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Eyewear’s Vision Quest Hong Kong’s Indie Jewelers Neiman’s Grand Canale In The Mix WWD Accessories Section II neutral zone DESIGNERS ARE LOOKING TO A LIGHTER PALETTE FOR THEIR LATEST FRAMES, WITH BEIGES, CREAMS AND COSMETIC SHADES LEADING THE WAY. HERE, BURBERRY’S METAL, ACETATE AND LEATHER SUNGLASSES IN A CHALKY TAUPE, WORN WITH PAMELA LOVE’S ONYX AND 14-KARAT ROSE-GOLD PLATED EARRINGS AND NONOO’S COTTON SHIRT. MODEL: JENNA W AT NEW YORK MODEL MANAGEMENT; HAIR BY MARCEL DAGENAIS AT LVA ARTISTS USING ORIBE HAIR CARE; MAKEUP BY KUMIKO HIROSE AT LVA ARTISTS USING MAC COSMETICS; FASHION ASSISTANT: ASHLEY DAVIS; PHOTO ASSISTANT: EMILY TAYLOR PHOTO BY KYLE ERICKSEN; STYLED BY ROXANNE ROBINSON
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WWDAccessories Section II - WordPress.com · 2015-02-16 · WWDAccessories Section II neutral zone Designers are looking to a lighter palette for their latest frames, with beiges,

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Page 1: WWDAccessories Section II - WordPress.com · 2015-02-16 · WWDAccessories Section II neutral zone Designers are looking to a lighter palette for their latest frames, with beiges,

■ Eyewear’s Vision Quest

■ Hong Kong’s Indie Jewelers

■ Neiman’s Grand Canale

■ In The Mix

WWDAccessories Section II

neutral zoneDesigners are looking to a lighter palette for their latest frames, with beiges,

creams anD cosmetic shaDes leaDing the way. here, burberry’s metal, acetate anD leather sunglasses in a chalky taupe, worn with pamela love’s

onyx anD 14-karat rose-golD plateD earrings anD nonoo’s cotton shirt.

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MICHAEL NELSON has caught the col-laboration bug.

The New York-based fair-trade designer has teamed with Selima Optique on a collection of handmade Italian sunglasses embellished with semiprecious stones and glass beads.

“I think collaborations are such a key

component in fashion right now,” said Nelson. “I love to bridge what I’m doing and bring it into different products.”

Nelson’s namesake line of luxury accessories is made in partnership with a fair-trade beading cooperative in Kenya. The designer founded the brand following his senior thesis at Parsons The New School for Design, centered on fusing traditional African craft with modern design. After grad-uating in 2012, Nelson traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, where the project of-ficially came together.

“I had this vision of helping through a fair-trade cooperative, but in a lux-ury setting,” said Nelson. “I went to Nairobi and founded this cooperative with two local women. What I saw from the very beginning was this need to change the pay structure. Typically, in

a fair-trade capacity, they weren’t get-ting paid for three months after their work because they were waiting for the designers to get their wholesale or-ders. There was a huge lag time. What I did was develop a cash-and-carry sys-tem — they turn in their panels and get paid immediately.”

With the cooperative rapidly grow-ing — it now employs 12 women — Nelson frequently returns to Kenya to check in on the project. It was his most recent trip, in fact, that inspired the eyewear project with Selima.

“I had a pair of sunglasses that I asked the ladies to bead, and it came out supercool,” said Nelson. “When I came back to New York, I started re-searching companies I’d love to col-laborate with, and Selima was such an easy fit.”

The collection features aviator frames done with semiprecious stone beads (hematite, lapis lazuli and freshwater pearls) and multicolored glass beads, priced at $585 and $375, respectively. He estimates the collec-tion will generate about $300,000 in sales in its first year.

The collection will become avail-able on Oct. 1 in Selima Boutique loca-tions, as well as on michaelnelson.eu.

Nelson’s main collection was re-cently picked up by Chicago boutique Ikram, as well as the fair-trade e-com-merce site Accompany.

Ultimately, Nelson hopes to have a retail space of his own.

“The plan is to have a home base in Nairobi,” he said. “[I want] a brick-and-mortar that’s a real nucleus for activity.” — LAUREN MCCARTHY

WWD ACCESSORIES

WWD MONDAY, JULY 28, 2014

LOVE TRIANGLE

BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE is among the many innovative brands to come out of one of Japan’s most well-known fashion houses, and more than a decade after its ini-tial inception, it is still going strong. The eye-catching bags, which are distinguishable by the trademark triangular plastic tiles that cover them, are often seen on the arms of fashion-forward women (and, more recently, men) in Japan and around the world.

Bao Bao’s presence inter-nationally may still be rela-tively limited, but the brand is increasing its sales points outside of Japan at a rapid pace. Also, the bags have become a hot item for tour-ists visiting Japan — especially those from elsewhere in Asia — to take back to their home coun-

tries. A spokeswoman for Issey Miyake said Bao Bao’s sales in Japan have doubled over the past year.

Recent key items have in-cluded the Distortion pouch, which starts as a flat piece of material and is “built” by the customer into an asymmetric shape; the “Shogun” series of bags decorated with boltlike studs on multicolored trian-gular tiles, and a new series of unisex rucksacks, messenger bags and totes in allover matte or shiny black.

In addition to a handful of freestanding stores across Japan, Bao Bao Issey Miyake is stocked by Japanese depart-

ment stores such as Isetan, Takashimaya, Parco and

Matsuya. Prices average 35,000 yen (about $344) and range from 4,500 yen ($44) for a hair elastic to 130,000 yen ($1,278) for a large embellished tote.

— KELLY WETHERILLE

In the Mix

STATS & FACTS:

■ Gold consumption in China rose 32 percent to a record 1,065.8 metric tons last year, mak-ing up about 28 percent of global usage, ac-cording to the World Gold Council. That’s ex-pected to climb to at least 1,350 tons by 2017 as wealth rises.SOURCE: WORLD GOLD COUNCIL

■ Nearly half-a-million python skins are ex-ported every year from Southeast Asia, the majority being used to make luxury fashion accessories such as handbags, belts, wallets and shoes.SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTER REPORT

■ India is the world’s largest market for jewelry, and will continue to grow, accord-ing to a Research and Markets report, which estimates a compound annual growth rate of 14.93 percent until 2016.SOURCE: RESEARCH AND MARKETS

■ In interviews with 1,000 consumers in Shanghai and New York, Exane BNP Paribas found that 42 percent of consumers in Shanghai spent more than $1,000 on handbags in the past 12 months compared with 11 percent of consum-ers interviewed in New York. And 14 percent of Shanghai consumers spent more than $1,000 on shoes, versus 5 percent in New York.SOURCE: EXANE BNP PARIBAS

Michael Nelson Eyes First Collaboration

Michael Nelson’s beaded sunglasses with Selima Optique.

Jessica Simpson’s handbag.

Bulgari’s gold and diamond

bracelet.

Monica Botkier’s python bag.

Swarovski’s cuff.

A Bao Bao Issey Miyake

tote.

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WWW.SWAROVSKI.COM/PROFESSIONAL

WE OFFER TOMORROW’S TRENDS FOR

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SUNGLASSES HAVE joined the ranks of handbags and shoes as must-have accessories, and makers are capitaliz-ing on demand by offering more styles, brands and features than ever.

“Sunglasses are a very serious acces-sory,” said Claire Goldsmith, managing director of the Oliver Goldsmith and Claire Goldsmith brands. “You spend all this money on shoes, but what do you think people look at first? Your face.”

And consumers have taken note. Sales of sunglasses rose to $3.8 billion in the 12 months ended in May, from $3.7 billion in the 12 months ended May 2013, according to The NPD Group Inc.

The uptick in sales has affected major players, such as Luxottica, Marchon, Marcolin and Safilo, and smaller, independent designers.

“Our sales are way over budget and we are almost doubling our profits from last year,” said Marchon chief execu-tive officer Claudio Gottardi.

Marchon’s current roster includes Calvin Klein, Chloé, G-Star Raw, Jil Sander, Nike, Salvatore Ferragamo and Valentino.

“We are passing the $1 billion mark, which, just a few years ago, would have been a dream. We tripled our sales in the last three years.”

Los Angeles-based clothing compa-ny Wildfox launched its sunglass divi-sion in 2012, and estimates it to now be a $6 million retail business. “Sales are double what they were last year, based on monthly numbers,” said the brand’s

eyewear designer, Benjamin Montoya. To keep up with the ever-growing

market, brands are continuing to add to their existing offerings, introducing styles and color families to keep up with changing trends.

“Brands are focusing on frames mix-ing acetate with metals to obtain a richer effect,” said Fabrizio Gamberini, U.S. ceo of Marcolin, which produces Balenciaga, Diesel, Guess, Roberto Cavalli, Tom Ford and Swarovski. “We are also registering

an increased demand of polarized lens-es, especially in the U.S., where they ac-count for one-third of the market. People tend to choose them not only for sports, but it’s actually a trend.”

Montoya similarly cited polarized, flash lenses as a best-selling trend.

“We do extremely well with pieces that are over-the-top,” he said. “Some of the pieces that we’ve really pushed the boundaries with, [design-wise], but thought might not have great sell-

through, are our most popular styles. It’s become a brand-identifier.”

Among the brand’s top sellers: the Lolita, heart-shaped flash lenses; the Classic Fox, an Eighties-inspired large frame in various colorways, and the Bel Air, a thick, circular frame etched with the words “Wildfox” and “Bel Air.”

While the thick, vintage-inspired trend continues to reign, many brands are looking to a more streamlined fu-ture in the coming seasons.

“The trend in the market is moving away from the bulky look and toward light-er, more colorful profiles,” said Gottardi.

Goldsmith described the styles as “more refined, more slim and more tailored.”

Larger companies maintain control of shifting trends by filling their portfo-lios with brands that will each reach a targeted consumer base.

“A strong brand has a distinctive point of view, plays in an unmistakable chosen consumer segment and is authen-tic because it draws its strength from meaningful origins and messaging,” said Luisa Delgado, ceo of Safilo Group.

According to Delgado, Safilo — which oversees licensed brands including Dior, Marc Jacobs, Fendi, Gucci, Alexander McQueen, Tommy Hilfiger, Céline, Kate Spade and Pierre Cardin — connects to two customer types: “mass cool” and “atelier luxury,” with the sweet spot for sales somewhere in the middle.

“The differentiation among consumer segments is growing,” said Delgado. “We see that the two opposite sides of the spectrum — the more accessible ‘mass cool’ consumer segment on one side, and the ‘atelier luxury’ on the other — are growing. The middle, comprising what

WWD monday, july 28, 2014

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Bringing fashion into technology will change the world of eyewear. The development of our industry is going to be incredible.

— Claudio Gottardi, MarChon

{Continued on page 6}

Vision QuestFrom updated styles, shapes and colors to innovative technologies

and materials, eyewear is focused on the future. By Lauren McCarthy

Sunglasses from Someday Somewhere and Chloé.

The DVF Made for Glass collaboration with Google Glass.

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wwd accessories

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we call the fashion luxury and the con-temporary luxury segments, is pretty sta-ble. In our portfolio, we experience that brands like Dior and Fendi are growing, because they stand for unmistakable origins, a defined and clearly embraced identity, a strong brand equity and supe-rior craftsmanship content.”

Like Safilo, Luxottica has also put in-creased focus on its more luxury-based brands — among them Burberry, Chanel, Donna Karan, Miu Miu and Prada.

“In the last four or five years, we put renewed attention to the content in the highest segment of the market,” said chief marketing officer Fabio D’Angelantonio. “Brands like Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Giorgio Armani continue to grow.”

The company added to its “fashion diffusion” segment with the acquisi-tion of the Michael Kors license in April. That joins similar labels Tory Burch and Coach. D’Angelantonio de-clined to provide sales projections, but noted high expectations, citing the ro-bust performances of other categories of Michael Kors products, “and we are expecting a terrific launch,” he said.

Licenses move regularly in the eye-wear business, and Marchon, which launched Michael Kors eyewear in 2005, is moving forward with its strategy.

“We’re in negotiation with three new brands, and those three will more than make up the difference in what we’re going to lose with Michael Kors,” said Gottardi. “Michael Kors represented less than 10 percent of our revenues be-cause of pressure in pricing. It was not a very profitable collection for us.”

Gottardi related that the company has successfully replaced brands in the past, citing Coach, for which Marchon held the license from 2002 to 2010, as an example.

“That ended up being a good thing and let us enter with new brands that brought in more profit and opportunity to grow internationally. It was actu-ally the loss of Coach that allowed us to bring on Ferragamo, which is now a huge brand across the world.”

Gottardi pointed to Ferragamo, Valentino, Lacoste and G-Star as being important new licenses for the company, particularly across the European market, with Nike as the overall top performer.

“[Nike] is to be expected, consider-ing it’s a huge collection that goes in every direction,” he said.

Among those directions is the teen segment, a surprisingly lucrative mar-ket for Marchon.

“We focused on the teen market about two years ago, when we released a line for Nike,” said Gottardi. “It did extremely well, so at that point, we de-cided to explore that market in other brands, like Lacoste, which was an in-stant success. Sales went above the av-erage sales of a normal collection. The buyers, as an age group, are a small number — maybe 5 percent of the market — but maybe 15 percent of our sales are [attributed] to that market.”

Conversely, without the capability to acclimate new licensees, independent brands have had to rely on their own marketing to reach new customers.

“We operate on completely different levels,” said Goldsmith. “The Luxotticas and Safilos are producing their products

in tens of thousands of units. Then there are probably 100 independent brands that stock with different retailers and try to get through to the customers through different channels.”

One popular channel is celebrity collaborations. Warby Parker, which launched its sun division in 2011, re-cently teamed with model Karlie Kloss and beauty blog Into the Gloss on a pair of collections.

“We want to tap into a variety of differ-ent communities,” said cofounder Dave Gilboa of the collaborations. “Our cus-tomers tend to be really passionate about art, literature, fashion, and we want to align ourselves with those interests.”

Declining to provide specific sales fig-ures, Gilboa described the sun division as having “explosive growth” with sales more than doubling year-over-year.

Australian brand Sunday Somewhere lured new customers, particularly in the American market, by collaborating with L.A.-based blogger Rumi Neely.

“The reception was overwhelming,” said founder Dave Allison. “We pretty much sold out of that collection as soon as it hit the market. We got onto Net-a-porter because of that, and it opened Revolve for us. It had a European and American alliance, which ties back to markets that we want to focus on. Going forward, we have about half-a-dozen collaborations in the pipeline.”

Technology has also begun to play an important design factor in the industry across the board, manifesting in differ-ent iterations. For Oliver Goldsmith, the latest innovation is 3-D printing.

“We use Mykita, a German company that does 3-D-printed glasses,” said Goldsmith. “It’s an amazing material. It’s got the visual of thick and heavy, but no weight. There’s also another company, Hoet, that is doing 3-D print-ing with titanium. 3-D printing lends itself to total bespoke.

“The least generalized thing in the world is a face. They come in so many shapes and sizes,” he added. “And you are trying to create something that is one-size-fits-all — it’s actually quite difficult. The idea that you have a com-puter file that you can resize and hit print is exciting. It’s a great marriage of technology and product.”

Marcolin, in partnership with acetate manufacturer Mazzucchelli 1849, has de-veloped eco-friendly acetates for Tom Ford eyewear, while Diesel has introduced a denim collection using exclusive technol-ogy that fuses the fabric with acetate.

The buzz of wearable technology has reached the eyewear industry due in large part to the introduction of Google Glass. In March, Luxottica en-tered a partnership with Google to de-sign, develop and distribute eyewear for the Glass, particularly with Ray-Ban and Oakley. New projects for both brands are slated for a 2015 release.

In June, Marchon entered the wearable tech foray with a Diane von Furstenberg/Google Glass collaboration — DVF Made for Glass — an optical frame available in five colors and two sunglass silhouettes done in four colorways.

“There was a lot of attention on Marchon,” said Gottardi, of the collabo-ration’s debut. “Bringing fashion into technology will change the world of eye-wear. The development of our industry is going to be incredible. In America, sunglasses are a $2 billion to $3 billion [business.]. I would expect that in a mat-ter of 10 years, that category can be in the tens of billions of dollars because those sunglasses will not just be sun-glasses. They will be doing a lot more than defending you against the sun. The future of technology and communica-tion is going to be very, very cool.”

— with contributions from AlessAndrA turrA

{Continued from page 4}

Vision Quest

Oliver Goldsmith

Wildfox

Fendi

Tom Ford

Diesel

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WWD ACCESSORIES

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neutralneutralzonezoneThis season’s sunglasses look fresh

in muTed shades of

beige, Taupe and blush.

Prada

Polaroid

BoBBi Brown

Salvatore Ferragamo

wildFox Badgley miSchka tory Burch coach

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9WWD monday, july 28, 2014 9

neutralneutralzonezoneThis season’s sunglasses look fresh

in muTed shades of

beige, Taupe and blush.

chloé icu eyewear oliver goldSmith

mykita + maiSon martin margiela

PerSol

wild Soul

chriStian roth

Sunday Somewhere

Lighten up! This season’s sunglasses look fresh in muted shades of beige, taupe and the lightest of blush.

Photos by Kyle Ericksen; Styled by roxanne robinson

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SHANGHAI — China’s expertise in the manufacturing of counterfeit accesso-ries is well-known but a new, subtler form of imitation products is emerging from the country’s factories.

Known as “tong kuan” or “look-alike” products, they bear a striking resem-blance to specific products from well-known designer brands — especially shoes and handbags — in terms of shape and silhouette. But unlike outright fakes, the products don’t feature phony logos and nameplates of the brands they emu-late. They might bear labels resembling European brands — like a triangle remi-niscent of Prada’s logo — imprinted with the name of a local Chinese company or a Western (often vaguely Italian) sound-ing name, to denote quality.

It is technically possible under Chinese law for a brand to patent a garment or accessory design, but it’s incredibly difficult and not exactly practical for a fashion company with a vast portfolio of products. Plus, en-forcing that protection through China’s obtuse and dilatory legal system takes considerable time and money.

“With the close copies, there’s noth-ing you can do unless you have a ‘pro-tected design’ according the law,” said Alex Misseri, Razorfish’s head of retail for the Asia-Pacific region.

Experts say it’s nearly impossible to assess the size of this look-alike market. It’s even harder than measuring sales of counterfeit goods, which are gener-ally extrapolated from seizures in China and around the world. The World Trade Organization puts the total value of all counterfeits at $500 billion globally, but that includes all categories, from cloth-ing, accessories and sporting goods to medicines, food products, and more.

A search on China’s leading e-com-merce platform Taobao for a term like “LV Alma” will generate a mixture of results, advertised as both authentic and look-alike versions. The look-alike bags are generally priced between 150 and 600 yuan, or about $25 to $100 at current exchange, with examples from the mid to high end of that price range featuring reasonable quality leather.

In order to evade detection, look-alike sellers often won’t put the brand’s full name in the description but will use abbreviations, such as LV for Louis Vuitton or MK for Michael Kors. Taobao’s relatively sophisticated search function, however, will bring up results featuring these commonly used abbreviations, as well as those using the Chinese name of the brand, even

if consumers are searching for the full brand name in English.

David Ho, legal counsel at Alibaba Group, which owns Taobao, said that even if copies don’t carry fake brand names or logos, Taobao.com’s company policy is to work with brands to issue takedown notices for look-alike prod-ucts — even if they aren’t strictly ille-gal under Chinese law.

“In the absence of brand [trade-mark] infringement, rights holders may submit takedown notices to Taobao Marketplace based on copyright to fa-cilitate takedowns,” he said.

The time it would take the company to investigate and issue takedown no-tices for look-alikes, however, will vary from case to case, and those that are taken down often reappear under a dif-ferent shop name soon after.

Dong Dong, a Shanghai-based school-teacher, said she often does searches on Taobao.com using the names of a Chinese celebrity, along with the term “tong kuan,” to find products that copy the look of the star’s designer wardrobe, without the designer price tag.

“If I see a picture of Fan Bing Bing online or in a magazine, and I like what she’s wearing, I will look for products that look the same on Taobao,” she said. “People who search for and buy tong kuan products are more interested in how something looks than the brand.”

For Jason Spencer, Millward Brown Shanghai’s managing director, the evolu-tion of look-alike products is directly tied to the growing sophistication of Chinese consumers — particularly younger shop-pers located in first-tier cities.

“The post-Nineties generation is very sophisticated in China and they do tend to behave in a way that is more similar to an international middle class, and with that comes better discernment about choosing something because it appeals to them. They want to stand out from the

crowd, but not too much, so I think the appeal would generate traction among them first,” Spencer explained.

The same increasingly urbane con-sumers who have turned their backs on conspicuous designer labels in recent years still care about looking fashion-able — particularly to their peers — but don’t necessarily need to be decked out in designer labels from head-to-toe to achieve that goal.

“I don’t think the fundamental need to show off luxury in China — except in government circles, of course — has gone away. The desire to flaunt wealth and privilege is still there, they’ve just become a bit more sophisticated about it. It needs to be subtle, but not so subtle that other people don’t know what it means — dialing down the volume rath-er changing the station,” Spencer said.

Experts, including Michael Zakkour, a principal at Tomkins International Consulting and author of an upcoming book, “China’s Super Consumers: What 1 Billion Customers Want and How to Sell It to Them,” believe the rise of look-alikes is simply an evolutionary step in China’s copycat culture.

As government agencies and major marketplaces, including Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall, work increasingly ef-fectively to eradicate counterfeit design-er products in the marketplace, counter-feiters have had to find different ways to evade authorities, Zakkour contended.

“The idea that we are at the end of copycat China is ridiculous — it’s just not true,” he said. “Innovation is there in pockets, but the respect for owner-ship of ideas just hasn’t happened yet.

“I think this is becoming something of a phenomenon because these com-panies have been working with, have been buying and have been exposed to design, creativity, marketing, branding — all these things that come along with foreign premium luxury products. They know how to do all that now and think

they know how to do it on their own, but aren’t quite confident enough to come up with their own designs,” Zakkour added.

While Millward Brown’s Spencer agrees that look-alikes are a mutation of the traditional counterfeit products that have proliferated on the Chinese market, he also sees look-alike prod-ucts as an overwhelmingly positive step toward true innovation in China.

“These copycats are more legitimate, it’s more about leveraging public do-main and it’s more about taking some-thing and modifying it for the needs of a local consumer,” Spencer explained.

“I really think this happens in the West all the time and I think it’s an improve-ment on counterfeiting products,” he said. “It’s a more legitimate way [of doing business]. Once they have a bit of money to play with, we’ll see more Chinese com-panies investing in research and devel-opment, as we see in the West, they will eventually come to see true innovation as an important part of their business.”

As Spencer pointed out, look-alike products in China can be viewed through a similar lens as fast-fashion and high-street brands internationally, which are known for borrowing heavily from designer products.

However, look-alikes could present a silver lining for brands, which can take heart from the fact that Chinese consumers are responding to their de-signs, and as these younger buyers gain affluence, they will also gain the ability to invest in legitimate luxury items.

“I would encourage brands to turn it around and use it to their advantage,” Zakkour said. “If these products are following your lead, this is something that appeals and let this be the basis for something else, if you are Prada, Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch — it’s your name, history, story and the integrity of your brand you need to focus on.”

Several Western brands contacted did not immediately return calls for comment.

Misseri agreed, citing advice Razorfish gave Ugg when helping the company launch its e-commerce busi-ness in China. A pair of genuine Uggs retails for around 1,500 yuan, or approx-imately $240, but look-alikes go for 100 yuan to 200 yuan, or about $16 to $32.

“Don’t try to get everybody in the market who was interested in your de-sign — that’s difficult, or even impos-sible,” he said. “If you focus on those true potential consumers by convincing them of your unique selling points, you will gain them. Eventually, those types of consumers will be there.”

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10 WWD monday, july 28, 2014

wwd accessories

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The idea that we are at the end of copycat China is ridiculous — it’s just not true.

Innovation is there in pockets, but the respect for ownership of ideas just hasn’t happened yet.

— Michael zakkour, toMkins international consulting

Exploring the continuing evolution in China’s copycat culture. By Casey Hall

The Changing Chinese Aesthetic

“Tong kuan,” or “look-alike” bags styled like Prada, Michael Kors and Balenciaga, are widely available on Chinese Web sites.

w28b010a;8.indd 10 7/25/14 4:22 PM07252014162329

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WWD MONDAY, JULY 28, 2014

SECTION II

WWD ACCESSORIES

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Hong Kong: Indie CityThe jewelry-obsessed island is spawning a slew

of independent jewelers. By Bambina WiseWHEN IT COMES to fine jewelry, Hong Kong is ob-sessed — there are more jewelry stores per square mile than any other city in the world — and this ob-session has paid off for many top international jew-elers. Now it’s also fueling local jewelers, who are forging their own footprint in and out of the city.

The island’s seven million residents have long been heavy investors in the sector, particularly in gold, which is regarded as a hedge against infla-tion, while precious and semiprecious stones are believed to ward off bad luck.

All the big-name luxury players — Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, Piaget, Chanel, Chaumet, Graff, Boucheron, Tiffany and Adler, among many others — have an established presence in Hong Kong, and flourish alongside more local manufac-turers and retailers, like Chow Tai Fook, which is China’s largest jewelry retailer.

According to research from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the city’s jewelry in-dustry is dominated by the precious-jewelry sec-tor, and its development has been facilitated by the expansion of the local market, including sales to tourists. Gem-set jewelry, especially diamonds set in 18-karat or 14-karat yellow or white gold, remains the most popular cat-egory among locals and tourists alike.

Precious metal jewelry production comprises 96.8 percent of total manu-facturing output, which amounted to almost 57 billion Hong Kong dollars (about $7.3 billion) in 2013, a growth of 7 percent from 53 billion Hong Kong dollars (about $6.8 billion) in 2012.

Some of Hong Kong’s jewelry production is earmarked for the do-mestic market but most is for export, the majority destined for the U.S. and EU, which remain the domi-nant markets for precious jewelry, accounting for some 48 percent of Hong Kong’s exports in 2013.

Despite the overall growth, recent-ly there has been some falloff in the local jewelry sector, which accounts for almost a quarter of Hong Kong retail sales. According to the Hong Kong Retail Management Association, as of May, year-over-year jewelry sales dropped 24.5 percent, and retailers were discounting heavily to make up in volume what they could not in value.

Caroline Mak Sui-king, chairwoman of HKRMA, said recent political tensions in Hong Kong may have impacted retail sales negatively. On July 1, the anniversary of Hong Kong’s hando-ver to China, a pro-democracy protest saw thou-sands of Hong Kong citizens march through the city. Several luxury stores along the prime shop-ping district of Central chose to close for the day.

Mak said, however, that the July 1 demonstra-tion is a regular occurrence every year, but that the planned Occupy Central demonstration could be cause for concern. “If all of Central is occu-pied, it will definitely impact [retail],” she said.

Mainland Chinese tourist arrivals have boosted retail sales. According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board, in 2012, overall overnight visitors spent 17.6 billion Hong Kong dollars ($2.27 billion) on jewelry,

which accounted for 18 percent of their total shop-ping spend; as for those from the Chinese main-land, their share was higher, at 20 percent.

Here are three Hong Kong-based jewelers that have chosen to forge an independent path, con-trolling their own production and distribution to create distinctive jewelry that veers from the tra-ditional styles currently on offer in the market.

NIIN“It was always my nickname growing up,” said Jeanine Hsu of the name she chose for her eco-friendly jewelry line. “It also means ‘of course’ — or some similar affirmative word in the Finnish language, which I quite like.”

Hsu, born in Hong Kong to an Austrian mother and Chinese father, launched Niin in Hong Kong in 2009. She started working in the fashion indus-try in London after graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2001; she began selling her jewelry in a stall in Portobello Market during her free time. “It was always about natural materials and the hand-crafted aspect of jewelry,” she said, “but it didn’t quite become a viable business until I based myself

in Asia. I spent a lot of time building relationships with workshops.”

A furniture factory, for instance, provided her with off-cuts and even driftwood, which she combined with healing crystals and other stones. Her Sienna collection blends sustainably harvested petrified wood with jasper stones, while Azteca uses abalone shells set against wood or stone.

She hopes that through her jewel-ry, she can express an appreciation for nature, that every material has value.

“Just because people say diamonds are valuable, it doesn’t mean that wood or shell have no value. Also, now, the idea is to become a more con-scious designer, to think about the en-vironment in a way that goes beyond just buying and consuming that don’t really have a story behind it.”

What Hsu tries to achieve with Niin — the combination of natural

and sustainable elements with stones and metals — was, in a way, quite a change for the women of Hong Kong, whose love of bright, sparkly and expensive jewelry is well-documented.

“The traditional idea of jewelry here is about adorning the body. With Niin, it’s more about your viewpoint on beauty, because what I do is mix unusual things to create a style that you can wear dressed up or not.”

This approach, she added, also allows for indi-viduality. “In Hong Kong, it used to be about the brand, so there was a lot of sameness in what peo-ple were wearing,” she explained. “They would buy the same thing from head-to-toe. I feel that a lot of women now find it really nice to have something unique and more special, and something that tells a story. So they could be wearing branded diamond earrings, but a ring from us, which may not be as valuable as such, but it’s still beautiful.”

Respecting the environment is an important part of Niin’s ethos, which the World Wildlife

Carnet

Niin

The Czech company PRECIOSA is known in the fashion industry as a leading global manufacturer of crystal compo-nents for fashionable jewellery, sparkling accessories and stylish apparel. PRECIOSA Crystal Components, specifi cally the lead-free MC Chaton MAXIMA is all the rage among artists and fashion designers, who appreciate its excellent optical-aesthetic properties and high-quality workmanship. Behind it’s sparkling perfection stands not only the hundred’s of years of tradition of Czech glassmaking, but also the latest technological innovations developed in PRECIOSA’s own R&D laboratories.

The 15-facet MAXIMA chaton represents a new genera-tion of lead-free Czech crystal. Its precise cut, optimized with the latest gemological processes, has been specially designed to ensure maximum dispersion of light. The stone’s refl ection is also enhanced by its goldish-silver Dura-Foiling™ layer. MAXIMA’s resulting high brilliance and play of light has enchanted designers around the globe. The American designer Kati Stern, for example, used the stone’s spectacular properties to highlight her 2014 Autumn/Winter Venexiana collection, which earned considerable acclaim at February’s New York Fashion Week. Kati primarily used the sparkle and brilliance of MAXIMA chatons in her accessories – from exclusive hair ornaments in “black diamond” to sleeves decorated by multiple rows of chaton edging.

The MC Chaton MAXIMA also charmed the Canadian-Slovak jewellery designer Andrea Kolpaska of the popular Originals by Andrea brand. Andrea used MAXIMA to create her unique Land and Spirit collection, where she combined the shimmer and sparkle of the Czech crystal with the beauty of polished semi-precious stones found in the Canadian mountains. Her bracelets, necklaces and rings uniquely com-bined the pristine beauty of PRECIOSA glassmaking experts with the spectacular creations of the Canadian wilderness. Andrea’s collection was fi rst introduced at an exhibition at the Slovak Embassy in Ottawa, showing that MAXIMA chatons are ideal not only for fashion, but also for the Arts.

FOR DETAILED INFORMATION PLEASE

REFER TO WWW.MAXIMA.PRECIOSA.COM.

UNIQUE BRILLIANCE FOR UNIQUE JEWELLERY

& TRENDY ACCESSORIES

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WWD MONDAY, JULY 28, 2014

WWD.COM

13

Fund recognized when it tapped the brand to create the Gaia bracelet in collaboration with another designer, Marissa Fung Shaw, to raise environ-mental awareness. The bracelets came with different pendants, each represent-ing a separate environmental concern.

Recently, Niin teamed up with Cuipo, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based group dedicated to preserving prime rainforest. “Each piece of Niin jewelry purchased now saves one square meter of rainfor-est,” Hsu said. That extends to the bou-tiques in the 13 countries where Niin is stocked, including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, the U.K., Monaco, Thailand and Australia, as well as at selected Four Seasons Hotels around the world.

The Niin customer embraces a wide de-mographic. “They are mainly well-traveled ladies,” she said, even girls as young as eight, thanks to the Gaia bracelet produced in collaboration with the wildlife fund.

With prices ranging from $350 to $1,000, customers tend to be “working women or those with higher spending power, who are conscious about what they are buying and often quite bold in style.”

YOUMNAYoumna Hostelet, a longtime Hong Kong resident of French-Lebanese origin, is the creative force behind the jewelry brand Youmna, a hot label among the city’s most stylish set.

She used to have a retail showroom in Central, which she opened in 2007, but closed in 2011 because of the high rent. Today, she hosts seasonal exclusive trunk-show-style events in a private resi-dence to showcase her line.

“I don’t tend to keep stock,” she said. “My collection, which is available only in precious metals and precious or semi-precious stones, is really made

up of samples and I keep only stock for smaller pieces, for rings that are going to sell well or I know do well, ear studs…all the things that are easy-going. But I take orders for the bigger pieces. Then I take measurements before I actually produce the pieces. A lot of my designs need to be measured so that the rings fit just so, or the cuff is not too wide or too narrow.

“Depending on the intricacy of the piece, it can take from two to four weeks to make.”

She has been using the same workshop on Hong Kong island for more than 20 years.

Hostelet calls her jewelry the equiva-lent of a capsule wardrobe: “I am selling style. I feel like I am doing the jewelry equivalent of the white shirt, the little black dress.…I’m giving customers the sta-ples of their jewelry wardrobe so they are always ‘with it,’ edgy, elegant and well-put-together without trying to match things.”

With prices starting at 6,000 Hong Kong dollars ($775) for plain gold ear studs from the Pastille collection and going up to 220,000 Hong Kong dollars ($28,400) for the Harlequin yellow gold necklace with diamonds, Hostelet says her clients, which range from European expatriates to sophisticated, Western-educated Asians — who comprise 30 to 40 percent — can be divided into two types.

“Either they don’t like jewelry and for the first time they see jewelry they are happy to wear because it’s simple and elegant, or, it’s women who like jewelry and tend to buy from the usual

big names, and now they want more in-dividuality, and in the end they become collectors of my designs.”

The most popular items, she said, tend to be the Pastille ear studs, which are very wearable — “women tend to have them in every color” — as well as Gladiator cuffs, “which make a powerful statement.” Her crosses — “really my in-terpretation of a cross, and not a cross, strictly speaking” — also sell well.

Hostelet recently started dabbling in sterling silver, creating the Bloom collection of cut silver flowers appli-quéd onto cuffs and earrings and rings. “I work with sterling silver exactly the same way I do with gold.”

CARNETHong Kong native Michelle Ong, co-founder and creative director of fine-jewelry atelier Carnet, designs and produces jewelry of such quality and in-tricacy that one might assume it is from a famous French house and not a local Hong Kong brand.

“I think being an independent jew-eler, rather than a larger brand-based jeweler, has worked well for Carnet,” ex-plained Ong, who sells to private clients and participates in prestigious major jewelry exhibitions around the world, such as Masterpiece in London earlier this year. “It allows me to pursue my own creative vision and standards.”

Her clientele is both international and local, “who collect my pieces and appreciate my jewelry.” Retail prices start at about $20,000.

Being an independent jeweler gives Ong control over every aspect of the cre-ation of each piece, “from inception to completion,” and “to focus on what’s im-portant to me — making perfect pieces in the tradition of the high jeweler’s art.”

With her office in the Central District located steps from her atelier, she is able to “personally check every piece to make sure it’s wearable and absolutely what I envisioned.”

Describing one of her most elaborate pieces, the Organdy Diamond necklace, which took two years to bring from idea to reality, Ong said, “I wanted to make an important piece in the tradition of high jewelry, but with a feminine fluidity — a lightness and soft brilliance infused with elegance. A ‘fabric’ of diamonds, in effect.”

She used rose-cut diamonds for this piece. “I have developed special cutting and illusion settings for Carnet. I need-ed to collect all the right diamonds for the necklace before I could begin work. One of my diamond cutters worked full-time on the necklace to ensure perfect matching cut, brilliance and color.

“An important aspect for me always is how the piece lays, that it accentuates the beautiful lines of a woman’s neck, shoulders and décolleté, that it radiates light to the face. So for this piece, each line of diamonds had to be perfectly placed for the maximum effect.”

Mainland Chinese are becoming a signif-icant segment of the market, she noted. “It’s definitely a market growing in appreciation of high jewelry. I find the clients who seek out Carnet to be similar in their qualities, no matter where they come from.”

She said she designs “accessible pieces representing a simple elegance, whether for new or regular clients. I have a selection of Day to Night Carnet that includes my pavéd single and mul-tihoop earrings. I love a bit of sparkle next to a woman’s face.” She cited the Shades of Diamonds dangling multi-hoops and Wonderful Wave Earrings as examples of Carnet’s accessible femi-nine, wearable and bejeweled style.

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IN THE DOMAIN of diamonds, Neiman Marcus has a new best friend — designer Maria Canale.

For decades, Canale designed be-hind closed doors for Tiffany & Co., Harry Winston and other jewelry hous-es. Now she’s hosting “luxe” dinners at Neiman Marcus stores and breaking bread with top customers, after launching her namesake col-lection two years ago.

“Neiman’s has made a big commitment to my brand,” said Canale, during a showing of her 11-piece fall grouping called Pastiche, which ranges from $7,500 earrings to $150,000 necklaces with large center stones. Pastiche utilizes one, two or three-carat diamonds and princess cuts, and puts a fashion spin on clas-sic styles, like rose-gold floral rings.

Canale’s full collection also includes the Hexagon, Aster and Flapper group-ings for fall; “essentials” that start at $5,000 for classic hoops and sell season after season, and bespoke designs with one-of-a-kind center-stone jewels, from $125,000 to more than $2 million. About 20 percent of the collection is one-of-a-kind pieces. Cushion, emerald, asscher, brilliant and rose-cut diamonds are core components, and versatility is im-portant, so for example, necklaces can

be worn with one or two strands and can be lengthened or shortened with detachable elements. Canale’s light, handmade diamond pieces have an aesthetic rooted in classicism, Art Deco and nature.

The brand is owned by Uni-Creation, a Diarough Group company.

When Neiman’s favors a designer, re-gardless of the category, it goes to great lengths to showcase the product and

capture an air of exclusivity. Canale is no exception. Her collection is sold only at Neiman’s, in 10 doors, and on the retailer’s Web site. Neiman’s supports the business with ads, and by get-

ting Canale to make store appearances and host

the luxe dinners, some-times as the solo act or in tandem with one or two other designers.

Neiman’s also pro-vides guests, as many

as 60 on occasion, with cocktails, live music, model-

ing and a dinner, and an opportunity to connect one-on-one with Canale.

“If it’s known that a particular cus-tomer is coming to the store, Neiman’s would change the display to suit what they feel that customer would be most interested in,” Canale noted.

“In at least recent history, we haven’t really worked on exclusive product and branded a designer name in the diamond

area,” said Ann Stordahl, Neiman’s senior vice president and general merchandise manager over precious jewelry, designer jewelry and beauty. “We felt it was im-portant to have a designer name, a live approachable person. Maria is great at the events. Customers love meeting her and relate to her very well. She speaks very authoritatively about the design. She is usually booked to do three or four things a season. Within the umbrella of Forevermark [the diamond supplier], she is our primary designer. This is a one-of-a kind program in precious jewelry.”

The three-way partnership creates “a point of difference and exclusivity for Neiman Marcus,” Stordahl added. “Our typical customer probably has a diamond, or a number of diamonds, so we are always looking for something a little more unique that they might add to their collection. Maria gives us clas-sically oriented, top-quality styles. She is working in some different metals, like rose gold, on some more diamond-inten-

sive bracelets and earrings, and some very unusual designs. We continue to feature her diamond hoop earrings. She also gives us some red-carpet looks.”

Neiman’s is encouraging Canale to design product at opening price points as well, to meet growing online demand.

At age 13, Canale began working at the bench as an apprentice for an Armenian master jeweler before study-ing metal smithing at The School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology and at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

“I knew right away, it would always be fine jewelry,” she said. A passion for drawing, sketching and painting, and extensive travel to Europe and Asia, where she learned about ancient tra-ditions and techniques of local crafts-men, has informed her creative ideas.

For many years, she designed at Tiffany & Co., under the tutelage of de-sign director John Loring, and later at Harry Winston and De Beers.

“I have always been behind the scenes,” Canale said. “I have worked on a lot of different collections. I was allowed to do a lot of different things. Being in the limelight is not really what I have been looking for. For me, it’s about making things I feel strongly about.”

Yet she’s clearly comfortable no longer under the cover of a journey-man. “It’s the right time of my life for this,” explained Canale, who lives in New York. “My kids are in college now. The challenge is [that] there are lots of different markets, even within Neiman Marcus. We might sell more fashion items on the coasts — elabo-rate, flappier necklaces in major cities. However, St. Louis is where I made my first big bespoke ring last year — it was $400,000 with a four-carat center.”

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CHOW TAI FOOK, a giant in the jew-elry world, is plotting the Chinese expansion of its latest acquisition: Boston-based diamond specialist Hearts on Fire.

Chow Tai Fook, which bought the American company for $150 million last month, plans to open 200 Hearts on Fire stores in Mainland China and Hong Kong within three years. Two stores will open by the end of the year in Hong Kong and Shanghai. These will comple-ment Hearts on Fire’s existing Asian network of eight stores in Taiwan.

“Hearts on Fire is already estab-lished as a premium luxury diamond jeweler,” said CTF managing director Kent Wong. “We want to bring it into the Greater China market because Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China will be among the fastest-grow-ing jewelry markets in the coming de-cades, owing to economic growth.”

Wong added that Hearts on Fire’s suc-cess in Taiwan bodes well for its growth.

“They’ve learned a lot from Taiwan and it has helped them to understand the buying preference of Chinese peo-ple,” said Wong, who began his career with the Chinese jeweler 37 years ago.

A Hearts on Fire spokeswoman noted, “We opened the first HoF brand bou-tique in Taiwan 10 years ago with the long term plan of eventually bringing the brand to Mainland China. The Taiwan retail business became such a strong business for HoF that we continued ex-panding within the Taiwan market. Now we will be building on this strength as we enter new Asian markets.”

This is the first international acqui-sition for the Hong Kong-based CTF, which has about 2,000 stores in 470 cities across China and is expanding rapidly. CTF has set an ambitious sales target of 2,000 new stores under its own moniker on the mainland in the next 10 years — that’s 200 new stores a year.

CTF sees young Chinese consumers moving away from traditional gold jew-elry toward gem-set jewelry and dia-monds, and believes Hearts on Fire will ensure it can capitalize on that trend.

Wong also pointed to the increase in buying power of the middle- and upper-class customers, who are very brand-aware and have an eye for American products and designs.

“Those born in the 1980s and 1990s want to spend money on contemporary jewelry. They want to show their social status, which is different from their parents — I think this trend will contin-ue in the coming decades,” said Wong, adding that Hearts on Fire’s state-of-

the-art diamond-cutting technology was a big draw for CTF.

Wong said CTF will retain Hearts on Fire’s marketing and jewelry de-sign operations in Boston, the firm’s headquarters since it was founded in 1996 by Glenn and Susan Rothman. At the time of the acquisition, CTF said Hearts on Fire would be run as a stand-alone business led by current ceo and chairman Glenn Rothman.

Hearts on Fire reported audited net sales of about $99.3 million and $104.8 million for the financial years ended Dec. 31, 2012, and Dec. 31, 2013, respec-tively, CTF said in June. Wong declined to give a sales forecast for the business.

Hearts on Fire is distributed through about 550 retailers in 31 countries, and it has 10 freestanding stores of its own — one each in Las Vegas and Philadelphia, and the eight in Taiwan.

Unlike CTF, which has stores across the spectrum of Chinese cit-ies, Wong said Hearts on Fire’s retail rollout will be limited to first-tier and sec-ond-tier cities. It will be a stand-alone brand, but in addition to individual stores, there will also be Hearts on Fire shops positioned within Chow Tai Fook stores.

“By offering a shop-in-shop, it means that when the customer comes to the CTF store, we can offer them more diversified products,” said Wong.

One interesting change to watch for will be a shift in attitudes toward bridal jewelry, which accounts for about 35 per-cent of CTF’s sales. Most young couples who marry in China buy a pair of wed-ding bands and about 50 percent of the brides also receive a diamond engage-ment ring. Wong expects this to increase and Chow Tai Fook is investing heavily in marketing to ensure that that happens.

“In developed economic countries like America, about 80 to 90 percent of

brides get a diamond engagement ring,” said Wong. “Within the next 10 years, Chinese brides getting the engagement ring will increase from 50 to 80 percent. There is a lot of opportunity for diamond engagement rings in mainland China.”

Last year, CTF launched a success-ful marketing campaign — “Wedding Proposal” — in Hong Kong and on the mainland that encouraged couples to upload video clips of their marriage proposal moment. The campaign, with clips loaded onto YouTube, re-ceived 30 million viewers within three months, Wong said.

“We want to educate young people about how they can express their love to their girlfriend by giving them an engagement ring with a very exclusive

story,” Wong said.The acquisition took

just two to three months, a fairly swift deal, but one that was easy because both parties know each other well.

“The diamond indus-try is such a small world

and all we have is trust and reputation. Everybody has to

safeguard their reputation to ex-ecute the highest integrity. They know us and we know them,” said Wong.

CTF’s net profit for the year ending March 31 was 7.45 billion Hong Kong dollars, or $961 million, compared with 5.68 billion Hong Kong dollars, or $732.7 million, a year ago. Revenue rose 34.8 percent to 77.4 billion Hong Kong dollars, or $9.98 billion.

CTF has no plans for further acqui-sitions — Hearts on Fire was a one-off because it is such a good fit and compli-mented the company strategy, Wong said.

“Hearts on Fire is positioned as a premium luxury brand that is comple-mentary to CTF, which is classified as mass luxury. HoF customers are look-ing for something excellent, so they are willing to pay a premium,” Wong said.

Expanding Hearts

Neiman’s Grand CanaleThe retailer spotlights a jewelry designer. By David Moin

A Chinese giant boosts an American brand. By Kate Whitehead

PHOT

OS B

Y JO

HN A

QUIN

O

Maria Canale

Pastiche earrings.

PHOT

O BY

GAR

ETH

JONE

S

Kent Wong

Hearts on Fire’s Beloved

Soli ring.

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