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■ 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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SECTION II WWD.COM
2
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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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
SECTION II WWD.COM
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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.
w28b004(6)a;11.indd 6 7/25/14 11:55 AM07252014115659
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wwd accessories
WWD monday, july 28, 2014
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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8 WWD monday, july 28, 2014
WWD ACCESSORIES
8
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
w28b008(9)a;12.indd 8 7/25/14 4:05 PM07252014160837
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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.”
SECTION II WWD.COM
10 WWD monday, july 28, 2014
wwd accessories
phot
os b
y ge
orge
chi
nsee
’’’’
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
12
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
-
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.”
WWD MONDAY, JULY 28, 2014
SECTION II WWD.COM
WWD ACCESSORIES
14
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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JOIN US at
LUXURY PRIVE’ NEW YORK
WALDORF ASTORIA
BOOTH NR 109
JULY 27-28-29, 2014
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Lu
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ica G
rou
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Sty
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