Among pearl lovers, the name Paspaley is synonymous with the world’s finest white and pink South Sea pearls. With headquarters in Darwin, Australia, the family-owned company was founded in 1935 as a supplier of mother-of-pearl shells for the button trade. Since then, its pearl products—including loose pearls, strands, and mother-of-pearl shell—have been used by the biggest and most prestigious brands in the jewelry and watch industry.
But until this fall, Paspaley-branded jewelry was unavailable anywhere but the company’s own retail stores Down Under.
On a recent call from Sydney, Chris Paspaley, executive director of Paspaley Jewelry, explained why the brand—available as of this year at select U.S. retailers, including Lux Bond & Green in Connecticut and Lee Michaels in Louisiana—had a change of heart regarding distribution.
“For a long time, we didn’t want to entrust our brand with others,” Paspaley tells JCK. “Then we started looking at the U.S., and we did some reconnaissance, and it turns out the U.S. is very different from Australia. If you have stores in primary cities in Australia, you’re able to service all of the customer base. It’s very different in the U.S., where outside of the major cities you have these multibrand retailers who are third- or fourth-generation and they have flourished due to the quality of their service.
“I remember my first meeting with John Green [of Lux Bond & Green] and the number of times he had to go out and greet his customers—that impressed me,” Paspaley adds. “The same thing happened in meetings with other premium retailers. That gave us confidence that these were family businesses that understood the customer experience.”
The pandemic was a catalyst behind Paspaley’s decision to revisit its jewelry distribution. “During the pandemic, we looked at opportunities to grow and scale the business in a different manner,” Paspaley says. “Post-pandemic, we recovered extremely well. We had a family board meeting to discuss our tradition of being only retail and felt a wholesale partnership was a stronger way to approach the U.S. market, leveraging the strengths of these independent retailers.”
When Paspaley and other members of the executive team arrived in the U.S. to meet with select retailers, they encountered one big surprise. “We underestimated how much the Paspaley brand was already known to consumers,” Paspaley said. “We had one retailer who said he had a client very interested in some pearl earrings. He called up the client that day, referenced that he was meeting with Australia’s premier pearl supplier and she said, ‘You must be talking to Paspaley.’ He was shocked that one of his best clients was already a client of ours.”
While the company plans to expand its wholesale partnerships in 2025, Paspaley will never be a mass market vendor. “We want to be quite exclusive in coming to market,” Paspaley says. “Australian South Sea pearls are rare gems. We want to find partners who understand that rarity.
“Our target is to open another 10 to 15 doors next year and see how that goes,” he adds. “We want to make sure we’re with the right partners who understand the importance of the customer experience and storytelling.”
Much of the product focus will be on Paspaley’s Lavalier collection, which features necklaces and earrings centered on loose pearls encased in delicate gold mesh inspired by the nets pearl divers use when they collect the shells.
Classic pendants and studs start at $1,500, while the Lavalier range opens at $6,000, in keeping with the brand’s luxury reputation.
“We’re in a good position to start to break on to the world stage,” Paspaley says. “In Australia we rub shoulders alongside Tiffany, Bulgari, and Cartier and that’s how we’d like to position ourselves.”
Top: Model wearing Paspaley’s Lavalier necklace in 18k rose gold with opals, diamonds, and 17 mm round pearl, AUD 31,800 ($21,400), and Lavalier earrings in 18k rose gold with opals, diamonds, and 12 mm round pearls, $11,300
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