SPECIAL REPORT HIGH JEWELRY CAPITALS The über mate From west to east, the globe’s high jewelry capitals are awash with

>> Victoria Gomelsky Jewelry, 90210-style In search of baubles, the rich and famous begin in Beverly Hills

ressed to name the Van Cleef & Arpels and De Beers (located on the north end of the most famous luxury drive since December 2005) — dominates the high jewelry sector. P shopping street in That leaves Los Angeles’s most discerning consumers to seek the world, a majority of their jewelry fix further east, in West Hollywood, where movie stars people would probably do their real shopping. Neil Lane, a fixture on Beverly Boulevard for cite Rodeo Drive in decades (until, that is, a recent fire ravaged the Antiquarius Center Beverly Hills, Calif. The strip mall, where his stall was located) is young Hollywood’s bridal and mythical reputation of this awards night specialist, thanks to his enormous collection of vintage palm-lined avenue in the heart jewelry and his contemporary take on classic diamond staples. of Los Angeles evokes images of Erica Courtney and Dominique Cohen, two couture mavens with celebrities and Tinseltown million- sizable celebrity followings, congregate around Robertson aires shuffling past its shops every Boulevard. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that paparazzi lurk in the morning, browsing for Oscar fashions or gala bushes near the entrances to their boutiques. Courtney’s door is jewels while fetching coffee and bagels. footsteps away from The Ivy, one of L.A.’s hottest eateries. Around “This street looks like a mecca, but we the corner, on Melrose, lies Maxfield, fashionista heaven for its don’t get foot traffic,” says Ali Soltani, owner expertly edited selection of vintage Hermès bags, Yohji Yamamoto of David Orgell, a 7,000-square-foot jewelry fashions and jewels by local gemstone queen Sandra Müller. and tabletop emporium that’s been in the Given that Beverly Hills more or less divides Los Angeles into two same Rodeo Drive location since 1958. camps — the Westside and Hollywood — it also serves as an end- “L.A.’s a car destination.” point for consumers who dwell in the western beach communities of Besides, the brand-name competition — Santa Monica and Malibu. But sometimes even Beverly Hills is too including Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Harry Winston, far to go for jewels. In this case, Westside residents stick to local shops like Santa Monica’s 23rd Street Jewelers, a jewelry box of a boutique that sells hand-crafted platinum rings and rose-cut diamond necklaces, and Rafinity, where Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant famously bought his wife an 8-carat purple diamond ring worth $4 million.

California dreamin’ Two Rodeo, located off Beverly Hills’s famed Rodeo Drive, is the epicenter of the Los Angeles luxury scene. De Beers opened nearby in 2005, selling high-priced jewels like its new Valley of Diamonds collection, which includes this Follow Me ring featuring 2.53 carats of rough diamonds and

2.90 carats of white and fancy colored pavé diamonds in white gold, $30,000. Bureau Courtesy of Beverly Hills Convention & Visitors rial world new money that is redefining the luxury landscape

High times in the Big Apple Photo by Carlton Davis New York’s jewelry scene excels at uniting uptown panache with downtown style

inspired cuffs at old-school favorite David Webb. Lev Leviev recently opened his Madison Avenue flagship, bringing blue diamonds within fetching distance of New York’s most upscale shoppers. A few blocks south lie Barneys and Bergdorf Goodman, both offering the ultimate in power baubles. Saks Fifth Avenue, down the street, fills in their gaps. Still, no tour of Manhattan’s jewelry scene is complete without mention of 47th Street, a single bursting-at-the-seams block at the heart of New York’s wholesale district. Downtown, that imprecise descrip- iven the state of the American economy and the sinking tion of the blocks located south of, say, U.S. dollar, New York’s role on the global jewelry 14th Street, is home to Fragments, the Gscene is in flux. However, don’t count it out yet. jewelry collective in Soho, but super-fine Moscow may have more money, Paris may have more brands and jewelry remains an uptown affair. London may have more power, but the Big Apple retains its influence Just ask James Taffin de Givenchy, the because it attracts consumers from all over the world, and what they distinguished designer behind New York’s buy here makes a difference in what’s sold everywhere else. Taffin. His Fifth Avenue showroom is a Fifth Avenue, with its famous flagship boutiques — among them repository of found treasures and idiosyn- Tiffany & Co., Harry Winston and Cartier — is the traditional home for cratic jewels that expertly mix high and low. high jewelry, but these days, a parallel stretch of Madison Avenue To wit: French-born de Givenchy, a nephew attracts the real high-rollers. Gazing into the windows of its highfa- of the famed couturier, combines superb lutin boutiques, you’ll come across everything from a 30-carat gems such as Russian demantoid garnets D-flawless diamond ring in the Graff salon to exuberant animal- and Burmese spinels with 10,000-year-old mammoth ivory, Turkish meerschaum and Luxe and the city The Leviev boutique on Madison Avenue sells fine diamond jewels, other organic materials, slyly affirming the such as these rose-cut earrings anchored by two pear-shaped stones and accented by melting pot tradition of his adopted city, pink and white pavé, price upon request. On parallel Fifth Avenue sit traditional New York jewelers like Tiffany & Co., whose 57th Street salon excels at Deco-esque design, such whose own high-low mix has always been as these diamond and platinum bracelets, $80,000 and $91,500, respectively. the secret to its everlasting appeal.

COUTURE International Jeweler l Extravaganza 2008 l 00 SPECIAL REPORT HIGH JEWELRY CAPITALS

tion of Boodle & Dunthorne, established in Liverpool in 1798 and now a standout on the London retail scene. The independent jeweler, whose flagship is located on Bond Street, rebranded itself as Boodles in 2004 and, thanks to savvy sponsorships, product innovation, superstar service and a commitment to advertising the brand, has reaped the rewards of its fresh and instantly recognizable image. Other English jewelry institutions, such as David Morris and Mappin & Webb, also continue to thrive — though perhaps slightly less so in the midst of the global economic downturn — but it’s not the amount nor the diversity of retail jewelers in London that makes the city so exciting from a jewelry perspective. It’s the local pool of talent. A density of gifted, London reigns bespoke-minded designers with retail shops of their The British capital is the center own, including Barbara of the jewelry universe Tipple, Fiona Knapp and Jess James, keep the thriving art scene, a torrent of “petro-dollars” and a popu- design bar high while presti- lation so diverse as to seem singularly global — London has gious training grounds like Central St. A all the trappings of a jewelry capital. From the pretty, shiny Martins ensure that the pool never lacks for streets of the Mayfair district, where international brands come an infusion of newness. home to roost, to the workshops of Hatton Garden, where grizzly old Then there’s the public outreach. This goldsmiths carry on the traditions of their fathers and grandfathers, past June, for the first time ever, the City Britain’s capital city is a unique amalgam of very old and very new. Fringe Partnership organized Coutts The new is most visible on Mayfair’s Old and New Bond Streets, London Jewellery Week. Sponsored by the a veritable jewelers’ row, in the form of new money, much of it private banking arm of The Royal Bank of Russian. Whereas the 1980s saw Arab millionaires flaunt their Scotland Group, the week saw leading wealth on London’s most upscale high street, this decade has seen jewelry names — the poster children of the a Russian billionaire invasion. The development has boosted the ad campaign were none other than Theo bottom lines of Asprey, Moussaieff, Garrard, De Beers and other Fennell, Stephen Webster and Shaun emporiums for serious stones. Leane — host parties, launch collections There’s so much money floating around London at the moment and generally toot their own horns, all in that there’s plenty to go around. While global brands juggle the the name of publicizing London’s jewelry oligarch and oil baron business, traditional English jewelers are in possibilities. the money, too, perhaps none more so than Boodles, the reincarna- No word yet on whether the sales matched the hype, but regardless, the commitment Towering heights More than 100 years after Tower Bridge was built, London is a jewelry London shows to its own jewelry trade is capital, home to both independent retailers such as Boodles, whose mint green tourma- line Dragonfly necklace, £116,000, or $232,200, is shown above, and brands such as one reason among many for why it remains

Photo by visitlondonimages/britainonview Garrard, purveyor of this 17.25-carat emerald, diamond and platinum ring, $995,000. at the top of the global hierarchy.

00 l Extravaganza 2008 l COUTURE International Jeweler SPECIAL REPORT HIGH JEWELRY CAPITALS

Van Cleef & Arpels, Boucheron, Chaumet, Mauboussin and Chanel — complement the square’s grand 17th century facades, giving onlookers pause for moments of reverence. The opulence doesn’t end there. The streets radiating Cartier 2007 from this enclave of luxury, in particular rue St.-Honoré, © also house boutiques selling second-hand haute joaillerie as well as designs from independents like Lydia Courteille, a biochemist who discovered her love for old jewels when she herself worked for an antiques dealer.

The Paris jewelry market, like its fashion industry, can be divided Photo by Katel Riou between couture and ready-to-wear. Wide selections of the latter are on display at two rival department stores on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement: Printemps has created a special designer jewelry section housing about 20 different designers, and Galeries Lafayette showcases collections from prestigious brands, both French and foreign, including Hermès, Bulgari, Tiffany, Chopard, Fred and Din Van.

Photo provided courtesy of Paris Tourist Office/David Lefranc Photo provided courtesy of Paris Tourist But the heart and soul of Paris’s jewelry scene are the ateliers, both big and small, that create the gemstone art that will be remembered decades from now as the mark of 21st century jewelry design. Paris is American-in-Paris Joel Arthur Rosenthal, the closest thing this era has to a jewelry master on par with the greats of the 20th century, is world renowned for his graceful use of stones and inimitable crafts- for luxury manship and leads the pack of artists who’d like to style themselves in his likeness. Place Vendôme, JAR and There are, of course, scores of aspirants to the JAR throne. It’s no scores of talented ateliers surprise that they, too, are based in Paris. Marchak, the brand founded in Kiev in 1878 by Ukrainian Joseph Marchak and relocated to Paris ensure that the French in the 1920s, has, after a dormant spell, revived its legacy as capital will always be the Cartier of Kiev, jeweler to the czars, with the opening of the capital of couture a new Marchak salon in Paris in April 2005. Four years ago, Philippe Tournaire inaugurated his t seems reasonable to assume Place Vendôme boutique, from which he fashions literal that a world without Paris and figurative cityscapes using a palette of multicolored Iwould be a world without sapphires, tourmalines, opals and diamonds, drawing haute joaillerie. Who would set the on architectural and art history references to create tone for a market of such extravagance astonishing works of jeweled art. if not the jewelers of Place Vendôme, Occupying the intersection between fashion and the spiritual birthplace of jewelry branding fine art are designers Delphine-Charlotte Parmentier of and the finest practitioners of its art? Chanel and Victoire de Castellane of Dior, both stylish, Parisian designer Lorenz Bäumer, one of talented jewelers who aren’t afraid to experiment with outrageous the subjects of our Designer Profile and a color combinations and unexpected motifs. In the great tradition of Place Vendôme tenant, says it best when he Parisian couture, their jewels are simultaneously radical and ravishing. describes the famous square as “the open- air temple of a cult that worships beauty.” Kings for queens Of all the jewelry giants located in the Place Vendôme, Cartier is king. Sumptuous window displays featuring the Fit for a queen, its stately platinum necklace features a pear-cut, 63.66-carat diamond and a brilliant-cut diamond of 12.83 carats. Designed for Cartier’s 2007 Inde Mystérieuse most expensive and rarefied jewels in the collection, it was priced at €10 million, or $15.9 million. Considerably more affordable world — from local favorites such as Cartier, but equally beguiling is the Luthine opal tortoise brooch by Marchak, €14,000.

00 l Extravaganza 2008 l COUTURE International Jeweler SPECIAL REPORT HIGH JEWELRY CAPITALS Swiss movements Geneva is a small town with a huge population of power players in search of fine jewelry esidents of Geneva are fond of calling their city a village — a global village. A concentration of international bankers, Rforeign diplomats and high-end watchmakers — the latter a Geneva fixture since the 17th century, when Huguenots fleeing persecution in France brought their artistic savoir-faire to bear on the local trade — means that a haute selection of jewelry is de riguer. The center of the action is rue du Rhône, home to more than 120 and Benoît de Gorski — for the high street luxury boutiques. For decades, wealthy Arabs on holiday were the business, but customers with real money to street’s best customers. In recent years, however, they have been spend do their deals in private ateliers, joined by Russian businessmen and bankers of all nationalities and where discretion is prized above all else. languages: Mexicans, Brazilians, Australians, Chinese. Suzanne Syz, a glamorous, Zurich-born Global brands (de Grisogono, Cartier, Graff) compete with local redhead who designs one-of-a-kind jewels fine jewelry and watch retailers — among them Les Ambassadeurs for collectors from her atelier on rue Céard, swears by the local stone setters and metal- Anything but neutral A ring with a revolving 83.39-carat black diamond in yellow gold, smiths, confessing that she’d never trust $1,331,000, from de Grisogono. The global chain of luxury boutiques launched in Geneva in 1996, when then 44-year-old Fawaz Gruosi opened his first shop selling haute black her work, set in either platinum, 18-karat gold

diamond jewelry to jet setters, drawn to the lakeside city for its “global village” ambience. or titanium, to anyone outside of Geneva. and Convention Bureau Photo provided courtesy of Geneva Tourism

hile most of Italy’s finest jewelry craftsmen are based in The Italian small northern cities such as Valenza, Vicenza and Arezzo W (the coral artisans of the Napoli region in the south notwithstanding), discerning shoppers head straight to the big city connection of Milan. A potent mix of commerce, fashion and power has cemented its reputation as a bona fide jewelry destination. In Milan, old values collide Conventional wisdom says that Via Monte Napoleone is Milan’s, if not the continent’s, most elegant boulevard. Today, the crowded with cutting-edge fashion street borders an area known as the Quadrilatero; Via Sant’Andrea, Via della Spiga and Via Borgospesso form the rest of the squared- off block, home to Milan’s greatest concentration of fashion designers, jewelers, furriers and antiques dealers. Buccellati, founded in 1919, is the patriarch of haute Italian jewelry. Based on Via Monte Napoleone since the 1960s, the world-famous brand has cultivated a style all its own, distinguished by the use of refined techniques such as tulle, lace and honeycomb. Its retail neigh- bors — jewelers such as Cusi, De Vecchi and James Rivière, to name three — are, however, no slouches. The district is chock-a-block with their avant-garde, expensive offerings, from artsy jewels to stylish, of- the-moment baubles destined to adorn Europe’s glitterati. However, for all Milan’s primacy in trend-setting fashion, its iconic Passion for fashion Shoppers cruise down jewelers are old school masters, averse to trends and devoted to Via della Spiga, one of the streets bordering Milan’s famed Quadrilatero, home to a density of jewelers making things using their hands, singlehandedly preserving the

and fashion designers. classic Italian jewelry tradition for generations to come. Board Photo provided courtesy of the Italian Government Tourist

00 l Extravaganza 2008 l COUTURE International Jeweler SPECIAL REPORT HIGH JEWELRY CAPITALS

of Mercury’s Swiss watch assort- ment, fashion labels or luxury car brands). In addition to owning TsUM, a neo-Gothic, formerly state-run department store filled with an über-chic selection of goods, Mercury also oversees numerous mono-brand boutiques scattered around the city as well as the sleek Barvikha Luxury Village, located on the outskirts of Moscow. Bosco di Ciliegi, Mercury’s chief cross town rival, owns a controlling stake in GUM, the city’s premier shopping destination, a gorgeously styled arcade on the edge of Red Square, while Podium positions itself as a retail group for an edgier, younger, more fashion-forward sensibility, with designer jewelry labels like Loree Rodkin, Palmiero The Russian and Robert Wan under its umbrella. The groups behind Kosmos-Zoloto, Da Vinchi and Louvre are also prominent. retail revolution Only a few foreign jewelers have succeeded outside the luxury group framework. British Brimming with rubles, the wealthiest few in designer Stephen Webster, for example, part- Moscow are changing the global luxury game nered with a wealthy friend of his Russian wife, Anastasia, to open a boutique in one f you’re a luxury goods marketer, Moscow is the epicenter of the of Moscow’s first luxury hotels, the Ararat new world order. Nothing is too rare, too blinged-out or too Park Hyatt, in 2004. He’s reaped the rewards Iexpensive for Muscovites who seek to impress, and the jewelry of that relationship ever since, the prodi- industry is jumping through hoops to help them do so. gious publicity surrounding his launch event Little wonder that at BaselWorld, the exhibitors in the elite having generated enough interest in his precincts of the branded jewelry hall couldn’t stop fawning over their rock-and-roll aesthetic to lead to additional Russian visitors, a cooler-than-thou cadre of buyers who seemed partnerships in former Soviet republics as nonplussed at the prospect of plunking down millions for the latest far afield as Tatarstan. and most exclusive jewelry creations. Meanwhile, homegrown brands like Due to Russia’s complicated bureaucracy (forms filled out in trip- Smolensk Kristall, a spinoff of the Diamond licate, documents stamped just so), international designers and Trading Co. sightholder, and Jewellery brands eager to get a toehold in Moscow’s thriving luxury scene Theatre, known for its inventive diamond almost always have to work with a local luxury group. As retail and pearl jewels, operate local retail stores pioneers in the dodgy, crime-plagued years of the 1990s, when the while simultaneously showing in local exhi- Soviet system fell apart and only the most ruthless oligarchs bitions such as the Moscow Fine Arts Fair survived, the all-powerful Mercury Group is chief among them. and the Millionaire Fair. The retailer-distributor is behind such illustrious brand names as Anyone with their sights set on Moscow’s Chopard, Tiffany & Co., Graff, Mikimoto and Faberge (to say nothing luxury consumers would be advised to check out both events. Judging by the rate at which Fire and ice Palmiero’s Fire pendant, starting at €20,000, or $31,580, is a hit with affluent Moscow mints new billionaires, it won’t be young Muscovites, the demographic served by Podium, the brand’s Russian distributor. But Russia’s real luxury heavy-hitter is the Mercury Group, whose TsUM department store long before today’s mere millionaires make

Photo by Dave Hughes is located minutes from the onion-domed spires of St. Basil’s in Red Square. their way on to Forbes’ list.

00 l Extravaganza 2008 l COUTURE International Jeweler SPECIAL REPORT HIGH JEWELRY CAPITALS

evident, the luxury boutiques in the Wafi Center or Mall of the Emirates are where that obsession is cultivated. Whether it’s the hip, prestigious selection of jewels at Harvey Nichols Dubai or a stroll through brand name heaven at the BurJuman mall — home to a sleek and service-oriented Saks Fifth Avenue — Dubai’s privileged classes don’t have far to go to find the best of the best in high jewelry. Much like in Moscow, the beneficiaries of all that business are luxury groups. Damas is among the most powerful entities. Founded in 1907, the company has grown from a locally based jeweler into a global fashion and jewelry network spanning throughout the U.K., Italy, Libya, Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Maldives, India, Lebanon and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. At its more than 386 global sales points (most of them concentrated in the UAE, where the company’s branding campaign is ubiquitous), Damas houses internationally

Courtesy of the Government of Dubai, Dept. of Tourism and Commerce Mktg. Courtesy of the Government Dubai, Dept. Tourism acclaimed jewelry and watch brands such as Tiffany & Co., Mikimoto, Daniel K, Gucci, Faberge, Carrera y Carrera, Paspaley, Pasquale Bruni, Roberto Coin, Fope, A portal Chronoswiss and Parmigiani. But that’s hardly enough to sate Dubai’s luxury- mad consumers. Al Tayer, a three-decades-old family to riches business, is a local partner to Asprey, Boucheron, Bulgari, Damiani and Pomellato, while Samra Dubai is luxury grand Jewellery is the exclusive agent for brands such as central, but so are its France’s Korloff, which recently opened a boutique in the BurJuman center. up-and-coming neighbors What all of these brands and groups have in common is their growing belief that Dubai is a he City of Gold, as Dubai, the most gateway, not only to the other emirates — whose ruling glamorous of the United Arab sheiks are keen on diversifying their economies by weaning them- T Emirates’ seven sheikhdoms is known, selves off oil in lieu of other less volatile moneymakers, such as has much to recommend it as a jewelry hub. tourism — but also to the Middle East’s up-and-coming destinations. Centrally located at the nexus of Asia, Bahrain, the archipelago nation in the Persian Gulf accessed by Europe and Africa, the region boasts a the King Fahd Causeway from Saudi Arabia, has remade itself into pearling legacy that dates back centuries. an international banking hub, while its peninsular neighbor, Qatar, With its density of luxury hotels and shopping and its capital, Doha, in particular, are beginning to attract wealthy malls, wealthy tourists from the earth’s four Middle Eastern tourists and, therefore, the luxury trade’s attention. corners flock here to spend their money, which Then there’s the enormous oil-drenched wealth that lies in the heart is to say nothing of the locals (well, at least the of the Arabian Peninsula, in Saudi cities such as Riyadh and Jeddah. ones who were born locally). The eagerness Dubai is the region’s role model, thanks to its spectacular interpretation with which the Emiratis consume jewelry of what constitutes a modern Middle Eastern metropolis. But that’s only hardly requires mentioning. It’s practically an convinced neighboring locales they now have something to prove. axiom that beneath even the most modest burka, you’re likely to find a fortune in stones. Golden girls The 18-karat yellow gold and diamond Ava bracelet, $53,570, by Carrera y Carrera, and the Meteorite earrings in 18-karat white gold with cognac diamonds, While the world-famous Gold Souk is $73,380, by Roberto Coin are typical of the jewels seen on burka-clad women in the where Dubai’s obsession with gold is most “City of Gold,” Dubai, the most glamorous of the United Arab Emirates.

00 l Extravaganza 2008 l COUTURE International Jeweler SPECIAL REPORT HIGH JEWELRY CAPITALS Photo provided courtesy of the Hong Kong Tourism Board Tourism Photo provided courtesy of the Hong Kong

Crawford maintains a flagship (as do Bulgari, Chopard, Damiani, Georg Jensen and David Yurman, to name others), to the stately The hub of confines of the Prince’s Building, where Adler, Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, Piaget and Chanel all play host to the Cantonese equivalent of ladies who lunch, Central’s long boulevards teem with shoppers the Orient on a mission to impress. Local jewelers like Ronald Abram and K.S. Sze & Sons, whose boutiques are located in the shopping arcade of the Mandarin Shoppers in Hong Kong Oriental Hotel, command a healthy share of the high-end business, are the savviest of them all while mass-market retail powerhouses like Chow Tai Fook, which set up its first store on Queen’s Road, Central, in 1939, have a lock on o city—not London, Moscow or Hong Kong’s aspirational shoppers. Dubai—can claim consumers as But that says nothing of the thriving auction market, where stones in Nsophisticated as Hong Kong’s. 100-carat plus sizes have little trouble finding willing buyers. Whereas a VS clarity grade will suffice in Christie’s Hong Kong, once a backwater in comparison to New York other markets, here only a flawless will do. and Geneva, has become a global sales powerhouse over the past Hong Kong’s astute buyers are descen- decade. The spring 2008 magnificent jewels sale, for example, totaled dants of a long trading tradition that’s a record HK$468.8 million, or $60.1 million — “the most valuable distinguished the region since Britain jewelry sale ever organized by Christie’s anywhere in the world,” as defeated China in the Opium Wars of the the house breathlessly reported in its post-sale roundup. mid-19th century. When the Communists A bevy of locally based, world-class designers, including Edmond seized control of the Chinese mainland in Chin of Etcetera, Michelle Ong of Carnet and Wallace Chan of Wallace 1949, Hong Kong welcomed scores of Gems, only adds to Hong Kong’s tremendous jewelry caché. All entrepreneurs as refugees began shifting three take their inspiration from motifs and traditions found only in their businesses to the area. Asia, yet they’ve earned global collector followings, a testament to Today, the special administrative their talent as well as to the energy of the city they call home. region, firmly back in Chinese hands, Of course, no talk of Hong Kong as a high jewelry destination is is in the grip of a consumer frenzy. It complete without mentioning the untapped riches that lie just across the all begins in Central, the district at border. However, as mainland China gears up to become the definitive the heart of Hong Kong Island’s market for luxury retailing in the 21st century, Hong Kong is already luxury retail scene. From the there, waiting patiently for its slumbering neighbor to catch up. International Finance Centre Made in Hong Kong A multicolored diamond bracelet, price upon request, from Ronald (ifc) Mall, where the über- Abram, a local luminary, and jewelry-artist Wallace Chan’s Honey Life earrings in titanium department store Lane and 18-karat gold with padauk wood, gemstones and pink crystal, price upon request.

00 l Extravaganza 2008 l COUTURE International Jeweler SPECIAL REPORT HIGH JEWELRY CAPITALS

hen Portuguese traders arrived in Macau A mecca in the middle of the 16th century, they W brought spices from Mozambique, textiles from Goa and cobblestones from their native Portugal (to serve as for money much needed ballast). Five centuries later, the mercantile seeds of that effort have spawned the globe’s hottest gambling destination — a tropical The jewelry industry is enclave on the western lip of the Pearl River Delta where Portuguese, betting that gamblers in Chinese and gaming cultures collide. Macau have cash to spare Even though most visitors come from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to indulge a passion for baccarat, enough people are splurging on Rolex watches and Piaget jewels to have transformed Macau into Asia’s most talked-about jewelry destination. Jewelry stores are largely housed inside the major casinos: the Wynn, the year-old Venetian, the brand-new MGM, not to mention old standbys like billionaire Stanley Ho’s Casino Lisboa and its luxurious sister prop- erty, the Grand Lisboa. As in most new money capitals, the stores represent well-established brands with strong financial backing from European luxury goods conglomerates like Richemont, LVMH and Gucci. But a few independent players are also betting big on Macau’s potential. Diamond SA, a Shanghai-based jewelry chain owned by an Mad money Billionaire Stanley Ho’s Casino Lisboa has Israeli-South African expatriate, operates a boutique in the Venetian a slew of new competitors. The Wynn Macau Resort, for example, is a doppelgänger of the Las Vegas property, and is planning to open another one in the Wynn. President Eyal Bafri

and sells scores of Piaget pendants like the one above. expects to have four shops open here by 2010. Board Photo provided courtesy of the Macau Government Tourist Tuned-in Tokyo Saturated with merchandise, Tokyo’s lucrative luxury goods market spares no expense ore than 100 years ago, Japanese pearl purveyor Kokichi Mikimoto opened his eponymous store in Tokyo’s Ginza M district. With success came a larger locale, a contempo- rary two-story building of white stone that seemed to define the city’s jewelry savvy. A century later, Tokyo is once again pushing the boundaries of modern luxury shopping. As the hub of the Japanese diamond retail market and second in diamond jewelry sales only to the United States, Tokyo is a label- lover’s paradise. The storefronts in the chic Ginza shopping district read like the front-of-book advertising in Vogue, and jewelry mega- afford the $100,000-per-square-meter rent. brands are opting for a “bigger is better” style of retail. Case in point: The teenage fantasyland that is the Bulgari’s new 10-story tower includes a swanky VIP lounge, restau- Harajuku district notwithstanding, Tokyo rant and rooftop garden terrace, while De Beers’ curved flagship sits remains a land of labels. De Beers nicely just blocks from Swarovski’s 5,000-square-foot crystal palace. illustrated this point when it chose the city’s It’s no wonder that big names dot this shopping district like three ritziest department stores – Takashimaya, Broadway marquees in Times Square — smaller brands could never Matsuya and Itesan – as its second, third Japan takes Manhattan Tokyo’s premiere shopping district, Ginza, has all the flash of and fourth retail ventures worldwide. New York’s Times Square; at $100,000 per square meter, rents are even more dazzling. –Randi Molofsky

00 l Extravaganza 2008 l COUTURE International Jeweler SPECIAL REPORT HIGH JEWELRY CAPITALS Back to Bombay Western firms who served the maharajas are now eyeing the luxury market in Mumbai oscow may have the world’s highest concentration of billionaires, but it’s Mumbai, India’s undisputed capital of Mcommerce, that claims 25,000 millionaires, reportedly one of the fastest growing affluent populations in the world. One of Mumbai’s best selections of Bombay, as it is commonly known, is a city of mind-boggling contemporary diamond jewelry can be found extremes. About half of the city’s 13 million people live in Dharavi, a at the DiA boutique in the former. But this slum to end all slums, while pockets of wealth cling to its outskirts, being India, there’s no shortage of local in enclaves like Kemp’s Corner, Malabar Hill and Bandra. jewelers to satisfy the insatiable demand. European luxury providers, although slow to penetrate the Indian One of the city’s best designers is born-and- market due to excessive import duties, have been drawn to a few bred Mumbaikar Viren Bhagat. Unlike most areas in south Mumbai, mostly concentrated around the city’s Indian jewelers, whose stock in trade is 22- poshest hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower and the Oberoi in karat gold, Bhagat works almost exclusively nearby Nariman Point, the city’s commercial and banking hub. in platinum, a sign that India’s affluent consumers are already looking to the next This is India The Gateway of India in Mumbai’s Colaba district is across the street from the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower. These pearl and diamond earrings by Bhagat sold at phase of their country’s 5,000-year-old

Christie’s Hong Hong in 2007 for 1,207,500 Hong Kong dollars, or $155,164. jewelry tradition. Photo provided courtesy of Maharashtra Tourism

t sounds like the lead-in to a simple joke: How many decades does Boomtowns it take for a major city of the former Soviet Union to become a Iglobal player? The answer — and it’s no joke — is just under two, Almaty, Baku and Kiev are judging by the trajectory of Almaty, Kazakhstan; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Kiev, Ukraine, all well on their way to becoming the next Dubai. leading the luxury charge Once the premier stop along Marco Polo’s legendary Silk Route, in the former Soviet Union Almaty is the chief beneficiary of Kazakhstan’s cache of black gold — oil exports top a million barrels a day and have helped grow the economy 50 percent in the past five years. Not for nothing are high- profile jewelers like London-based Stephen Webster laying down roots. “This is a town of extremely wealthy, independent women,” says Webster, who opened stores in Almaty and Kiev (alongside neighbors such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Boucheron) in 2008. “The clientele is looking for one-of-a-kind pieces that no one else has.” Baku’s resources also lie underground. Sitting on an estimated 31 billion barrels of oil and four trillion cubic meters of gas, the city is undergoing a Western transformation fueling desires for big-name brands and shopping destinations akin to Fifth Avenue or Ginza. In Kiev, the internal jewelry trade has been just as revitalized as the general economy. Since 2005, Ukrainian government support for small jewelry businesses has helped more than 4,300 local compa- nies, and production is growing at 33 percent annually. But to really see the turnaround, look no further than Kiev’s sleek Arena City, a six- ■ Freedom to shop Kiev’s Central Square attracts youths story shopping complex that houses more than 60 luxury brands. who have grown accustomed to Western style. –Randi Molofsky

00 l Extravaganza 2008 l COUTURE International Jeweler