Every year for the past five years or so, I would drop by the booth of Euro Pearls/Yoko London at Baselworld and JCK Las Vegas (in Prestige #40 this year) to drool over the lustrous Easter Egg-hued freshwater pearls in their window displays. But drool was all I could do—I couldn’t share them with readers, because the company didn’t photograph their pieces and didn’t seem to understand editorial. At each visit, I spoke to someone in the booth, told them that I wanted to work them into editorial (free exposure to potential buyers), and was told that they would send images for press. That never happened. So after five years of empty promises, I decided that I would stop dropping by because history was bound to repeat itself. Imagine my surprise this year when I learned that that situation was changing.
At the 2014 Baselworld show, JCK publisher Mark Smelzer and European sales rep Mirek Kraczkowski told me they were in conversations with a pearl brand that was well known in Europe but less so in the U.S., and they wanted to raise their American profile. “They’re called Euro Pearls or Yoko London, do you know them?” Mark asked. “Do I know them? I’ve wanted to cover them for years!” I said. “Does this mean they now have images?” I asked. “Yes,” he responded. If I had wings, I would have flown over to the booth at that moment, because this was the news I had been waiting to hear for years; Yoko London was finally organized and ready for press.
Of course, this means that I can share images of their gorgeous pieces with you. And, you can see them firsthand next week at P-40 at the show.
While there are lots of pearl vendors with beautiful pieces across all the shows, Yoko London is special, in my opinion, because it specializes in massive, round, natural-color freshwater pearls. The company offers stunning graduated-in-color strands of them, fresh and modern front-to-back earrings featuring mixed colors of them (see “Back to the Front” on page 256 in the June issue), and a multitude of other variations that will leave you breathless. Here are a few to whet your appetite; don’t miss them next week at the show.
Ring in 18k gold with 17–18 mm pink freshwater pearl and 1.95 cts. t.w. diamonds, $17,000; Yoko London
Earrings in 18k rose gold with 13–14 mm pink freshwater pearls, 16.04 cts. t.w. amethysts, and 0.57 ct. t.w. diamonds, $13,500; Yoko London
Courtesy Yoko London
Earrings in 18k white gold with 17–18mm pink freshwater pearls and 7.51 cts. t.w. diamonds, $32,000; ring in 18k white gold with 16–17 mm pink freshwater pearl and 4.69 cts. t.w. diamonds, $26,500; and necklace in 18k rose gold with 8–15 mm white akoya and pink freshwater pearls and 8.03 cts. t.w. diamonds, $56,000; Yoko London
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