By Liza Roberts
Rumors of the death of jewelry have been greatly exaggerated. Despite the endless doom-and-gloom in the economy and the wearing of sackcloth and ashes, no, women in the Triangle are not taking off their jewelry! Not only are they not taking it off, but they’re also buying it up: it’s one of the few consumer items selling well across the board.
“We are very blessed,” says Trey Bailey of Bailey’s Fine Jewelry in Raleigh. “The news said that jewelry would be the hardest hit, but we haven’t seen that at all. We had a great holiday season, we’ve had growth in several jewelry lines, and have been very pleasantly surprised.” He’s not alone.
Elaine Miller of the Elaine Miller Collection in North Hills says tried and true pieces sell well, and Charlotte Harris of Charlotte’s in Raleigh says she can’t keep her popular pieces in stock. Ashley Vermillion Harris of the designer fashion boutique Vermillion in North Hills has had so much success with jewelry that she’s expanding the area.
“I’ve realized how important jewelry is,” Harris says, “we’re going to beef it up.”
One reason for the unexpected resilience of jewelry, retailers surmise, is that unlike clothes or shoes, jewelry represents a real investment. Lisa Marie Ferrell of Polished, a personal shopping service in Raleigh, agrees, “A lot of women these days, in this economy, are willing to spend money on classic pieces of fine jewelry.” They’re also interested, she says, in inexpensive pieces that can be worn to spruce up many different outfits.
So just what are they buying? Metro asked some of the region’s most intriguing jewelry designers and retailers what jewelry trends they’re seeing, creating and looking for this spring and beyond.
Baba Paul Barnett, Jewelry Designer
In a studio aerie atop her house in Raleigh, Baba Paul Barnett is surrounded by jewels: morganite, pink moonstone, ametrine, chalcedony, ruby, topaz. They’re scattered atop a green-lacquered Parsons table, they’re sitting in piles in the window-well, they’re lying in orderly transparent boxes on shelves.
“I’ve always been interested in color and the idea of working with stones,” she says, showing off a new creation — a cuff bracelet made of twining soldered silver branches crowded with semi-precious gems: faceted orbs of deep blue, red, pale yellow and cloudy pink. “I’m drawn to organic patterns.” In the streaming sun of a vast dormer window lay acorns, seed pods and twisted leaves, providing inspiration while they await a dip in a copper bath.
Barnett’s jewelry borrows much from nature, but it’s designed to be worn. “Clearly everything I make I want to wear,” she says, and wear it she does, from the silver hammered discs dangling at her ears to her doubled-up cuff bracelets and pendant necklace. Known for her colorful, dangling clusters of wire-wrapped gemstones — “wearable art,” she calls her things, or “cool mom jewelry” — Barnett has put down the wire for the time being and picked up the soldering torch. With it she’s turning strips of silver into bold, gem-studded bracelets.
“I think about commercial trends, but they don’t really affect what I do,” she says, though the cuffs that are her current focus should fit well with the trend of wearing “the one piece that’s big and bold.”
Barnett’s creations, priced from $45 to $585, can be found on her Web site, www.babapaul.com or at home shows across the country.
Molly Anderson, Jewelry Designer
Molly Anderson is the local phenom who’s turned a part-time hobby into the jewelry juggernaut that is MollyBeads. Her creations are sold in 50 stores across the Southeast, her dangly topaz earrings were featured in the September issue of InStyle, and she only quit her “real” job selling generators less than a year ago.
“Now I’m doing what I love to do,” she says, a decision inspired in part by the death last year of a friend from cancer at the age of 36. “It just made me think about what life is all about.”
So far, it’s at least partly about being ridiculously busy. “I had visions of all of this free time. I’m actually working more than I ever have.” Anderson’s classic-with-a-twist style has proved so popular she’s grown her business by 30 percent since March. Her necklaces and earrings are designed to appeal to all ages — teenagers on up — with prices to match. Many of her earrings are in the $39-$59 range, and many necklaces sell for under $100. She also makes custom designs, recently creating necklaces for Pat Wilkins and Carol Wagoner, co-chairs of the North Carolina Inaugural Ball, worn for Gov. Beverly Perdue’s big night.
For spring, Anderson says she’s planning on “branching out” into more color than she’s typically used in the past, with an emphasis on blue semi-precious stones. She’s also continuing to use a lot of gold chains and the flat freshwater pearls known as coin pearls, at least in part because they are such good sellers.
“You have to follow the trends in this business,” she says, “there’s no way around it. But I try not to be too trendy. My husband helped me come up with a saying to describe my style: ‘gracefully balancing current trends with lasting beauty.’”
In the Triangle, MollyBeads can be found at Charlotte’s in North Hills and Cameron Village, or on the Web site www.mollybeads.com.
Heath Slane, Jewelry Designer
Heath Slane, one-half of the sister act that is Slane & Slane, may not live in the Triangle, but hailing originally from Rocky Mount is good enough for the brand’s local legions of die-hard fans. The truth is that these folks are more than fans, they’re collectors, and that’s why Heath and her sister Landon make it a point to visit the region on a regular basis, introducing new lines to their loyal customer base.
So what’s coming soon? “The line I’m really excited about is the basket weave collection,” Heath told Metro, “It’s something to behold, a classic weave, but with an architecture to it.”
Before it hits the stores, though, Heath says the current trends among her customers include mixing gold and sterling, mixing chains with pearls, pearls with sterling, and layering pieces from different Slane & Slane collections. “Our customers all wear our jewelry so differently,” she says. Adding to an existing collection is a discreet and affordable way to add new pieces when times are tight, Heath adds.
“We tend to do really classic themes, we might put a little twist in there, but what we do really builds on what people already have,” she says. “Our whole philosophy is you buy a necklace, but then you’re building on it over time.” That’s one reason she believes Slane & Slane is well-positioned to ride out a tough economy. “We feel very fortunate right now that this is where we’ve hung our hat from the beginning, and we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
Trey Bailey, Jewelry Designer
“It’s not your grandmother’s gold,” says Trey Bailey of Bailey’s Fine Jewelry in Raleigh. He’s talking about the long, textured and hand-carved gold necklaces by Marco Bicego that have proved such a big seller for his store.
Also growing in popularity, he says, are estate and antique pieces, which the store recently began selling and now plans to expand. “People are looking for something different, something unique, and estate jewelry fits the bill.”
For spring, Bailey is predicting Lucite jewelry by Alexis Bittar to be a big seller. “It’s very fashionable, it’s very affordable, and it’s a nice way to add a pop of color to an outfit,” he says.
Elaine Miller, Jewelry Designer
Elaine Miller of the Elaine Miller collection also expects Alexis Bittar’s bright, colorful pieces to sell well for spring. “Good values are really key right now,” she says. But good values can also be found in fine jewelry, she points out: “People will wear classic things always; that’s never out of style.” Miller is seeing clients gravitate toward jewelry with intrinsic value, like 14 and 18 karat gold and pearls.
But “classic” can also mean turquoise — Miller points out the “exquisite” turquoise necklace Eva Mendez wore to the Golden Globes — or even high-end costume jewelry. Beautiful costume jewelry, including vintage pieces, can be used to great effect as the anchor for an outfit, Miller says. “I’d take a torsade, a necklace with several strands, and twist it and clunk a big pin on it. That would make a huge statement.”
Ashley Harris, Jewelry Designer
“There are so many beautiful colors for spring — magentas, cobalts, yellows, greens — that I think definitely colored stones are going to be big,” says Ashley Vermillion Harris of the North Hills designer boutique Vermillion.
She sees customers buying “fashion-forward” jewelry in an effort to “spruce up (clothes) they might have or re-work things they might have in their closet.” At the same time, “you can’t go wrong”-type items like gold chains and pearls also continue to sell well, she says.
“Women right now are wearing what makes them feel pretty,” she says, and paying less attention to brand names. It’s one of the reasons she believes that vintage costume jewelry is increasingly popular among her clients.
Charlotte Harris, Jewelry Designer
“I just came back from New York, and the trend is going to continue to be more gold than silver,” says Charlotte Harris of Charlotte’s in Raleigh. “There’s a return to simplicity, in keeping with the economic times, and a lot of longer gold chains.”
A best-seller for the shop continues to be dangling gold filigree earrings, she says, and there’s “a return to engraved items,” such as discs engraved with initials, but on a long chain, not a short one. For spring, Harris predicts colorful jewelry will sell well, particularly in shades of blue and purple. Michelle Obama’s penchant for many-hued brooches has already triggered a run on jeweled pins, Harris says, and she’s had to re-order after an initial batch flew off the shelves in a matter of days.
Indeed, the economic downturn has not affected Harris’ jewelry sales numbers, she says, but it has impacted the way her customers are spending their money: “What I’m seeing is a lot of creative shopping,” Harris says. “Two necklaces for $89 instead of one for $300,” for instance. So, she’s done her own shopping with that in mind and will be offering more jewelry at lower prices.
Jewelry News
Dress up in your favorite jeans and jewelry for an evening of high fashion, food, entertainment, live and silent auctions for Denim and Diamonds benefiting the seven Wake County Boys & Girls Clubs and Raleigh Kiwanis Foundation Feb. 26 from 7-10 p.m. Visit www.denimanddiamonds.org for tickets. Raleigh, 919.834.6282.
Reserve a class at Beadazzled and learn how to make jewelry from Silk Cord and Charmed Necklaces, Knotted Bracelets and Rapunzel Rings. Visit www.beadazzledcary.com for details and class schedule. Cary, 919.465.3455.
Through February, an Annual Sale at Jewelsmith Inc. will include selected items up to 15-50 percent off, excluding custom work. Durham, 919.286.2990.
Stop by Bailey’s Fine Jewelry around Valentine’s Day to check out new arrivals of Pandora beads and clips to add to your collection. Raleigh, Cameron Village, 919.829.7337.
Ross-Simons will host a special Valentine’s Day Sale, see store for details. Raleigh, 919. 510.8484.
For any Pandora purchase over $75, receive a free Pandora Heart Keychain — while supplies last at Carolina Silver Co. Feb. 1-14. Raleigh, 919.845.9917, Cary, 919.465.4209.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, Elaine Miller Collection will be making a “Sweetheart of a Deal” throughout February. Raleigh, 919.571.8888.
Source: www.metronc.com
