than material matter most.”
Danziger divulges that in the US, costume jewellery sales improved substantially during 2006 to 2008, as the country spiralled into recession. Interesting research from Unity Marketing shows that fine jewellery sales recuperated slightly between 2008 to 2010, but she considers this is a manifestation of boosting prices rather than demand. In fact, one of the greatest trends Danziger has viewed is an increase in the usage of precious metal plating – a process lots of designer fashion brands have applied in recent jewellery collections. “From 2008 to 2010 expenditures on women’s plated jewellery, either gold plate or platinum plate, more than doubled, while expenditure on fine gold jewellery was down some 18 per cent. I think the rapid increase in prices on these metals is certainly driving the jewellery shopper to alternatives, plated metals being an excellent choice,” she identifies.
So far as Australian jewellery marketing consultant Ciara Fulcher is concerned, consumers are now making spending choices according to perception instead of any conventional concept of genuine value. She says, “As a young woman, I have friends who think nothing of spending an inordinate amount of money on costume pieces yet baulk at the idea of spending less on a sterling silver alternative. One friend purchases several items from a well-known (pricey!) Australian fashion brand on a regular basis and handles her base metal bangles with such great care one would assume they were made of solid gold!”
It’s fairly clear, therefore, that the issue isn’t one of cost. Maybe, as Danziger implies, it is a question of fashion? When catwalk models are observed strutting down the runway in not just a label’s clothing but also draped in its latest jewelry offering, the message is apparent: this label can offer the cutting edge of fashion – and not simply in garments, but additionally jewelry.
Reported by Melissa Hoyer, style commentator and Grazia contributing editor, this jewelry’s popularity is connected to age, and an developing fashion appreciation. “Younger people don’t care if they spend $500 on Chanel earrings and it doesn’t have a real pearl in it. The ‘Baby Boomer’ wants a real pearl because they seek more quality than prestige,” she says. “Younger consumers aren’t as snobby about materials. They want a pair of earrings because they love it to death.”
At DKNY, which has a solid reputation in the Australian fashion jewelry market, its designs are a mix of traditional and fashion-focused pieces primarily created with stainless steel. “Every season we inject an amount of new product that takes its inspiration from DKNY’s point of view for the season or emerging jewellery trends from around the world,” says Ives Palmer, MD of Fossil Australia, which retains the licence for DKNY jewellery in Australia.