Imagine that, with a summer wedding or party in mind, you want to buy a new piece of jewelry, the category that also includes items made of precious metal and glittering with gemstones.
Even when you’re shopping from your favorite chair at home, finding the right garment isn’t always easy. For example, a recent Google search for a diamond solitaire necklace returned 21.7 million results.
And even if you find a style you like, how can you be sure it’s well made and good value for money?
Earlier this month, The New York Times gathered a group of jewelry professionals at the Warren Street Hotel in Manhattan to hear their opinions on what shoppers should look for when buying fine jewelry, the fact that semi-fine jewelry is sometimes missing and the challenges of opening certain fasteners with long fingernails.
Around the table were Kim Nelson, a jewelry maker and assistant chair of the jewelry design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology; Amber Mitchell, a fine jewelry buyer for online retailer Moda Operandi; Catherine Sarr, founder of the jewelry brand Almasika and former communications manager of De Beers Group; and Jennifer Shanker, founder of Muse, a jewelry showroom that represents designers such as Bea Bongiasca and Silvia Furmanovich, and also owner of a jewelry-focused boutique in New York City.
They all wore jewelry related to their professional worlds, as well as pieces that reflected personal styles as well. As Ms. Shanker put it, “I don’t own as much jewelry as maybe someone who owns a jewelry showroom that you would think they would own, but I do own the pieces that I want to wear every day.” These pieces include a long amber bead necklace by Ileana Makri, a pendant by Anna Maccieri Rossi and stud earrings and a ring by Nikos Koulis.
Ms. Sarr’s picks from her own line include 18-karat gold and pavé diamond rings from the Adiré and Universum collections. Half of Mr. Nelson’s fingers were decorated with rings he had made, including one with a large Ethiopian opal surrounded by black jade and, on his right little finger, a piece of 20-carat gold and tanzanite.
And Ms. Mitchell’s accessories included an 18-karat white and yellow gold ear cuff from Gemella Jewels and several pieces from Ippolita, where she worked for about 12 years. “I feel like I’ve been pretty simple with the jewelry today,” she said.
Occasionally the discussion turned to technical terminology, such as CAD or computer-aided design; metal tolerance, the inherent properties of the material and how that affects the design; and lobster clasp, a popular chain clasp that, yes, resembles a crustacean’s claw.
The conversation has been condensed and edited.
Kim, you probably work with the jewelers of tomorrow. Is quality part of your students’ education?
KIM NELSON Quality is, first of all, a complicated word, because I consider quality in jewelry as a successful piece, at any price: if it works, if it is a successful product. I’m speaking here from a commercial point of view.
As an academic, when I talk to my students about quality, it’s about being able to work to specification – which can seem a bit soulless, because I want them to be able to get guidance from anyone. including himself.
Amber, when you look at new brands you can potentially offer, what do you look for in terms of quality?
AMBER MITCHELL I look for the weight of the gold, how heavy it is. Sometimes pieces can be too light so customers won’t ‘see’ the value they pay for it because it is so light.
I also look at the back to see if the back is finished and if you see things like solder marks. I look at how the stones are placed – think about the teeth: will this stick to her clothes? I try to take everything into account.
I know what I like and what I would expect as someone paying thousands of dollars for a piece of jewelry, so I try to bring that to our customers as well.
What advice would you give jewelry buyers, especially those who shop online?
JENNIFER SHANKER Ask whatever you want so you can be assured of purchasing the piece.
CATHERINE SARR People ask us about dimensions, extra dimensions, sometimes gold weight, carat weight, techniques. It really depends, but we are ready to answer any questions you may have about our quality.
NELSON There is a lot of trust. Jewelry is in many ways a blind purchase. People who buy it don’t understand how it is valued. They don’t understand the difference between buying from someone like me, who will make a custom piece for them, versus buying from a small boutique environment versus buying from a storefront – that there’s a very different pricing structure.
Are there certain jewelry components that tend to have more quality issues than others?
SHANKER Closures, buckles.
MITCHELL That’s what I wanted to say, yes.
NELSON Movement, and that’s usually a production problem. For example, the compounds you can put in platinum you can’t use in gold, and the compounds you use in gold you can’t use in silver. The metal tolerances and what it tolerates, there’s math, engineering and science behind it, and a lot of people in our industry don’t know that, so you’re going to have problems.
Are certain types of buckles or closures potentially more problematic than others?
MITCHELL For necklaces, such as pendant necklaces, lobster clasps are fine. But my thing is some can be too small, and I say because of my nails it’s hard for me to get them on.
SHANKER That is real.
MITCHELL Yes, exactly. Especially nowadays, most women have nails, so small lobster clasps are not that functional for many women. For earrings, I like a lever post because it just feels more secure. Obviously you cannot do this with all earrings if the design does not support this.
Another thing is with ear cuffs. Everyone makes ear cuffs these days and everyone always says, “Oh, it fits in any ear – it never falls out.”
SHANKER [With an emphatically cheerful tone] “It will never fall off!”
MITCHELL That’s not really true, and more and more suppliers are starting to make a hinged ear cuff, like the one I have, that fits so much better.
SHANKER It is also super important in a bracelet.
SARR Quality is also comfort. The piece of jewelry must be comfortable for me. The inspiration is very conceptual in what I do, but you can wear it and feel comfortable in it. I also think that is quality.
SHANKER If it doesn’t feel right, who’s going to wear it?
Since so many people do their shopping online these days, is there a way you can showcase your jewelry online that emphasizes its quality, or are there ways your online presentation can be improved?
SARR We do a lot of trunk shows and people are always surprised. They love the design, but they are surprised by the weight of our jewelry and how they like the finish, so there is something going on that we need to work on.
MITCHELL I think it’s hard to show the quality of a piece online. I know we have customers here who are constantly reaching out. There is an email address on the site that you can email and it will come to us where they will request additional content. Even iPhone videos give you a better idea of the quality, so that’s a service we offer to our customers that has been successful for us. But I think we’re still trying to get to the point where we can show accurate quality online because it’s still just photos on our end.
SHANKER One of the things that happens in online selling: the higher the quality of the jewelry, the higher the quality of the presentation needs to be. I think we might take it for granted, but the more information we can give to the customer without them having to ask questions is super important. From the materials to the carat weights to the dimensions, what you’re talking about in terms of comfort and how it’s worn – I think the content needs to be better.
Videos of clothing and shoes, for example, are common on many retail websites. Why is that not so common in fine jewelry?
SHANKER I think it’s really budget and bandwidth. Also knowing what works and figuring out how to prioritize what you can manage as a small brand and then what you can offer. For example, I could definitely benefit from more video, but we’re at a point where the still life content we’re creating is at such a high level that we don’t want the video to fall below that.
NELSON I have my students spend half their lives on 1stDibs.com because 1stDibs is great for showing the front and back of pieces. They have regular video clips and you can really understand the quality of a piece of jewelry better if you know what you are looking at.
Nowadays there is so much semi-fine jewelry – the kind of jewelry that is more casual and less high-end – available online. Has that disrupted people’s expectations since its quality is not necessarily the same as fine jewelry?
SHANKER Certainly. And especially now, with the way people are buying and the way people are learning about brands through Instagram, I think it’s even more diluted.
But if you buy it online, there is also a huge return rate because once someone receives it, it is not what they expected.
In the United States, the average overall online returns rate in retail is 15 percent. That must be a costly affair for brands.
MITCHELL I know at Moda we’ve only really started returning fine jewelry in the last two years, and I would say our return rate this year is probably around 7 percent, which is pretty low.
SHANKER That’s pretty good.
