Tones and shades of fine jewellery, couture or designer, change faster than seasons, setting new fads before turning into a fashion statement. Closely watching the pulse of jewellery preferences, the bigwigs are on their toes to woo the market before the trend sets in. What have the exporters geared up with to meet the festival demands of 2005 that could set trends for the coming season? {{Mohana Ravindranath}} goes about hunting trends in the export zone of Mumbai. Behold a glimpse of what she observed.%% {{VIBRANT}} hues to plain whites captured in fine designs, Italian or otherwise, were spotted over the European and American markets in the last couple of years. Factors that influenced fine jewellery trends the year before are being carried forward with no major change in preferences other than what was witnessed in the past few months.%% After the holiday season, the market has been rather slow indicating a damp Christmas and post-Christmas sale. Katrina too took its toll on the trade in the US market, the largest consumer of precious jewellery by far.%% Of late there has been movement in big diamonds with indicators pointing to an incline towards larger and sophisticated jewellery for the coming season. We spoke to major players in the export zone and apparently, there is hardly a say for the 5 pointers and 10 pointers in the months to come. Demands for the big, set in bold and beautiful designs, have been reserved for the niche consumers.%% Color among diamonds swept Christmas 2004 in close set diamond studded jewellery pieces. "It is likely to continue into the next year too," said a major Indian manufacturer. Though this may hold true for some, for many others catering to the US, the UK and Australian markets white diamonds set in white metal still holds ground, influencing jewellery trends this year. Laces, meshes, soft jewellery patterns borrowed from Italian artists have been strewn in to give jewellery design a classic touch. Bolder necklaces or statement neckpieces - precious metal mesh scarves, Y- shaped necklaces, have been claiming attention.%% Season of weddings in the offing, bride-to-be looking for exquisite and exclusive jewellery to complete her trousseau have opted for that soft feel, neither too classy nor trendy and just content collection.

Branding Important Trend Setter:

White of course is the choice of the bride, especially beyond the Asian continent, with platinum and white gold retaining their position in most of the jewellery.%% Looking at brands launched in the international market, Indian exporters opine that "branding is a very important factor in trend setting. Normally in exports one has tried to sell jewellery at a price point instead of seeing price points we will now start seeing small collections and branding which is an important feature that will go forward in years to come." Most brands launched by exporters who have set up offices overseas play a vital role in setting trends. The change witnessed in diamond studded jewellery owing to rising rough prices and reducing margins is less of diamonds at the same costs. "Manufacturers are now using little lesser diamonds than they used to try and reach the same price point. Like for $90 if you bought a carat now it will be 20 pointers. The number of pieces is the same but diamond consumption has been reduced. In the jewellery sector there is not much of a margin pressure. In diamonds also this year it may be due to increased prices otherwise there is not much pressure," said another exporter from Seepz, {{Nihar Parikh}} of Shrenuj.

Combo of Yellow & White:

Two major trends noticed this year are in the precious metals section. The white fever has mellowed down as the yellow metal revisits consumer preference. Not in anyway would it dethrone the white reign but a tinge of yellow does make a difference. Designers have experimented with angular shapes to accommodate the yellow metal. It's a combo of yellow and white.%% Fine jewellery had crossed gender boundries centuries ago but mostly projected as a woman's fashion statement. Brands wooed women into buying jewellery. It's time for change as men's have made their choice on the jewellery they wish to adorn themselves this December. Bracelets and rings for men has become the talk of the US market today. %% What is in store for Christmas 2006, is something one cannot predict as none of the trends being set looks likely to change for a while. By mid-year 2006 things would be clear as to what one can expect at the end of the year.%% Some of the leading players in the export zone, who are watching the changing trends in international markets with keen interest, expressed their observations to Diamond World, as which are briefed below.

Yellow Gold Making A Comeback:

{{Tache Jewellery}}, manufacturers of diamond jewellery in the US and counterpart of the Indian chapter Tache Jewelry Pvt Ltd, has multiple divisions catering to various international markets which include Tache Diamonds in India and Antwerp, Tache Asia, Germany, Japan besides Fildiam in Belgium and Design Works Jewelry in US. "We have our division which sells to major retailers and to large chain stores and department stores too. We also have couple of brands that are independent jewellers," said {{Victor Weinman}}, Chairman of Tache Jewelry, USA, who was in India on a short visit.

Two major brands of which one is ladies and bridal fashion brand Caressa. "We launched in Vegas this year a high-end men's line of jewellery called Nikos which has met so far with huge success. When we talk of trends this is probably that we see in all sides of our business to the majors and to the better independents is a large surge in men's jewellery. What we call it in America is metro-sexual or man who lives in the metropolitan area, who cares about how he looks and basically believes that jewellery is one of the ways to express himself about how he not only looks but how he feels about himself. Even in the mass market, men's jewellery has become a much stronger category in America this year than it has been ever before. I think it is a growing category and will continue to grow. When we talk of trends, that will be one trend which is certainly upcoming," he said.

Slow Evolution:

The change in the concept of the right hand ring there is very little that is new and innovative with respect to creating huge item sales. It may be an item similar to the item which may have been modified "but I don't see any drastic change. I see jewellery more as an evolution and a slow evolution". %% Italian jewellery has an influence too. But the American market is very slow in evolving. In America what we see today will be visible tomorrow. This is of the mass market but in better independents those change happen very quickly and new textures of gold that you see of Italy today, beautiful textures, lots of weave type of work, lost of mesh, lots of net, becomes a price point. Eventually it becomes less Italian and takes on a more say Indian look. "That is what it is. I don't look at India to produce Italian jewellery."

Five-Stone Ring Coming

What's new then? "A five-stone anniversary ring is now going to be the new hot item for the holiday selling season", he revealed. "Otherwise, it is white diamonds in white gold or yellow gold which is going to be the mainstay of the American market." %% Besides DTC, how do you meet bulk orders? "We also get rough from multiple other sources to meet our demand for diamonds worldwide. Bulk orders on five stones, bridal - something in which a lady getting married feels soft - anniversary bands has been strong, basic jewellery is something which we have got orders for. Certain promotional designs in one carat or half or quarter carat that are always the type of key items that you wind up with bulk orders."%% Touching the designing aspect, Victor said, "we have a whole group of designers in which every country we happen to be. Tache is international, we have designers in Italy, designers in our factory in India, designers who work for our affiliate in Hong Kong and we have designers in our New York office that work both of our divisions doing high end jewellery, promotional jewellery, jewellery produced through CAD, designs we bring in from all over the world and adapt them for the market we want."

Focus on Smalls Continues:

The call right now for very simplistic looking designs in the sense clean cuts, more angular jewellery or geometric designs, not too much in the area of cuts and curves and concentration by and large lies in the area of smaller diamonds," says Rajeev Sheth, Director of Tara Jewels, which became a DTC Sightholder this year. The Tara group, which has six companies under its umbrella, boasts of a capacity of over 1,200,000 pieces per year. It basically caters to the US, Europe, the UK, Australia, Russia and the Middle East markets. %% "The season now that is coming up is more based on Valentines' and Mother's Day. Every year these two days have a smaller price point and therefore smaller size of diamonds are much in demand," he said. There is a niche market for the bigger size and that will always remain whatever the trends, he added.

For the last three years the trends have been pretty similar. The orders that we have received for Christmas 2005 are basically small diamonds. It is the US, the UK and Australia who have placed orders with us."%% "The American market is moving towards a more Europeanized taste, in the sense you are seeing more pave-set jewellery being sold in America as compared to the years before. There is a big trend of three-stone jewellery and we believe that the right hand ring that DTC has been working on for the last two years has actually gained popularity today and this year you will see much better right hand ring sales," he concluded. %% Tara gets its polished from the Indian market besides DTC and a couple of domestic brands too. The group envisages bettering its earlier exports by Christmas 2006 with a projected figure of US$120 million.

Small Diamond with Bigger Look:

Rajesh Exports, a Bangalore-based company, spread over 12 acres of land with a built up area of 500,000 sq. ft, the manufacturing facility is claimed to be largest manufacturing 7facility in the world. With the world's largest capacity for jewellery production, the company has grown from a modest turnover of Rs30 lakhs to a turnover of Rs3000 crore. REL was recently in the news for bagging a huge order from Singapore. The company has diligently built up some of the finest infrastructure and systems for the manufacture and marketing of gold jewellery.

"In the coming months of the year, jewellery in white gold or platinum with pressure setting will be in good demand. Consumers will also prefer to have small diamonds set in such a way as to give a bigger appearance. We are also anticipating a good market for solitaires," said {{Manoj Champaklal Bajaria}}, the Chief Executive Officer of the diamond division Rajesh Exports Limited. %% "In the United States, we forsee a good market for low-price diamond jewellery in modern designs, set in cluster fashion with pronge or claw setting. We also anticipate a good market for 1 to 4 cent diamond jewellery with a budget between US $150 and US$500 per piece of jewellery in the American and European markets," he added.%% In a short span, Rajesh Exports has spread its offices to five major countries including Singapore, the USA, the UK, Kuwait and Dubai. They mainly export to these countries. Christmas 2005 is proving to be a bonanza for the company which bagged a huge order from Singapore in September. "The current order book position for our company is to the tune of Rs11,400 million," revealed Manoj Champaklal.

Consumer preference in the international market is more towards jewellery in pressure and invisible setting. This trend set in last year is continuing, he said. "Pronge is an evergreen setting in the world." %% Not yet a DTC sightholder, Rajesh Exports procures most of its rough from the local market. "We plan to procure our roughs, cut and polished diamond from Belgium and gemstones from Gujarat, Mumbai, Surat, Jaipur and Bangkok. We also source quality gold from South Africa and Australia," he informed. %% Rajesh Exports jewellery has created its own market abroad. There is dearth of designers and artisans at its manufacturing facility Whitefield, Bangalore.%% "Our manufacturing facility is the largest in the world. We have world class, well-experienced artisans, who manufacture some of the finest jewellery in the world. We also manufacture gold jewellery for the export market.%% "We have a full-fledged R&D centre at our facility. The total strength of Research & Development team is 65, which include metallurgists and chemists to support the designers to cope up with the requirement of modern jewellery world," Manoj said.

No Generic Change in Preferences:

Most exporters target the US and the European market which has bulk demands. Gold Star Jewellery too concentrates on these two major markets, particularly New York and Los Angeles in the United States. Looking at the way things have been moving in the past few months Alkesh Satish Shah, Vice Chairman of Gold Star Jewellery, does not find a stark change of scene. "There is no generic change in preferences this year. As such there is no visible change in the market since last year as the market has been soft," Alkesh Satish Shah said. There is likely to be more change in fine jewellery targeting the youth. Otherwise, it is almost the same, he said. Looking at the orders received for this season, he said: "The jewellery designs are neither just geometric nor concept-based. It's simple and non-specific."%% Preferences have not changed much either. It's been pave setting as far as white gold is concerned and prong setting for yellow gold. This has been seen moving on the medium range. Diamonds 6-8 pointers have been in demand, lately, he said. %% Goldstar Jewellery has registered $110 million exports as of September 2005. Recently the company has started exporting to Japan, Australia, Dubai and Russia. Goldstar Jewellery has an entire team of designers who cater to the demands of the export market. "There are at least 35 designers and CAD-CAM operators meet the new trends in design creation," Alkesh added.

More Orders for Metal Setting:

"Small size diamonds, more clean-looking jewellery, not complicated designs, white diamonds, white gold, geometric shapes…" is what {{Nihar N. Parikh}}, Executive Director of Shrenuj & Company Limited, predicted for the coming season. %% "Big part of the orders is for basic conservative styling and in the fashion segment it is more driven by geometric shapes. Mostly there is preference for white gold while platinum jewellery is very slow. Only, in particular, bridal segment, platinum is more in demand," he said based on the orders received from various countries, with bulk orders from the US. More than 50% of our exports go to the European countries and then to the US. %% "Major shift that we have seen over the past years in the orders that we have received is that there is much less wax setting and more of metal-setting. This is basically because they are going for a much cleaner setting and in such setting the content of wax setting is much less. They are expecting better quality and so there are more orders for metal setting.%% "But the demand for more diamonds and less metal is still on. Basically it is white diamonds and better quality of white and not coloured diamonds. Larger sizes are more in for the three-star jewellery. Small sizes are still dominating. There is no impact on the weight, though," he said.%% "The demand is more for branding", he revealed. "We are developing more brands for different countries in cooperation with our customers. In the US market, a couple of months ago we have launched a brand in line with our customers called Dante Pellini. It is more about colored stones and it's doing very well. Another brand that we launched with our customers is called Fiana. This is under the DTC umbrella. It is based on their campaign of 'Sensuality'.%% In Australia too we have launched a brand this year called Relationship," Nihar informed.%% Shrenuj Jewellery registered exports 20% more at around $13.5 million in April-August 2005 compared with $11million during the same period last year. "In Seepz, we have three units, one is for the European market that is Shrenuj, the other for the US that is Moon Diamonds and the third for high end market that is Aditi which is just a year old. The production capacity of all three put together is about 300,000 pieces per year." %% Shrenuj is a DTC Sightholder but also gets diamonds directly from Aber and Al Rosa. "We buy from the open market too when it comes to same size in bulk quantity. Gemstones we get from our office in Jaipur or Bangkok," he added. %% Talking of company plans to do more than what it has been doing so far for its customers, Nihar said that they plan to open service offices. "Our strategy is going more down stream and direct. Wherever we are supplying directly, we will try and have service offices to serve our customers. This will ensure that we are regularly visiting our customers, and secondly we can check for any repairs or transshipments. The key factor for success in a direct relationship is servicing without which it is very difficult to do business," he said.

Medium-end Goods on The Move:

{{S.V.K. Jewels Pvt. Ltd}}, Mumbai-based export unit operating from {{SEEPZ}}, manufactures diamond-studded jewellery especially for the US and European markets. SVK specializes in 18 Kt. and below gold jewellery which are targeted to the US, Europe and Japan.%% "We export jewellery mainly to the US markets. We also had reasonably good orders from Europe and Japan markets this season," said {{Samir Shah}}, Director of {{S.V.K. Jewels Pvt. Ltd.}} %% "There surely is more demand for medium to low end goods. In general the price range for rounds, princess cuts and tapers would be below US$ 250 as India is predominantly manufacturing medium to low-end goods, the orders are also following the same pattern. The clarity of diamonds moving well overall can be termed to be from SI to I3 goods," he added.%% It would be wrong to say that the earlier in the year there was a preference made to jewellery with diamonds interspaced. In fact the trend of more diamonds and less metal is continuing to do rounds. "A lot of invisible setting, both in rounds and princes cut is doing well. Also, round diamonds with pave set are in demand. We specialise in invisible setting of rounds and princess cuts. Most of our diamond needs are met by DTC but we also procure directly from other sources," revealed Samir Shah.%% SVK, set up under expansion plan in 2000, works from its factory of 6,500 square feet area in export promotion zone. "We plan to start our 30,000 sq. ft new factory building at Seepz ++ (plot # GJ-8)," he said.

It's White Gold all the Way:

{{KGK Jewellery Pvt. Ltd}}, a part of the KGK Group of Companies, exports to most of the countries and has offices spread around the globe. "Orders are pouring in from all over," says {{Navrattan Kothari}}, Partner of KGK Group. Yellow gold may have surfaced again but "white gold will be in vogue", he said.%% The {{KGK group}} has an established office in China which is being looked after by {{Sandeep Kothari}}. "The Hong Kong show has been very good this time and we are expecting good orders too," revealed Navrattan Kothari. Being a DTC Sightholder, roughs have never been a problem. Small stones are still in vogue and have to be in "flush setting and pave for bigger stones", he added.