Spring break is here, and jewelry designer Heather B. Moore (pictured) says her clients are thinking about not only what they’ll wear during their travels but what new jewels they’re going to bring home with them.
“We do really well in vacation or destination locations where we design pieces to highlight the area,” she says. “Pearls are a staple in this case, and our glass enamel does well with beachgoers.”
Moore herself loves to travel, and she says her brand’s ever-evolving Travel collection—featuring pieces with compasses, shells, sand dollars, and engraved city names and area codes—highlights what makes travel great: adventure, exploration, and experiences that shape who you are as a person.
An estimated 173 million Americans are expected to take a flight in March and April, up 4% from the same time last year, according to Airlines for America, an aviation trade group. The U.S. Travel Association forecasts that domestic leisure travel this year will reach levels similar to pre-pandemic 2019 and that total U.S. travel spending will grow 3.9%, to $1.35 trillion.
Consulting and analytics firm Deloitte noted a post-pandemic bounce as well, reporting that more people planned to raise their holiday travel budgets from the previous year, with 40% saying they would do so because “travel has become more important to me since the pandemic.”
Consumers also feel an itch for travel thanks to movies and TV series, such as The White Lotus, set in tropical paradises. A location like Thailand, where this season of The White Lotus takes place, sets a tone for the kind of jewelry a vacationer might wear there as well as purchase as a great memory of their trip, says Moore.
“These shows are always so exciting, and there’s an element of suspense that makes me want every character to have an evil eye charm for protection,” she says. “The setting in Thailand begs for long, beautiful gold chains and bangles and pearls. And sculptural charms, like the anchor, the feather, the conch, and lotus.”
This season, Moore expects pieces like her Latitude and Longitude charm to resonate with vacationers—they can literally mark the place where they had fun in the sun, skied a new slope, or just relaxed with family or friends.
“A special spot is a very popular solution for an area that’s made an impression on your life,” Moore says. “Another is our glass enamel charms—when you have these charms that have been collected over the years, they reflect your adventures, your path, and your story. And they become further symbols for the experiences you’ve had along the way.”
Moore does collect jewelry in her travels, but she also creates her own mementos of trips when she returns. “Like on my last trip to South Korea for ceramics, I saved a really big dragonfly, and so I’m making a dragonfly charm for myself,” she says. “Just like a fingerprint, everyone’s story and collection is unique.”
(Photos courtesy of Heather B. Moore)
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