Las Vegas Jewelry Market Week is over, but we’re just getting started on processing all the gemstone newness we saw at the JCK and Luxury shows. The overarching takeaway? Sales of loose colored stones and colorful jewels were strong, as buyers, particularly in the luxury sector, continued their spending streak.
For greater insights, we checked in with three JCK and Luxury exhibitors to get details on which colors and gems stood out.
Lauren K
Longtime Luxury exhibitor Lauren K showed a raft of new colored stone designs rooted in designer Lauren Kessler’s signature combination of bold colors set in chunky 18k gold settings.
“Opals are still very strong,” Kessler tells JCK. “We also did stones with little colored melee that we hadn’t done before and that had a nice reaction. We hit all of the stones that were fresh for us.”
A new color combination that resonated with Lauren K’s buyers was the pairing of pink sapphires with orange sapphires or spessartite garnets. “We always had pink, but we’d never gotten deep into orange,” she says. “We dipped our toe in and loved the look.”
Kessler also saw a lot of traction behind multicolor styles, with an emphasis on the cooler end of the spectrum. “We do an earring mixed with different color ways, a mix of aquamarines, purples, and pinks,” she says. “The strongest combo was the blue and green and also the very earth-toned style.”
Omi Privé
“We wrote a lot of orders for both staple and one-of-a-kind pieces,” says Natalie Rodrigues, director of marketing at Omi Privé, a Luxury exhibitor based in Southern California. “We saw a confidence for rarer and larger pieces like blue spinel, grandidierite, and demantoid garnets being purchased for the case versus memo.”
By sales volume, however, the most popular gemstones “were blue sapphires, tourmalines (mostly cool colors like blues and greens), blue zircons, emeralds, and moonstones,” Rodrigues says. “It seems that cooler colors of the spectrum were very popular and appealing for 2022!”
Pillar & Stone
In the Gems neighborhood, Pillar & Stone owners Roland Schluessel and Nata Heng Schluessel had an “incredibly positive and surprisingly busy” show, according to Nata.
“Bright color stones and jade were our best sellers,” she says. “Pinks and greens such as tourmalines, spinels, and emeralds were very popular for us. I also saw a huge interest in carvings, unusual stones, and large sizes.”
She adds that $10,000 wholesale was a demarcation point for buyers. “Pieces below $10,000 were quite good sellers,” she says. “People wanted unusual and bright and large, if possible.”
Top: Malachite and green tourmaline earrings in 18k gold, $4,495; Lauren K
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