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The new season of jewelry is full of new ideas.

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The new season of jewelry is full of new ideas. Designers are exploring new materials, fashion brands are expanding into bridal, companies you know for women's bridal are adding men's, and a few high-end brands have launched spectacular new sterling silver collections. Expect to see lots of new high-style silver in the months to come. After a rather gloomy wrap-up to the holiday season, these styles spring forward to a fresh start and new opportunities in 2008.
a new bronze age
This isn't the return of prehistoric jewelry. Designers this season are offering oh-so sophisticated styles in bronze, the hard alloy of copper and tin with a rosy brown glow. With brown tones and chocolate gold so popular, it's not surprising that bronze is being added to the palette. Although Stephen Dweck has been using bronze for years, new fans include designer Emily Armenta, gold palette innovator The Henderson Collection, and stylish sterling specialist Ecclissi. This isn't costume jewelry by any stretch: Armenta sets her irresistible bronze rings, hoops, and bangles with rose cut diamonds. Price points for the bronze styles are similar to her sterling styles. Both Armenta and Henderson Collection add some 18k gold to the bronze alloy to keep the color long-lasting.
high-style silver
This season brings very good news for collectors who can't get enough of jewelry by Leslie Greene and Stephen Webster. The two trend-setting designers are launching new collections in sterling silver at price points that allow impulse purchases.
Leslie Greene's new sterling silver collection has her signature look of lacy scrollwork with diamond accents. Small charms start at $35 retail, bangles range from $165 to $600. Big medallions retail around $1,000. She also adds in some bold oxidized silver looks like the sterling silver cuff shown here, which retails for $1,895. Greene plans to add two-tone styles with 18k gold accents to the collection at the Las Vegas show.
It will be hard to miss the new sterling silver collection by Stephen Webster this year. The designer is launching the new collection with an ad campaign featuring five-time Grammy winning singer Christina Aguilera, seen on this month's cover. The inspiration for the campaign, which launches this month in W, is Alfred Hitchcock's iconic heroine. The first two collections are "Shattered," which features inlays in white agate, onyx, hematite, jade, and blue goldstone glass, and "Superstud," seen on the cover, which has spiky silhouettes, some accented with black rhodium and coral, hematite, white and black jade. Retail prices range from $500 to $1,800.
fashionable new brides
In addition to great new styles, designers known for fashion jewelry bring a new approach to their bridal collections.
Erica Courtney's first bridal collection is inspired by a personal experience: her son's marriage. After creating a custom engagement ring for his fiancée that incorporated the couple's initials, she decided the concept was so great, she needed to add it to her jewelry collection. The new Erica Courtney "Gorgeous & Engaged" bridal collection was born. As you might expect for a project inspired by her own family, personalization is central to Courtney's approach to bridal. The new collection also includes bands engraved with "Will you marry me" or a custom sentiment. Now that the wedding is approaching and Courtney is creating a special wedding gift for the couple, the bridal collection is expanding to include personalized silverware as well. If the pattern of Courtney's new flatware collection isn't right, customers can bring in their own choice of flatware to be customized and adorned in Courtney's distinctive style.
Jude Steele of Jude Frances just got married but her bridal line was in development already. "We had requests from customers to make some of our ring settings as bridal rings so we decided to jump into the bridal market," Steele says. "Michael C. Fina is doing well with it and we'll launch it officially at Couture this year." The new Jude Frances bridal collection is 18k gold semi-mounts and bands with micro-pavé G VS diamonds. Rings accommodate half-carat to 3 carat centers. "Fleur de lis and hearts run through the collection," Steele says. "We have a blue sapphire in every ring—something old, new, borrowed, and blue—and it is kind of hidden but the customers know about it, kind of like a hidden secret."
Also new to the U.S. is Italian brand Diaoro by Giordano Zanon, which also manufactures for some of the leading European brands. Diaoro's bridal settings with VVS diamonds are designed for large center stones. "Glorious" has a pavé sphere cut around the center stone in a crown pattern. "Elegant" forms a star around a prominent center. All the settings give even more prominence to a hard-to-miss stone.
boy bands
Now that Platinum Guild International is featuring men's bands along with women's sets in its consumer advertising, bridal brands are taking a new look at the men's category. Kirk Kara, Martin Flyer, and Mark Patterson are three brands known for women's bridal who recently added men's to their collections.
Kirk Kara launched the new "Artin" men's collection at JA New York, named after brand founder Kirk Karaguezian's father, a second-generation jeweler who established a jewelry store in Lebanon in 1925. The satin-finished and hand engraved bands have touches of the intricate detailing found on Kirk Kara's engagement ring styles.
"Girls are very brand-conscious and they often pick out the men's bands," says Angela Karaguezian. "They like the idea that they are the same brand, with a matching motif."
Martin Flyer has launched a new men's collection under the company's "Flyer Fit" name. And Mark Patterson's collection includes unique finishes like inlay and engraving. The impact of having his and hers in one brand is increased if the two are displayed together, allowing the couple to try on bands at the same case.
author: BY CHERYL KREMKOW, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF - Modern Jeweler




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