She is the first female president of the fifth-generation family business, which has a flagship in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and a boutique in Rhinebeck, N.Y. She joined the 130-year-old retailer in 2001.

Zimmer takes over from her father, Michael Gordon, who has served as company president for 15 years. He will remain on its board of directors.

“The jewelry industry has always been a male-dominated profession, but women are continually breaking through,” said Zimmer in a statement. “It’s an honor to be in a position where I can use my voice and actions to support and elevate causes that I care deeply about. And as the mom of two daughters, it’s even more special to reflect on what this represents for women in the industry.”

She has begun a partnership with Moyo Gems, an organization that supports colored gemstone mining regions in Africa. The Zimmer Brothers Legacy Collection, hand-selected by Jocelyn Zimmer, will debut this summer.

Some of those pieces will feature a gemstone mined by East African women, cut and faceted by women in the United States, and crafted by one of the jeweler’s female designers.Fifteen percent of those purchases will be donated to Gem Legacy, a nonprofit that provides vocational training, entrepreneurship, and community development in East African gem mining communities.

He is the fourth generation of his family to head the century-old retailer. As a child, McGrath helped clean jewelry cases in the store. He became an accountant, but following the loss of sister Brooke to a rare form of meningitis in 2011, he joined the family business.

McGrath started as a sales associate at Tivol’s Hawthorne Plaza store, then moved to its flagship location in Country Club Plaza. From there, he moved up to diamond buyer and, eventually, vice president.

The new CEO is the great-grandson of Charles Tivol, who opened the first Tivol store in downtown Kansas City in 1910. Charles’ son Harold later took the reins, and became a legend both in Kansas City and in the industry.

For the past 30 years, McGrath’s mom, Cathy Tivol Maslan, has served as company CEO.

“The store is intricately a part of who I am,” McGrath said in a statement. “It really gives me the best of both worlds. Being a former CPA, I love numbers. The store also gives me the opportunity to go beyond the numbers and create and build relationships with our clients.

“Tivol has been working for our community for 113 years. In a way, it is not my business, it is Kansas City’s. I am looking after it for both our family and our community, and I take that seriously.”

(Photo courtesy of Tivol)

My chief takeaways were, of course, centered on diamonds. I saw how they were mined, and how both Botswana and South Africa had managed, and benefited from, their diamond resources.

Last week, I had the opportunity to repeat the very best parts of that trip on a five-day return visit to Botswana as a guest of the Seattle-based retailer Ben Bridge. I was one of a handful of editors the company invited on the trip, which also included a group of diamond industry stakeholders hosted by De Beers—the New York City-based retailer-influencer Stephanie Gottlieb among them. All together, there were 15 of us, including two photographers hired by De Beers, whose images you’ll see below.

The trip kicked off in the capital of Gaborone (“Gabs” to the locals). On day 1, we toured the headquarters of De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (DBGSS), which relocated here from London in 2013. That afternoon, some of us split from the larger group to visit the Leo Schachter factory in nearby Molepolole, to see where Ben Bridge’s Signature diamonds are cut. (En route we made two pit stops: first, at Babies-R-Us, to swoop through the aisles in search of coloring books and puzzles for the two dozen kids at our second stop, Bana ba Keletso, a day care center long supported by Leo Schachter.)

On day 2, we journeyed to the Jwaneng Mine, the richest diamond mine in the world, located about 160 miles southwest of the capital. And on day 3, we flew to Kasane, a small city in the northwest of the country that is the gateway to Chobe National Park, one of the finest wildlife viewing destinations in the world (and home to some 45,000 elephants!).

Of all the press trips I’ve taken since I started writing about the gem and jewelry industry in 2000, none has been organized by a retailer. I wanted to understand why it was important for Ben Bridge to bring a cohort of American editors all this way.

Stacy Speicher, the company’s vice president of marketing—and one of two accomplished and amiable Ben Bridge executives who joined the trip (Angela Hope, vice president of merchandising, was the other)—shed light on the company’s ambitions:

“We really believe there’s a strong diamond story to be told, not only about how diamonds are ethically sourced but also about the lasting positive impact they have in the countries they’re sourced from,” Speicher told me. “This is such a great opportunity for journalists to see for themselves the good diamonds are doing.”

Having been to Gaborone and Jwaneng previously, I had a decent grasp of Botswana’s history with De Beers, and the importance of diamonds to the nation’s economy and social fabric. Debswana, a 50-50 joint venture between the De Beers Group and the government of Botswana, was established in 1969. It operates four mines—Jwaneng, Orapa, Letlhakane, and Damtshaa—and is the biggest contributor to De Beers’ rough diamond production.

(Note: JCK’s news director, Rob Bates, has covered the tenser-than-usual contract negotiations currently underway between De Beers and the Botswana government. The topic did not come up during our press visit. When I asked about it informally, I was told the issue would be settled by the end of June.)

But much has changed since 2004. In addition to the fact that De Beers’ sightholders now travel to Gaborone 10 times a year to view and buy their assortments (each sight is valued between $400 million and $500 million), many are now keenly focused on obtaining proof of their diamonds’ origins.

A diamond’s source mattered back then, too, of course. The Kimberley Process certification scheme was just a year old at the time of my first Botswana visit. And though the premiere of the Leonardo DiCaprio thriller Blood Diamond was still two years away, the trade was already deeply embroiled in the conflict diamonds crisis.

Today, the need to understand origin is more nuanced and arguably more acute than ever, given the rise of lab-grown diamonds and the war in Ukraine, which has stoked demand among diamond sellers in America for documentation proving their diamonds did not originate in Russia.

“While sourcing has been important to us for a long time, it hasn’t necessarily been at the forefront for the consumer, and that’s starting to shift,” Hope told me. “People are hungry to know and understand where their diamonds are from.”

Below are three things about De Beers’ operations in Botswana that made a lasting impression on me.

Diamonds hold multiple meanings for the people of Botswana.

On our first night in Gaborone, the De Beers team organized a spectacular bush brai (aka a good old-fashioned barbecue) at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve, where a number of DBGSS employees and local journalists—including the Botswana-born transgender activist Kat Kai Kol-Kes—joined us.

Over a dinner of grilled meat served at a long candlelit table, I spoke to two women, both on the communications team, who joined De Beers eight years ago. While I didn’t catch their names, I couldn’t mistake their appreciation for diamonds.

“Diamonds mean education, they mean health care, they mean empowerment,” one of the women told me.

In a similar chat with Bakang Phuthego, who works in De Beers’ social impact and sustainability portfolio, he recalled the moment he first heard that the company wanted to hire him. “I thought it was a joke—I didn’t believe it could be true,” he said. “When my father found out, he was so proud.”

That pride was palpable. And I was far from the only one who thought so. “Hearing the impact from the people of Botswana themselves was so meaningful,” Speicher said. “It’s not a corporate line. You’ve seen and heard this yourselves. And we’ll take this back to our managers and let them share as well.”

Yes, the Jwaneng Mine is a giant open-pit operation. Here’s why that’s the wrong thing to focus on.

In the Setswana language, Jwaneng means “a place of small stones.” The mine lies on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, adjacent to the Jwana Game Park, where we spotted zebras, giraffes, and countless impala on a brief safari in the chilly morning hours before our mine visit.

The Jwaneng kimberlite pipe was discovered beneath the desert sands in 1971, just five years after Botswana declared its independence. At the time, there were only about 60 people living in the Jwana region, according to De Beers. Production began in 1982, spawning the growth of the local township, which now numbers some 18,000 people.

Known as “the prince of mines” because it is the richest diamond mine in the world by value, Jwaneng was a jaw-dropping sight. The open pit measures about 1.5 miles by 1.1 miles across and is now about 1,480 feet deep. Approximately 110 million tons of material is removed every year; about 30% is diamond-bearing.

As we stood at a viewpoint along the rim, we watched a steady stream of gargantuan Komatsu trucks ferry hundreds of tons of material from the bottom of the pit up snaking roads etched into the slopes of the mine. From a distance, they looked like mechanical ants attempting to terraform Mars. The scene was awe-inspiring and otherworldly.

When I visited Jwaneng in 2004, we were able to journey to the bottom of the pit and stand atop the most central of the mine’s three kimberlite pipes. With a yield of about 300 carats per 100 tons (meaning that De Beers is able to recover around 300 carats of gem-quality material for every 100 tons they mine), the central pipe is enormously valuable.

This time, we could only admire the pit, which is clearly much deeper now, from afar. By 2034, when the mine is expected to go underground, it’ll be extended to a depth of 2,677 feet, or about half a mile.

I posted some images from the mine to my Instagram and received a few disapproving comments from people, including some lab-grown advocates, who focused on the amount of earth that had been displaced over the past four decades—something on the order of 3.2 billion tons.

I understood where the critics were coming from, but I knew they lacked a larger context. They didn’t see the hospital that provides health care to the mine’s 12,000 employees and the surrounding community (each person in Botswana, we learned, has an average of seven dependents). Nor were they likely to know how, in a country where the unemployment rate hovers around 23%, those jobs are critical to so many livelihoods. After meeting many people who depend on the income generated by diamonds, it was easier to look past the size of that gaping pit and focus on the community that had grown up around it.

Women occupy leadership positions throughout De Beers’ operations in Africa.

During our Jwaneng tour, we met a woman who drives one of the Komatsu trucks that carries gravel from the bottom of the mine up to the rim. Though the word truck is something of a misnomer.

The Komatsu is bigger than most homes. Each of its four tires costs around $60,000. And though it’s not, technically, the biggest truck in the world, it has a capacity of 300-plus tons and looks more like a mobile apartment building than a vehicle. (There were plenty of jokes about how the elevated platform where the driver’s cab is located is bigger than many New York City apartments.)

In her yellow hard hat and blue and orange safety gear, the cheerful driver who gamely answered our questions was just one of the many women we met who hold positions of power and great responsibility across De Beers’ Botswana operations.

From the Gaborone-based team behind the “Building Forever” campaign to the security chief at the mine, the women impressed us with their competence, their openness, and what seemed like their genuine passion for diamonds.

“The takeaway, I think, for all of us is the incredible role women have played and are playing here,” Hope told me. “We’ve been searching in the U.S. for a more diverse way forward, and perhaps we should have been looking here a long time ago.

“For me, a really impactful moment was when we were having lunch at the mine and I was sitting with the head of security,” Hope added. “She has a CPA background. She was telling me about her education that was covered. For her, diamonds symbolize love, support, and strength. To hear the pride in what she’s doing—it was very meaningful.”

Top: A 79-carat rough diamond I held at the De Beers Global Sightholder Sales facility in Gaborone (all photos courtesy of the De Beers Group, except 2004 and Komatsu photos)

Registration

“We’ve extended our registration hours. On Thursday, June 1, registration will stay open until 8 p.m. to help attendees get ahead of the Friday-morning rush,” says Bachmann. “Insider tip: If they preregister and bring their confirmation QR code, they can use the fast pass kiosks to avoid long and slow on-site registration lines.”

JCK keynote

“Johnny Cupcakes, our keynote speaker, was named a ‘top innovator in retail’ by the Boston Globe and has been featured in Inc., Wired, and Forbes, among others. His keynote, sponsored by Sarine Technologies, moves to Saturday morning, June 3^rd. Find him in the Palazzo Ballroom on Level 5 of the Venetian.”

JCK Rocks

“First and foremost, JCK Rocks with headliner Andy Grammer will definitely be a highlight. The event is moving back to its normal Sunday-night time slot, and is sponsored by Brosway Italia. He’ll do a 45-minute set, followed by the Hakkasan resident DJ for anyone who wants to stick around after. Doors open at 9 p.m. That’s right after the Jewelers for Children event, which will be in the same room, on the fifth floor of the Palazzo.”

The Innovation Hub

“Innovation is a big theme this year. Everyone comes to JCK looking for what’s new, and we like to help the industry focus on what’s next. Where to find that is our Innovation Hub at the back of level 2. We’ll have companies focused on retail innovation and our JCK Talks Showcase Stage, where there will be education focused on this.

“We also have a new Social Stage and content creation zone. We always recommend when retailers come to the show that they post content back on their sites for their customers to see, because that’s just another reason to get jewelry buyers into stores, to see what’s new. We’re trying to create a zone to make it easier for retailers, with tips and tricks to share what they’re seeing at the show. We’re helping them to drive traffic to their stores at a time when maybe it’s not as busy.”

JCK Talks

“On the Showcase Stage, we have new JCK Talk tracks focused on hot topics, retail experiences, industry breaking news, sustainability, and diversity, equity, and inclusion, among others. There will be over 60 sessions, with each topic at the same time each day.”

JCK Pro

“JCK Pro is new and different this year. Based on feedback we got from the industry, there’s more interest in JCK Pro being an on-site upgraded experience versus a 365-day benefit. So upon registration, attendees can upgrade their badge to JCK Pro and will get access to a bunch of amenities that will give them VIP benefits at the show, such as access to a business center to get meetings done and utilize services.

“There’s a JCK Masterclass on Saturday, June 3, on digital advertising strategies; there’s a JCK Pro lounge on the show floor, a place to go and take a beat for a minute with amenities, as well as some exclusive drops of JCK swag that will be announced for JCK Pro badge holders. They also get a VIP registration where they can pick their badge up in an expedited process. It’s definitely a worthwhile investment for anyone looking for an upgraded experience while they’re at the show.”

Career Zone

“We have a new Career Zone area at the front of the show. We’re doing this because it’s a challenge the industry is facing in hiring talent. So we created classified job listings on the JCK site. Anyone can post an industry job there. What we’ll do to get the word out about this is a career site area, where there will be screens and a networking event on Sunday, June 4 from 2 to 4 p.m. It’ll be right in front of Plumb Club when you walk into the JCK hall on level 2.”

New activations and experiences

“The activations and experience moments were a big hit at the show last year. This year, we have some new ones, including a permanent jewelry activation. We’re going to do it in the Golden Hour lounge sponsored by Stuller. Attendees can receive their own permanent jewelry bracelet and experience how it can be done with their customers. We’ll also give attendees an opportunity to have an Instagram moment with golden-hour lighting—that really great lighting that helps you take a really great photo.”

Design Collective events

“In the Design Collective, there’s a meet-the-designers event on Friday, June 2 at 2:30 p.m. and a Jewelers’ Choice Awards toast at 3:30. It’s a great time to check out the Design Collective and all the new up-and-coming designers in there, including those showing with the WJA’s Jewelry Loupe Project and the Black in Jewelry Coalition booth.”

Sustainability

“Last but not least, we will again focus on inclusion as well as sustainability. There are tracks for both. We’re also asking all attendees and exhibitors to recycle their badges at the end of the show—we’ll have bins for that.”

Top: JCK Rocks headliner Andy Grammer

Motor City Pawn Brokers‘ newest location is in Hamtramck, a two-mile-wide “city within a city” in metro Detroit (geographically inside Detroit but a separate municipality) that has one of the most diverse populations in the Midwest, Aubrey says. It also has a clientele that loves fine jewelry brands such as Tiffany, Gucci, and Rolex, he says.

“We’ve come a long way to get to this point, and we’re excited to surprise people with not only the store but our services,” he says.

The new Motor City Pawn Brokers store represents the latest generation of pawnshops: a high-end retail appearance in addition to tradition pawn services. The jewelry area features sleek glass cases filled with natural and lab-grown diamond engagement rings, pendants that can be personalized, and an array of other rings, necklaces, bracelets, and watches in a variety of price points—from Pandora charms to Patek Philippe watches.

Aubrey says that with the auto companies and tech startups in the Detroit area, it has a higher discretionary income level than some might imagine. What people also may not know about is this pawnbroker’s connection with the jewelry industry: Aubrey is GIA-certified, and his staff includes a watch specialist, certified gemologists, and jewelers who do repairs, inspections, and authentication. The pawnshop chain also works with master jewelers in metro Detroit who have decades of experience and can custom design any piece a client wants, he says.

“I always tell people we’re the best-kept secret in town,” Aubrey says.

His staff work diligently to stay on top of the latest jewelry trends, attend weekly training sessions, and continue their education through GIA and other industry groups. Aubrey notes that Detroiters are huge Cartier fans in particular, so he makes sure to carry the locally famous Cartier buffs sunglasses, which are considered a sign that you’ve made it in the Motor City.

“Each one of our stores represent the area in terms of what we carry and what we buy. That’s why we see and respond to trends quickly,” Aubrey says. “We also have people of all ages, like Gen-Z couples where the guy comes in to look at the sneakers and the woman is interested in the lab-grown diamonds.”

Everybody can shop at a pawnbroker, he says, and someone looking at, say, tools or clothing may come to the store with a relative or friend who wants a new piece of jewelry. And for anyone who’s getting worn out by their companion’s browsing in the jewelry department, Motor City Pawn Brokers offers a comfortable seating area where they can rest.

Top: Mark Aubrey, owner of Motor City Pawn Brokers, celebrated the grand opening of the chain’s fifth location on May 14 with special activities and Mother’s Day sales on its fine jewelry. (Photos courtesy of Motor City Pawn Brokers)

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Air & Anchor’s pop-up shop opened May 1 in Cranston, R.I., and will serve as a template for a permanent retail space in the near future, the wife-and-husband founders say. The store is located in Garden City Center, a boutique shopping destination just down the road from the company’s factory.

The Ajajs debuted Air & Anchor in April 2020 as an online store and have been thinking about opening a physical retail site for two years, Omar says. Air & Anchor offers handmade and vintage jewelry, including its signature cuff-keeper necklaces, along with a variety of home and fashion goods. Many items feature meaningful symbols.

“Our customers have been phenomenal, helping us determine the brand and its direction. They know we make everything in-house, so we wanted to give them an experiential store,” Omar says. “We knew it would be impactful for our other products as well—our hats or blankets are goods that are harder to buy online.”

He says customers inspired the store’s mix of interactive areas and product sales: People who bought Air & Anchor jewelry online were given the option of picking it up in person, and many of them took that opportunity to meet the staff and even tour the factory. So the Ajajs wanted to create a store where people could get to know them beyond their social media posts, buy their favorite pieces they have seen online, and even enjoy making jewelry themselves.

For example, shoppers can make a necklace at the BIY (bead it yourself”) bar, get a permanent bracelet, and choose the length and metal of their custom chain. They also can personalize a serving board, one of the home goods Air & Anchor offers.

“We want retail to be fun again,” she says. “We want people to come in, laugh, and have a good time with their friends and family. People know the brand, and they’re coming in because they want that interaction.”

Seeing people come in together, like a father and a daughter who want to bead a necklace as bonding activity, has been momentous, Rachel says. She says she and her husband are loving the customer interaction as well. They introduced the brand during the pandemic, so they did not get to meet with their customers for months. Some customers are driving to Rhode Island to go to the store from Connecticut and Massachusetts, so the months of work to get the pop-up shop opened feel well worth it, she says.

“From an e-commerce standpoint, we know we needed to differentiate our retail space. If you can get something online, why would you want to come into a store?” Omar says. “Here, you can put your hands on the product and we’re constantly rolling out new products to the store.”

Rachel says that what customers gravitate to in these first weeks of the store’s opening will inform what the brand makes going forward. “These interactions mean the world to us. We don’t exist without our customer base,” Rachel says.

Top: Rhode Island’s Air & Anchor opened a pop-up shop in early May to showcase and sell its symbolic jewelry and offer interactive experiences for customers. (Photos courtesy of Air & Anchor)

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His new role will be chief supply chain officer.

Hart said he was “looking forward to working alongside the amazing founders and management team to grow and maximize this brand’s potential. I’m inspired by Mejuri’s commitment to the empowerment of women and sustainability.”

In October 2021—nine months after Tiffany’s purchase by LVMH—Hart left Tiffany after two decades to work at the Shade Store.

Hart is not the first Tiffany veteran to join Mejuri. In May 2022, Mejuri hired Holly McHugh, Tiffany & Co.’s director of responsible sourcing for four years, as its vice president of sustainability.

(Photo via LinkedIn)

Sherry Smith, director of business development for the Edge Retail Academy, said her stats showed that in the first quarter of 2023, both smaller and larger independent stores saw increased sales, while midsize retailers—defined as $3 million to $6 million—took a hit. Overall, independent jewelers’ sales fell 3%, she said, with the average order price down and unit sales flat.

“The good news is [during COVID] jewelers had a huge, huge increase, and we’re still holding on to that, within single digits,” she said. “And that’s something to celebrate.”

Erich Jacobs, president of the Jewelers Board of Trade, mostly concurred, but said his stats showed growing jitters from the vendor community.

“As long as folks maintain their inventory and innovation discipline, they’ll be okay,” Jacobs said. But he warned: “The ability to get capital is tightening. There’s a 30% increase in the number of small business lenders who said they are tightening their standards.”

Holly Wesche, owner of Wesche Jewelers of Melbourne, Fla., said, “I don’t know of any colleague of mine that doesn’t feel the headwinds.

“It was glory days in 2021 and 2022,” she said. “Now we have to go back to clienteling and really doing some of the hard work. Even some of my own sales team will admit it was so easy in 2021. You just sit back and take the money. People couldn’t travel, they couldn’t do other things. Now we have to really work at it.”

The challenge is to “not become complacent and fall into old ways,” Wesche added. “COVID forced us to get creative and to get out of the traditional box. I don’t want to lose that.

“It’s easy to worry that people don’t want to buy, that consumers are looking at their stock portfolios. Yes, those things are true, but we still have a great product, we have a great story, and there’s a lot of people who still have the ability to buy. It’s challenging, but there’s still lots of opportunity.”

Smith agreed that while the jewelry business has been traditionally slow to evolve, the pandemic woke a lot of people up. “Jewelers became stronger with their online presence and digital identity. They started being more strategic about measuring marketing initiatives, which ones are actually driving people in. Clienteling became huge. We always hear from retailers that they have no time to do it. But when times are good, they can’t afford not to do it. Because even when times are good, you are leaving potential sales out there and paying tons of money for customer acquisition.”

Wesche noted that her sales team does a significant amount of selling by text. “They customize videos, we put music to it. We’ll do it not only on social media but they’ll make a video just for a specific customer, and put music behind and send it. I’m kind of shocked by how much we sell by that vehicle.”

Wesche’s new mantra is “clienteling, clienteling, clienteling.”

She explained: “It’s reaching out to customers, creating reasons for them to buy, getting them excited about the new product. For us, that has been the key to keep pace.”

In-store events have also been very strong for sales lately, she said. “People aren’t thinking about gas prices and other things at a special event. If they are at a party and having a great time, the sales flow. We’re constantly trying to raise the bar with our events, thinking of ways to make them special and fun.”

She also recommended that retailers embrace digital tools like Podium, Apple Pay, and Venmo. “It has to be easy to send the video and then have customers pay,” she said. “They shouldn’t have to call you up with a credit card and then come in the store. We want a friction-free retail selling experience, and easy pay is one of those methods.”

As far as online, most luxury jewelry purchases are still done at brick-and-mortar stores, Smith said. Online luxury jewelry sales fell in 2022, she said, and currently comprise about 10% of the luxury jewelry market.

“With a luxury purchase, people want to touch it and want to try it on, and they want instant gratification. For even the best jewelers, online is only 4% of their business.”

Web searches for jewelry peaked in December, Jacobs said, but dropped this year for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

“There is a whole bunch of Shopify-level online stores for jewelry popping up,” he said. “A lot of that is the lower-end, but we know from other industries, when that has happened, the likelihood of fraud goes up very quickly. So you get to a certain point, fraud’s going to be a problem for those online stores, because they became a vehicle for that to happen.”

Sales of lab-grown diamonds jumped 63% in the first quarter, with a 107% increase in units sold and 23% drop in average retail sale, Smith said. Natural diamond sales rose 7% in the first quarter. Units sold were up 55%, but average retail sale dropped 33%.

Wesche said her store sells lab-grown, though it doesn’t advertise it. “We had a lot of discussions with our staff—conceptually, emotionally, how do we feel about this. You have to learn a lot and deal with the price always dropping. It’s been a definite journey.”

Most lab-grown customers tend to stay within their budgets, opting for the bigger stone for their buck, she said.

“A lot of consumers still don’t understand what lab-grown diamond is,” she added. “Some think it’s like a Louis Vuitton knockoff, not the real thing. And then on the other side of the coin, you have consumers who think it’s fantastic, they can get a 2 ct. diamond.”

She said her store has seen an increase in sales of lab-grown fashion jewelry. “At our store, lab-grown and natural peacefully coexist,” she said. “We have a lot of very wealthy self-purchasing female consumers. They come in, and they may buy lab stud earrings or tennis bracelet. So her ensemble is mixing both. She’s viewing it as a fashion piece. It’s coexisting in her collection in her mind.”

Smith agreed lab-grown is “not going to go away” and retail margins are still strong, with manufacturers bearing the brunt of the price recent decreases.

She said: “It’s not just Generation Z and millennials coming in for lab-grown. Baby boomers are purchasing lab-grown. They are coexisting, just like bridge jewelry is coexisting with fine jewelry.”

Jacobs said that JBT has seen a lot of collections situations where “somebody has taken a lot of lab-grown diamonds, they didn’t sell them, they want to give them back to the person who sold them, and the person isn’t taking them back. The vendor will say, ‘No, they have depreciated in value’ and not accept them back.”

Smith said that, while diamonds tend to get most of the attention, sales of colored stones and watches have also done well.

(Photo: Getty Images)

That was one of the takeaways from our informal poll of three jewelry tastemakers, including L.A.-based designer Octavia Zamagias, whose Octavia Elizabeth is stocked by Just One Eye in Los Angeles and ModaOperandi.com, among other high-end retailers; Laura Freedman, founder of Broken English Jewelry, with boutiques in L.A. and New York City; and Elizabeth Gibson, founder of Eliza Page in Austin, Texas.

“The whole lab-grown thing has perplexed and confused everyone,” Zamagias tells JCK. There’s less desire for that 4 carat round brilliant.”

The other trends our tastemakers noted include an emphasis on elongated diamond cuts, such as ovals; statement styles, especially long earrings (think shoulder dusters!); and unusual settings—in short, the opposite of basic!

We’ve collected specific trend highlights below.

Laura Freedman

Founder, Broken English Jewelry, Los Angeles and New York City

“When it comes to this classic stone, I’m seeing shoppers much more focused on originality rather than something super-traditional. They’re not afraid of something with a twist and are actually asking for it with interesting stone placements, reworked versions of classic settings, and very bold proportions. We’re in a total diamond renaissance right now and it excites me that people really want to have fun with their investment pieces instead of playing it safe.”

“Off-set diamonds, such as round diamonds with pears to the side. Everything askew.”

“Reimagined Georgian-style settings”

“White gold settings”

“Collars and larger cuffs”

Octavia Zamagias

Founder, Octavia Elizabeth, Los Angeles

“We are seeing more people interested in colored diamonds, especially yellow. And three-stones are back. Two years ago, everyone wanted a solitaire.”

“We’re getting a lot more requests for bezel settings.”

“So many clients are wanting an eternity band as an engagement ring. And the wedding band ends up being a simple 18k gold stacking band that goes beneath it.”

Elizabeth Gibson

Founder, Eliza Page, Austin, Texas

“Diamond ear climbers are back!”

“In engagement, we are seeing more fancy shapes, specifically pears and more elongated shapes (elongated radiant and movals).”

“Tennis is still huge. We are setting more and more variations in various sizes, diamond combos, shapes, colors, including three-prong-set tennis necklaces and earrings.”

“Long dangling diamonds in earrings, dangles, and drops.”

Top: Champagne Dome ring in 18k gold with 13.17 cts. t.w. champagne diamonds, $30,000 Octavia Elizabeth

In late 2022, Smith decided her Champaign, Ill.–based jewelry business had outgrown its 1,600-square-foot store—she literally could not fit any more employees in.

“There was nowhere to put them. Our break room had desks in it,” Smith recalls.

A nearby retailer was ready to sell its property, so Smith took a look at it. The real estate agent told her it would be a complete rebuild, and that was no exaggeration. The store had no floor, unfinished walls, and a floor plan that was more than open—it was just plain old empty.

Construction wasn’t something Smith had planned to do, but the opportunity to create exactly what she desired in a jewelry store was tempting enough to get her to go all-in. The new location is like an anniversary present: Champaign Jewelers is celebrating its 10th year in business in 2023.

Its former store was located in a strip mall on South Neil Street and had the basics, Smith says, but she wanted the new space—located in the Village at the Crossing shopping area—to reflect the high level of customer service her employees offer. They are her Sparkle Squad because of their commitment to helping people find diamond jewelry for gifts and themselves.

Now that the dust has settled, Champaign Jewelers‘ new store has the room and welcoming culture Smith sought. It’s designed so customers feel like they are coming in to visit friends—an open floor plan with some private spaces.

Customers enter through large double doors and into the main selling area, which features white and warm blue walls; sleek, modern displays; and neutral-colored decor. The cases are clean white with glass fronts, to display the custom jewelry Smith makes. Black columns provide visual interest.

“There’s a ton of windows, so we wanted to create a peaceful, open space. We wanted a light, airy feel. So the color combination of blues and neutral wood tones ties into that,” Smith says. “You get the sparkle from our chandeliers.”

Smith says she hopes her customers enjoy the larger space and find it comfortable for selecting their diamond and engagement jewelry, which are her specialties. She studied economics in college and managed another local jewelry store before opening her shop in 2013.

The new store’s layout gives everyone enough room, Smith says, with private meeting spaces, a design studio, and a conference room to hold customer events.

“We had a packed grand opening [in March] with more than 40 people in the store, and we still had space to move,” Smith says.

Top: The “Sparkle Squad” at Champaign Jewelers in Champaign, Ill., had grown so much, store owner felt it was time to move to a larger location. Now open, the new space is her “dream store,” Smith says. (Photos courtesy of Champaign Jewelers)

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