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Modern Jeweler
Updated: November 1st, 2005 10:52 AM PDT
Pearl Power
Now that pearls are part of the dress code from local malls to charity balls, jewelers are turning their stores into pearl centers
Four blocks away from GIA's old Santa Monica campus, Joe Boiadjian, the new owner of Yale Jewelers, is hatching a revitalization plan to keep old patrons and make new ones. Believing the queen of gems is just as essential to his customers at all stages and ages of life as the king of gems, he intends to make his store as much a pearl as a diamond center.
Toward that end, he's stocking everything from stud earrings for teens to stately necklaces for their mothers and grandmothers. "I can't think of a gem that provides more excuses to be in a jewelry store than the pearl," Boiadjian says. That's why he now aims to make Yale's a pearl purchaser's paradise.
It's easy to do, says Peter Bazar, president of Imperial-Deltah in East Providence, Rhode Island: "There are styles from $100 to $20,000—and every critical price point in between. Pearls fit every dress code from black tie to blue jeans."
Given such versatility, it is hardly surprising to find that after 10 months of ownership, pearls now account for nearly 20 percent of Boiadjian's sales—up from 5 percent when he took over last December. "It's nice to hear customers tell me, 'I've never seen so many pearls in this store,' or 'Your pearl selection is fabulous,'" he continues.
Further, Boiadjian finds, pearls are a very affordable way for a neighborhood jeweler like himself to offer depth and breadth of selection in enough ways to appeal to widely divergent incomes, needs, and tastes. And he can charge prices that allow him margins which dwarf those of diamonds.
But here's the kicker. "If people start to identify you with pearls, they start to think of your store as fashion forward," Boiadjian says. "You can't get a better image."
Suddenly, pearls are a sure, shining path to everything from prosperity to prestige. Suddenly, this organic gem comes in so many colors, shapes, and sizes that it offers the greatest range of identity and fashion statements of any gem—for the mainstreamer and the maverick, the formal and the funky, the prim and proper as well as the free and easy.
Don't take my word for it. Stop what you're doing and take what I'll call a pearl watch, or walk. Step outside your store on to the street or aisle and notice how many of the multitudes are wearing pearls. Notice also how pearls are usually the most conspicuous piece of jewelry on that person—whether on the ear, wrist, finger, or around the neck. Pearls speak to every lifestyle and any personality type that believes in personal adornment. What's more, they speak to every motive for shopping in a jewelry store, from gift giving to personal indulgence.
"There are as many reasons to buy pearls as types of pearl to buy," Boiadjian enthuses. And the party is only getting started.
THE REINVENTION OF THE PEARL
This is not the first time pearls have been known for their variety. A century ago, when natural pearls were still plentiful and didn't yet face the onslaught of the cultured pearl, jewelers commonly featured them in a profusion of shapes and colors. Third and fourth generation jewelers still recall being told pearls were once as identified with matrimony as the diamond. All in all, the idea of the pearl as a diverse gem family is far from new.
What is new about the modern diversity is that it is almost entirely the result of farming rather than fishing. Pearl culturing has become a thriving enterprise throughout the whole Pacific Rim and, thanks to innovative biotechnology, the source of greater multiplicity than was the natural pearl in its long heyday.
Author Fred Ward thinks we're in a golden age of pearl culturing. "In April, I went to the Philippines to see what's happening with the pearl farms there," he says. "Every one of the five leading farms is dedicated entirely to golden pearls. The best of them are exquisite. But even the creams of the crop are useable in white strands."
At the same time the Philippines are going for the gold, Bazar reports that Australian pearl farmers, known for their classic whites, are going into the black—nucleating black and silver-lipped pearls to produce beauties that rival Tahiti's best.
And don't forget China, which is now the largest producer of akoya pearls. While these pearls don't, as a rule, equal Japan's for luster and color, no one can be absolutely sure if some of the fine akoya pearls exported from Japan aren't cherry picked from Chinese harvests.
The point is this: Pearl culturing has become a global industry (even India, Mexico, New Zealand, and Thailand are sites of promising ventures), more ambitious in its goals, and more advanced in its methods than at any time in history.
What's more (and here's a talking point if ever there was one), pearl culturers have become among the world's most environmentally mindful farmers. Not all of them, of course, but enough of them that land-based growers could learn a thing or two about earth stewardship from their ocean-based pearl farming counterparts. "After the eco-disasters in Japan in the late 1990s," says Ward, "pearl farmers have had to become very conscientious. They know the natural perils of pearling and don't want to do anything that will threaten this very fragile, finite resource called water."
It is no accident that Australian growers are now trying to produce akoya pearls with the color, luster, and nacre thickness that once made Japanese pearls the envy of the world. Given Aussie ingenuity and care, we may very well see a full revival of this classic.
MIX MASTERS
By now, it is apparent that pearls are peerless when it comes to offering buyer choice—the ultimate "have it your way" gem. Jewelers like Boiadjian are building their pearl departments on that premise. But what about those more conservative cities, towns, and suburbs where conspicuous consumption isn't as much of a pastime as it is in California and people may prefer fashion hindsight to fashion foresight?
Believe it or not, the game plan for success is also pretty much the same in heartland stores. "Rule number one of modern merchandising is this," says Larry Levin, Philadelphia marketing strategist, "Stock whatever you want to sell in quantities that show commitment, not tokenism."
This new law of the retailing jungle is being heard everywhere—not just in the citadels of fashion and disposable income like Los Angeles.
Let's travel cross country to Vineland, New Jersey, halfway between Philadelphia and Atlantic City and home to Dondero's Jewelers. There, too, pearls are a fashion staple. In fact, co-owner Kevin Kleiner is featuring two dozen designs from the Stuller & Paspaley collection introduced in 2004—half of them single or multiple pearl necklaces and the remainder pearl pendants, earrings, and the like.
Kleiner first saw the Stuller line by chance and was struck by its creativity. "I figured this jewelry would have as immediate an impact on my customers as it did on me. Sure enough, they were awed. The presence of South Sea pearl jewelry has rejuvenated my store."
The idea of using pearls as a primary means of positioning one's store as a fashion leader is fairly new and revolutionary. Kleiner is convinced Dondero's is now the equal of his hippest competitors in or next to that sawed-off Vegas to his south—thanks to pearls.
Don't get the wrong idea. Strands are still important to him, but most are traditional akoya. "I keep a roll of 20 strands to show the customer that wants to see classic pearls," he says. "But the pearls that are visible all the time are the ones that convey a message that my store is in step with the times. Some necklaces that I sell look as good with black evening dresses as blue jeans. Shoppers want that versatility."
THE PERSISTENCE OF AKOYA
There is a temptation these days to write off the akoya pearl as a soon-to-be extinct variety. Catastrophic water management by the Japanese has crippled pearl production and driven prices for top-grade pearls to perilous heights.
Nevertheless, nothing looks like a superb Japanese akoya strand. Granted, such stunning pearls are rare. But the beauty of these pearls is incomparable and represents an apex of culturing all its own. Quite frankly, it is hard for me to imagine a world without these wonders.
I'm far from alone. Walking this summer's jewelry shows, it suddenly seemed that every dealer felt obliged to display at least a handful of classic akoya strands—the way so many diamond dealers now feel compelled to show fancy colors. It is as if "Boardwalk" and "Park Place" on the Monopoly board of the pearl world is still Japan and Mikimoto's crown jewel.
Was it simply nostalgia? Or was it a reminder that our deepest, archetypal imagining of pearl beauty is still the akoya? I don't know. Certainly, there are new zeniths of pearl beauty achieved in the South Seas, Tahiti, and China. But maybe no one is ready to let the sun set on the land of the rising sun—most of all the Japanese themselves.
This allegiance to the akoya pearl—despite mind-boggling prices for fine strands—still guides some jewelers when they take the pearl plunge. I'll prove it to you.
Let's head south to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 20 minutes drive from Knoxville, and home of Karen's Jewelers. There, too, pearls are a new pillar product. Owner Martha Hunt, the guiding light behind her store's pearl expansionism, has a showcase brimming with akoya and Tahitian strands plus one floor stand playfully festooned with "please touch me" Chinese freshwater strands.
Of course, the studs are there also, along with tasteful pieces of freshwater and South Sea pearl jewelry. But Hunt is focusing on the basics because Oak Ridge is in a slight time warp, "one year behind Atlanta," as she puts it. That's why strands predominate. They are the pearl equivalent to the diamond engagement ring. If you want to brand yourself as a pearl store, strands are the most proven way of doing so—akoya strands especially in 5-1/2 to 7mm sizes.
One reason akoya strands are still plentiful is that China continues to pursue sizable production of this variety. Don't make the mistake of thinking that country has abandoned saltwater pearls in favor of freshwater ones. It hasn't, and won't. But its warmer waters don't seem to be as conducive to producing the high-gloss luster of Japanese pearls. As a result, China is contributing commercial-quality strands to world supply.
Nevertheless, many jewelers now prefer China's lake pearls, and no wonder. Strands of near-round, lustrous pearls in popular sizes can cost as little as one-tenth comparable-quality Japanese akoya strands. What's more, China freshwater pearls come in pink and orange colors that lend themselves to multicolor blendings. Jack Lynch of Sea Hunt Pearls in San Francisco says that multicolor pearl jewelry that mixes pearls of all origins from South Sea creams and golds through Chinese freshwater mauves and apricots to Tahitian blacks has become a category unto itself.
SELECTION, SELECTION, SELECTION
No matter whether they emphasize the classic or the contemporary, jewelers are learning that selection is the key to success with pearls. "Consumers today are shopping as much for a pearl store as a pearl strand," says Levin. "They need to feel there is ample selection. Without an assortment, shoppers don't feel they're being given the chance to make a real choice. In this age of super stores, wide selection is part of the psychology of consumerism."
With so many suppliers offering generous strand programs, you would think more stores would be pearl headquarters. Think again. "I can't tell you how many times jewelers have told me that pearls don't sell in their stores," Hunt says. "Well, no wonder. They carry few if any pearls. You can't sell what you don't have. Three years ago, I decided my store would tell anyone who walked into it that we're pearl specialists."
Hunt admits her decision to position Karen's Jewelers as a pearl center was a nail-biter, based far more on faith than demand. In fact, her husband had serious misgivings about her purchase of a 20-strand selection from Imperial-Deltah—despite the company's assurance that they would buy them back should Oak Ridge prove as pearl-averse as some friends predicted it would be. "It took 18 months for us to sell our first strand," Hunt admits, "but after that strands were a steady seller," and one of her highest turnover items.
Now that Hunt has established herself as the local pearl headquarters, she is beginning to move beyond strands to items that tempt customers to further pearl purchases. "It's common nowadays for people to have pearl collections," she says. "I want them to build them here."
Rick Little, owner of Aspen Jewelers in Herndon, Virginia, near Washington's Dulles Airport, is going one important step further. Not only is he stocking plenty of pearl jewelry as a fashion statement, he's wearing it, too—in this case, a South Sea single pearl necklace from Stuller worn every day with an open shirt. "I'm making the case for pearl jewelry as a man's item," he says, "and it's working. Men who come into my store are buying necklaces."
Pearl jewelry is a perfect fit for a store named Aspen Jewelers. "The name 'Aspen' conjures a luxury lifestyle with plenty of events in it that require jewelry," Little explains. "Pearls have never been as much a part of fashion as they are today. They are now an essential to casual and formal dressing. You can be seen wearing the same piece at a quick-bite lunch and a gala dinner."
To help customers with their event-planning accessorizing, Little has taken a gung-ho approach to his pearl inventory. He buys Chinese multicolors by the hank, then strings them in a wide variety of strands which he sells for between $750 and $1,500. These, in turn, act as a stepping stone to subsequent purchases of more expensive pearl pieces.
Little is ready for the eventuality of upgrades with a large array of classy, high-style South Sea pearl jewelry priced between $2,000 and $10,000. "Take it from me, pearls are addictive," Little concludes. "Since 2002, when I became heavily invested in South Sea pearls, my standing inventory has grown ten times larger. Part of it is due to expansion and part of it is due to advertising. But the most important part of all is the sheer number of customer requests I am getting. You've got to give the people what they want. And what they want are pearls." 