Flipping through the June issue of Vogue magazine, one gets the sense that a certain female population has experienced exponential growth. The number of young women -- beautiful, multinamed and transcontinental -- who have taken up jewelry design appears to be expanding at the same pace as Californians becoming nutritionally dependent on wheat grass links of london .
In Vogue, readers learn that "the chic London jeweler" Solange Azagury-Partridge likes Stephen Hawking and that the "chic bohemian jewelry designer" Marie-Helene de Taillac now divides her time between Paris and Jaipur Links of London Rings . There is news too of Jade Jagger.
Despite what global economic realities might suggest, it turns out that this is a good year to be a jeweler. Fashion's current mythologizing of peasant and tribal cultures has sparked an interest in showy displays of turquoise, coral and other chunky stones not seen since the heyday of Joni Mitchell. More telling, at the JCK show, a massive trade exposition of both high-end and low-end jewelry, which ends in Las Vegas today, the number of buyers attending increased by almost 10 percent over last year, Hedda Schupak, a coordinator of the show, said R Charm .
Jewelry is outselling handbags and other accessories at Henri Bendel, said Ed Burstell, the store's vice president and general manager. The jewelry he carries -- sculptured pendants, beaded necklaces -- is priced at $100 to $1,000. At Kirna Zabete in SoHo, where chokers, earrings and bracelets are similarly priced, jewelry sales are up 30 percent this spring over last spring, Sarah Easley, the store's co-owner, said. What women seem drawn to are lines like Sweet Pea, made from semiprecious stones. "Nothing is little or wimpy," Ms. Easley said. "The stones may be tiny but they are cascading down your neck."
Uptown, the jewelry business at Bloomingdale's is "on fire," as its fashion director, Kal Ruttenstein, put it. "I think it stems from a desire to go away from minimalism."
A desire to get away from minimalism is not what trend forecasters were predicting in the somber days of last fall and winter. That women would clamor for earrings resembling chandeliers and neck pieces thick as tires seemed as unlikely as the release of "The Sum of All Fears Q Charm ."
But to Ms. Schupak, the notion that jewelry would find embrace at this particular moment makes sense. "It's very simple," Ms. Schupak, who also edits the trade publication Jewelers' Circular Keystone, said. "After 9/11, people want things that are sentimental and permanent."
She continued: "They want to tell their loved ones, 'You mean a lot to me.' You spend $900 on a suit and you take a bite of a drippy taco and let's face it -- that's the end of the suit. Obviously, with a piece of jewelry, you can have it forever, get it re-styled when you're tired of it and pass it on to your grandchild."
The move away from minimalism began, fashion editors will testify, with the arrival of the Fendi baguette. "Three years ago, there was this embellishment thing with Fendi," Michelle Sanders, the accessories director at Vogue, said. "You couldn't wear jewelry. It was too much; some of those baguettes were encrusted with pearls."
The fashion world's consideration of turquoise arose, Ms. Sanders believes, with the role it played in the spring collections for Chloe and Yves Saint Laurent. "That was very impactful," she noted.
Others speculate that women who once sought personal stylistic expression through vintage clothing have become bored and shifted their attentions to other forms of adornment. "It was good for a while but it's definitely a business that is declining," Mr. Burstell said, referring to the industry that once was known as "old clothes." This fall, he plans to stop selling vintage dresses and focus instead on vintage jewels.
A walk through NoLIta in Lower Manhattan has come to feel like a walk through a jewelry district, with stores selling everything from ear cuffs to cuff links. The latest addition is Dinosaur Designs, which opened on Mott Street two weeks ago. Dinosaur is an Australian company specializing in housewares, bangles and neck chains. "So far, since we've opened, we've only sold jewelry," the store's manager, Matthew Lucas, said. The jewelry is priced from $30 into the hundreds.
"Our company has always expanded during periods of recession," Mr. Lucas explained. "Women can't afford a whole outfit, but for $50 they can really jazz things up."
It would appear that the hunger for pieces costing many thousands of dollars has not necessarily gone dormant either. A few weeks ago, Chanel opened a fine-jewelry shop on Madison Avenue because that segment of the business was doing well, Arie L. Kopelman, the president of Chanel Inc., said. Here one can find white gold bracelets for $1,250 or diamond broaches for $520,000.
Over the Memorial Day weekend in Scottsdale, Ariz., a fine-jewelry fair known as the Couture Show attracted 170 exhibitors, as opposed to 150 last year. One designer, Catherine Carmendy, who has been attending for a number of years, said this time she received the highest number of orders ever, most for pieces $3,500 to $25,000.
"I came really not knowing what to expect," Ms. Carmendy said. "But people are buying jewelry. Maybe it means we're acclimating."
