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Celebrity Jewelry Gawk™ - Dazzling diamonds

Diamonds are no stranger to the red carpet, serving as a globally recognized symbol of success and wealth. With a summer full of soirees, premieres and galas, celebrities donned this coveted stone in the latest styles, mostly favoring glamorous drop earrings while still making room for simpler--yet just as luxurious--bangles.

Sarah Hyland (below), an actress on ABC’s series Modern Family, wore Diamond in the Rough Sodwana diamond earrings ($16,500) and Orielle bracelet ($85,000) to a viewing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 at the Lincoln Center in New York City.







Singer Colbie Caillat (below) wore a Bavna silver diamond bangle ($600) during her performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Burbank, California.





Actress Olivia Munn wore a diamond, coral and 14-karat gold cocktail ring (below) by Neil Lane to a premiere of the new movie, Our Idiot Brother. The ring retails for $5,000.



Actress Jaime Pressly (below) wore Sutra’s 18-karat gold, 4-tier natural brown rough cut diamond earrings ($20,000) to the 10th annual InStyle Summer Soiree this month in Hollywood.





Actress Olivia Wilde (below) wore Sethi Couture’s 18-karat yellow gold and white diamond ball stud earrings ($790) to the United Kingdom premiere of Cowboys & Aliens this month in London.





Actress Brittany Snow (below) wore Le Vian’s 18-karat rose gold and diamond ball earrings ($7,947) to the 2011 VH1 Do Something Awards in Hollywood this month.





ABC’s Switched at Birth actress Constance Marie wore Vahan’s 14-karat gold and sterling silver bracelet with diamonds (below) to the 26th Annual Imagen Awards Gala in Beverly Hills this month. The bracelet retails for $3,200.



Gossip Girl actress Katie Cassidy (below) wore a Hellmuth 18-karat white gold and diamond Croco ring ($1,959) to the 10th Annual InStyle Summer Soiree in London this month.





Songstress Demi Lovató wore a rose-gold plated snake ring with diamonds and ruby eyes (below) for the cover of her new album, Unbroken. The ring retails for $835.



Brumani’s diamond pieces have been making frequent red carpet appearances this summer. Jennifer Lopez (below) wore Brumani’s earrings with brown diamonds, Morion quartz and champagne citrine ($4,464) to the BAFTA Brits to Watch 2011 Gala. The earrings are from the Mumbai Collection.





Viola Davis (below), from the 2011 movie The Help, wore Brumani’s 18-karat gold earrings with orange moonstone and diamonds ($7,853) to the movie’s Los Angeles premiere this month.





Jennifer Morrison (below), of the CBS show How I Met Your Mother, wore Brumani’s earrings in white and pink gold with diamonds ($1,969) to a Disney ABC TCA Summer Press Tour this month.





Morrison was also spotted sporting Victor Velyan’s 24-karat and diamond earrings (below) to an InStyle dinner this month. The earrings retail for $8,280.

These boots were made for … jewelling?

Western boot brand Tony Lama Boots is celebrating 100 years of business this year, and to commemorate the event will be taking on tour a fourth-edition El Ray pair of bedazzled boots--the shoes are covered in 100 diamonds and 14-karat gold buckles (below).


Susan Eisen, an El Paso jeweler, goldsmith, author, gemologist, designer and embellisher of the boots, said it was an honor “to show how the art of diamonds and gold can help celebrate momentous occasions.”



The boots are made from fine grade leather and feature gold leather accents and soles, large yellow gold buckles and shields, and studs of yellow gold and diamond bezels and stars. Valued at more than $50,000, the boots will be on display at U.S. western specialty retail stores and brand events throughout 2011.

Boots aren’t the only thing getting a luxury makeover. DKNY Fragranced partnered with jeweler Martin Katz to create the first million-dollar fragrance bottle (below), an apple-shaped flacon carved from 14-karat yellow and white gold and adorned with 2,700 round brilliant white diamonds, 183 golden yellow sapphires and a 2-carat flawless vivid yellow canary diamond, decorating the cap of the bottle.



That’s not all. The apple fragrance bottle sits on a base comprised of two layers of water white glass, between which the 14-karat gold continents of Earth are set with precious gemstones indigenous to each country. A turquoise tourmaline from Brazil, a sapphire from Sri Lanka and a pink diamond from Australia are included in the base.



The bottle is scheduled to go on a worldwide tour, and at the tour’s conclusion the flacon will be sold with net proceeds being donated to the global charity Action Against Hunger (AAA). AAA works to supply communities with access to safe drinking water and sustainable solutions to hunger, carrying out life-saving programs in more than 40 countries and assisting close to 5 million people a year. 

What’s the most unique item you’ve seen decorated in jewels?

Peeking in Pandora’s box

I was surprised by Tuesday’s announcement that Pandora’s CEO was stepping down and the company retooling in the face of sliding sales and poor execution in both marketing and operations.

The announcement raised a number of questions for me about a brand that I have perceived as being über-successful within the industry, kicking off a craze for a charm bracelets with a modern twist and helping many jewelers make it through the recession when nothing else--save bridal--was selling.

Has Pandora simply saturated the market? One of the thoughts that first came to mind when I read the Pandora announcement was that they had simply reached a point where the majority of people who wanted their product had what they wanted and didn’t need or want to buy anymore.

Industry analyst Jeff Taraschi said that’s not necessarily the case. There are consumers out there still wanting to buy Pandora-type products, they’re just buying it from other companies that are selling it for less.

“When you’re successful it brings a lot of competition and it brings a lot of competition at lower price points,” he said. “People that like the [Pandora] look are buying the look from the competition rather than buying it from Pandora.” 

He added that Pandora might be feeling some heat from recently announced partnership between competitor Chamilia and Swarovski, a strong brand.

“There probably would be concern at the executive level in the boardroom ... about this Chamilia-Swarovski relationship. It’s direct competition,” Taraschi notes.

Is Pandora a fad that’s fading? In conducting interviews with retailers over the past couple of years, I’ve come to discover that Pandora is a deeply dividing topic. Some jewelers refuse to carry Pandora, or any similar lines, because they feel it doesn’t belong in a fine jewelry store and is a fad that will disappear over time. As one retailer Tweeted to me the other day, “It’s not real jewelry!”

On the other hand, there are jewelers who have hired extra people just to man the Pandora counter and swear by the product as a way to generate traffic in their stores and sales among today’s price-conscious consumers.

So, are Pandora’s recent weak financials and ousting of the CEO are a sign that the former were correct, that Pandora is a fad that’s losing steam? Taraschi and Ken Gassman, another analyst that follows the industry closely, say no.

Gassman said he was surprised by Pandora’s problems and the resignation of the company’s CEO. “Any company with a growth curve like theirs is bound to hit a rough spot, but it is unusual this early in their life cycle. Further, the CEO’s resignation is a surprise,” he said.

Despite the problems, he said jewelers tell him that Pandora continues to sell well, and he said he’s heard nothing about price resistance from jewelers or consumers (though price is evidently a problem, as discussed below).

He also said he thinks beads--the backbone of Pandora’s business--have staying power as a category due to their low price point.

“Beads won’t ever be a major jewelry category, but it is viable (just as charm bracelets always seem to sell, and diamond engagement rings always seem to sell)” Gassman said.  

Taraschi said beads aren’t like gold hoops or diamond line bracelets--jewelry staples that will be with the industry forever--but companies such as Pandora will continue to exist. Their success will ebb and flow, according to how innovative they are with their product.

So then, what is the main problem? The issue that came up time and again in Pandora’s hour-and-a-half long conference call on Tuesday: price.

As the prices of gold and silver have soared, so have Pandora’s prices. And that hasn’t sat well with their core customers, executives acknowledged during the call.

 “Every business has a certain amount of price elasticity,” Taraschi said. “They might have crossed a boundary where consumers are no longer willing to pay at that level.”

Rather than being creative and re-engineering their product to create something more affordable, the feeling must have been that the brand was strong enough to be insulated from consumer backlash due to increasing prices. “The results would say that was a flawed strategy. That’s why you eliminate the CEO, for misjudging price elasticity, for not working to engineer product so the same basic look and feel could be presented without the price increases,” Taraschi said.

During Tuesday’s call, Pandora executives said that the average selling price in the United States has risen 40 percent over the past 18 months.

The company said it won’t raise prices for the remainder of 2011 or in 2012, a pretty bold statement considering the way the cost of metals continues to rise. Executives acknowledged that this obviously means they will be taking a hit on margins. Pandora’s second quarter margins were 74 percent.

Lastly, here are a few notes from the conference call that I found interesting.  

• The weakness in their Q2 sales was caused by a “sharp deterioration” in the charms and charm bracelet business, and the U.S. market was singled out the largest contribution to this decline.

•  Pandora has too much inventory, a problem many jewelers grappled with, and ultimately corrected, during the recession. Pandora said its inventory as a percentage of revenue increased from 21 percent in the second quarter 2010 to 24 percent in the second quarter 2011. The company said it is overstocked due to a combination of high gold and silver prices slowing sales and its failure to adjust production levels to demand.

•  Pandora executives were asked during the conference call if they were willing to buy back inventory from overstocked retailers. One executive said it’s “one of the options we’ve got,” though no one made any firm commitment, acknowledging only that the company has an inventory problem that needs to be solved.

Celebrity Jewelry Gawk™ – Golden girls

The price of gold continues to escalate, but it’s no deterrent to the rich and famous looking to don a few pieces to attend an event. This week’s Celebrity Jewelry Gawk examines the best gold jewelry looks recently seen on the red carpet.

Actress Sandra Bullock (below), with Ryan Reynolds, wore an Adeler 18-karat gold handmade chain link bracelet ($9,880) to the Los Angeles premiere of Reynolds’ newest movie The Change-Up.

Australian actress Yvonne Strahovski sported a Le Vian 14-karat rose gold smoky quartz ring (below) to a San Diego event. The ring retails for $1,047.

Glee star Jenna Ushkowitz (below) accessorized with Amrapali’s 14-karat gold art deco diamond earrings ($9,400) to a celebration in San Diego.

Actress Jennifer Morrison (below) wore Carrera y Carrera’s 18-karat yellow gold hoop earrings ($3,395) to Comic-Con last month.

Also choosing Carrera y Carrera was Leslie Bibb (below), who donned the brand’s 18-karat white gold diamond studs ($14,650) for an event in Los Angeles.

This 14-karat yellow gold and diamond finger bracelet, shown below on singer Kelly Rowland (below), is by Elodie K. and retails for $595. 

Actress Leslie Mann accessorized with Neil Lane’s platinum, gold and diamond ring (below), valued at $29,000, to a premiere of the new movie The Change-Up.

Actress Jaimie Alexander (below), who starred in Thor and 2010’s Love and Other Drugs, wore Baccarat’s 18-karat yellow gold and gold Mordore crystal necklace ($5,075) to a Hollywood event.

Actress Jenna Fischer (below) of The Office sported these 18-karat white gold and gray opaque diamond earrings with a white melee diamond border, retailing for $9,000.

Twilight’s Ashley Greene chose Adeler’s 14-karat yellow gold earrings with blue lapis (below) to a San Diego event. The earrings retail for $3,790.