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Fashion Recognizes Beauty of Brown Diamonds’ Natural Color-Oct.2000
Fashion's fickle finger is once again tickling the diamond market. After
being hot, then not, then embroiled as the subject of a controversial treatment,
brown diamonds--slugged champagne and cognac--are fashion’s flavor of the
moment. The stones that just last year were being viewed as suitable for color
enhancement are now the ones being demanded by jewelry designers in both the
United States and Europe in its natural state.
Designers from Aaron Basha, New York, to Krieger, Idar-Oberstein and Rina Limor,
New York, are rediscovering the stones for not only their natural beauty, but
also for their higher profit margin than white diamonds. During the summer, for
example, brown diamond lines emerged at the JA New York show. Women's Wear
Daily, the bible of the fashion industry, meanwhile, featured a brown
diamond ring on its cover and an array of brown diamond jewelry inside.
Popular pieces feature either brown diamond pave, briolettes or other
unusual-cut stones. Designers are touting the natural beauty of brown diamonds,
echoing the sentiments of Argyle's massive marketing of brown diamonds less than
a decade ago. In 1992, Argyle sponsored promotional and advertising programs and
initiated the C1 to C7 nomenclature for grading brown diamonds. Though surveys
then indicated that recognition figures went from 6% to 90% among consumers,
popularity dropped off and, by 1998, designers had stopped using the colored
diamonds altogether.
The booming economy and desire for unique luxury goods is driving designers
to dabble in unconventional stones. Last year, for example, pink and black
diamonds were making a buzz within the jewelry industry. Welcome news to Diamond
Registry, an early and continual fan and source of fancy colored diamonds, this
year, it is browns. According to importers like Lauren B, New York, wholesaler
of the Lepozzi line of brown diamond jewelry, browns have more fire than their
black counterparts and are helped by the U.S. consumer’s familiarity with the
term "champagne." According to a spokesman for Krieger, based in
Germany, the champagne and cognac stones are also becoming very popular among
European consumers.v |
