Editorial by Cynthia Unninayar

With the warm Summer weather comes a season full of colour, both in jewellery and in fashion. As you know, I am a bit partial to colour, and I cover it a lot, since it is the biggest trend in jewellery. In fact, colour is now so pervasive that we probably shouldn’t call it a trend at all. Having said that, however, I can and do appreciate beautiful white diamonds, and on that subject, you can see some spectacular examples in the “Fire & Ice” spread on pages 36 and 37.

Getting back to colour, I recently did an informal survey of a few stores to see what particular shades were especially popular. No surprise really, just about all colours are doing well, but the greens seem to have a slight edge (as a reminder, Pantone’s Colour of the Year is Emerald). Tourmaline, emerald, and tsavorite seem to be the gems of choice in this category. But, it is not just about single colours. Designers are mixing things up with interesting juxtapositions of different hues. A number of examples can be seen in the “Mixing It Up” spread on pages 34 and 35. Even fashion designers are creating a dialogue between colours, combining different tones of the same colour or pairing vastly different hues to make their own vibrant statements.

In this Summer issue, we again feature the Pantone colours for Fall, along with assorted jewellery. Although the Fall hues have evolved somewhat from the Spring colours featured in our Winter trends guide, Pantone feels that Emerald green is so strong that it will continue throughout the cold months. That can certainly be said for jewellery made with emeralds, of which there has been no shortage at the recent jewellery shows.

Speaking of shows, it has been a really busy Winter and Spring fair season, and in this issue we report here on the many creative pieces seen from A to V—from Amberif to Vicenza, passing by Antwerp, Bangkok, Basel, Doha, Geneva, Hong Kong, Phoenix, and Tucson. While most shows are international, each has its own characteristics, which makes it special and worth visiting and sharing with you. While the general mood at all the shows has been rather upbeat, most exhibitors still feel the economy and the industry have some distance to go before things get back to normal. Yet, we might ask ourselves if this is the new “normal?” When asked about buyers, exhibitors at nearly all the shows responded that the major buyers were from the emerging East European countries and Asia, most notably China. This seemed to be the case not only for jewellery, but also for gemstones. Whether in Hong Kong, Tucson, Bangkok or Basel, Asians were among the biggest purchasers of diamonds and gems. The look eastward was also very apparent at the recent BaselWorld show, where fair organizers held press conferences not only in English, but also in Chinese. Trade in our industry is thus both ways. While many Europeans and Americans go to Hong Kong to buy goods, the Chinese are purchasing from the West. In addition to our Trends & Colours pages, designer profiles, and various other articles, wefeature the Jewelers Ethics Association. Based in the USA, although open to the international community, its membership includes retailers, manufacturers, gem dealers, laboratories, and consumers, who are committed to upholding ethical standards within the trade, especially in terms of disclosure and access to information..