India Luxury Market Shows Double-Digit Growth in 2010

It’s not just the new wealthy in China that is enjoying a life of luxury. Its neighbor India is also showing that it has a taste for the good life as well.

The luxury market in India is grew 20 percent to 5.8 billion in 2010 and this growth is expected to continue into the near future, according to a survey by the Confederation of India Industry and A.T. Kearney Ltd. Luxury products grew by 29 percent, services 22 percent and luxury assets rose by 13 percent.

Luxury jewelry, electronics, cars and fine dining have grown beyond expectations, while apparel, accessories, wines and spirits have continued their strong growth, according to the report.

Meanwhile, Indians also are one of the youngest among Asia’s wealthy, with an average age of just 39, after China at 36 and Indonesia at 38 years. Of those, 75 percent are married with kids, 13 percent are married with no children, and 12 percent are single, according to the latest HSBC Affluent Asian Tracker.

Great Gatsby Film to Feature Tiffany Jewels

Tiffany & Co. said it will create all the jewelry for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 literary classic, which is appropriate since the luxury jeweler played a significant role during the era.

Working with Luhrmann and costume and production designer Catherine Martin, the New York-based jeweler said it created a collection of platinum-set diamonds and lustrous pearls that complement the period clothes that will help give the actors a true sense of the high life as celebrated by their characters.

Tiffany jewels was a significant part of the symbolism and unbridled optimism that swept the country during the era that the book and movie describe, the New York-based company said. It was the chosen adornments for the period’s light, shimmering gowns.

“This collaboration is a natural for us,” said Jon King, executive vice president of Tiffany & Co. “Our archives contain spectacular jewels from the 1920s that are the basis of the one-of-a-kind designs we have created for this iconic American story.”

Fitzgerald was a regular Tiffany customer and Louis Comfort Tiffany, the brand's first design director, mixed in the actual Long Island circles described in the novel.

“The Tiffany & Co Archives have proven to be an invaluable resource in looking back at this Golden Era of affluence and fine jewelry,” Martin said.

In addition to the jewelry, the interior of Jay Gatsby's home in the film will contain china, sterling silver flatware and other accessories by Tiffany & Co.

The Warner Bros. Pictures and Bazmark film is expected to be released in December, 2012. Filming began in September.

Photo caption: Carey Mulligan at the Annual Critics’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 2010. She will play Daisy Buchanan in the upcoming film.

September Retail Sales Show Strong Growth

Retail sales increased 0.4 percent from August and a better-than-expected 5.7 percent over last September, as shoppers continued to show strength during a weak economic recovery, according to the National Retail Federation.

Meanwhile, September retail sales released by the U.S. Commerce Department show that total retail sales (which include non-general merchandise categories such as autos, gasoline stations and restaurants) increased 1.1 percent month-to-month and 8.6 percent over last year, partially due to strong auto sales.

“The American consumer and the retail industry continue to lead this recovery, and strong September retail sales are just what the economy needs right now,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “The unexpectedly strong sales increase in September may work to dampen fears of a double-dip recession and could indicate an economic and employment rebound.”

Much of September’s strength came as a result of retail sales increases due to Hurricane Irene and an influx of shoppers who chose to complete back-to-school shopping later this year. Building materials stores rose 6.4 percent over last year, sporting goods stores were up 7.2 percent and clothing store sales increased 8.3 percent.  August retail sales were revised upward to 0.4 from July, which was originally reported as 0.1%.

Earlier this month, NRF forecast holiday sales to rise 2.8 percent this year to $466 billion. NRF defines holiday sales as retail industry sales in the months of November and December.

China Leads World in Luxury Attitude and Spending

Affluent consumers in the U.S. and much of the world are pulling back on their spending and attitude toward luxury. However, in China, affluent consumers are choosing luxury in every aspect of the lives, according to a seven-country survey of households earning at least $150,000.

About 57 percent of wealthy Chinese shoppers say that the economic environment has prompted them to spend more on luxury in the past year, and 50 percent plan to boost spending in the next 12 months, according to the survey by the Luxury Institute, a New York-based consulting firm. Restraint is more evident in the U.S., where 10 percent of the wealthy stepped up luxury spending in the past year and 6 percent plan to spend more in the next 12 months. U.S. consumers are twice as likely as those in China (32% vs. 16%) to have trimmed luxury spending last year.

Meanwhile, in Europe the currency crisis did not stop 14 percent of wealthy shoppers in France and 17 percent of those in Italy from boosting luxury spending this year, according to the survey, which represents the top 10 percent in household income. However, 38 percent of high-income shoppers in both countries plan to cut back in the coming year.

In Japan, the March earthquake and tsunami dampened enthusiasm for luxury shopping, with 7 percent of wealthy Japanese consumers reporting higher levels of spending and 34 percent cutting back.

The most widespread retrenchment comes in the U.K., where 38 percent of wealthy shoppers have pared back luxury spending, and 41 percent plan reductions in coming months. Germany shows more stability compared to other rich nations: Only 17 percent of wealthy German consumers say that they are spending less on luxury now and 29 percent plan to trim luxuries in the coming year.

Across all seven markets, luxury travel is the category in which most wealthy consumers anticipate stepping up spending, with China far and away showing the strongest appetite, according to the survey.

In China, 58 percent of the wealthy plan to spend more on leisure travel, followed by 28 percent in Italy and 22 percent in Germany who say the same. A total of 16 percent of wealthy consumers in the U.K., and 18 percent in the U.S., Japan, France and Italy, plan to spend more on travel.

Spending plans across the board in each of the 26 luxury categories were substantially higher in China than in Europe and the U.S., with some of the biggest disparities showing in apparel, watches, jewelry and gifts where Chinese consumers were six to seven times more likely to boost spending, according to the survey. Also strong in China are luxury auto sales, with 43 percent of the wealthy planning to spend more on cars, compared to 11 percent in the U.S., U.K. and Japan.

Attitudes towards luxury are far more positive in China than they are in other rich nations, with 78 percent of those surveyed saying that luxury goods and services are more important in today's economy. The reverse is true in the U.S. where 80 percent of wealthy shoppers say that luxury has become less important.

More than 75 percent of Chinese say that luxury expenditures are prudent purchases, while 78 percent of wealthy consumers in the U.S., U.K., and Germany find them to be an extravagance. Similarly, 78 percent of China's wealthy shoppers say that luxury goods and services are an important part of their lifestyle in today's economy, compared to 25 percent in U.S. and Germany and 20 percent in France who agree that luxury remains central in their lives.

Wealthy Chinese consumers are also highly inclined to place a premium on exclusivity and quality, and discounting turns them off. More than half of wealthy Chinese and 49 percent of Japanese say that brands that discount their merchandise are not truly luxury brands. In the U.S. and Germany, one-third of wealthy consumers share the same dim view of discounting, as do 40 percent of wealthy shoppers in the U.K, Italy and France. Despite the dour attitude towards discounting, 56 percent of wealthy Chinese say that discounting has increased their overall spending on luxury and 50 percent plan to spend more on discounted luxury items in the coming months.

Harry Winston Says Retail Sales Sparkle While Mining is Ahead of Plan

Robert Gannicott, Harry Winstion Chairman and CEO

Harry Winston Diamond Corp., in an interim trading update, said the first two months of the third quarter have seen the jewelry and watch sales continue to increase. Sales have been particularly strong in the U.S. and Japan. Chinese customers represent a growing share of the clientele in all sales regions. Strong advertising of new product lines, such as Midnight watches, bridal and designer jewelry, has delivered particularly strong increases while sales continue in high jewelry, Harry Winston's traditional business.

The Toronto-based company, which does business as a luxury retailer and a diamond miner, said it released its update in response to recent market volatility surrounding the Euro sovereign debt crisis.

The company said its mining business, which consists of 40 percent ownership of the Diavik Diamond Mine in northwest Canada, is modestly ahead of its production plan while joint venture cash calls have been below budget in Canadian dollars which, combined with the fall in the Canadian dollar against the company's reporting and sales currency of US dollars, gives an 11 percent reduction in joint venture operating costs for the first two months of the quarter against plan.

The company said it has approximately $ 112 million of rough diamond inventory at June sales prices (prices peaked at the July sale) and a further $75 million of capacity in its mining debt facility. The jewelry and watch business has its own credit facility secured by its inventory.

Having increased in price by around 25 percent over the past year up to the end of July, the polished round diamonds that form the core of its jewelry sales, and polished diamond inventory, have since declined in price by about 10 percent. The price changes are not uniform with some items, such as fancy shapes, not declining at all. Over the same periods rough diamond prices increased by around 50 percent, but are now correcting against polished prices.

The credit facilities essential to the diamond polishing industry are largely underwritten by European banks that are currently under stress with European sovereign debt issues, the company said. Credit hasn’t been withdrawn or reduced, but neither have they been increased against higher unit prices. The processing industry is now selling polished and reducing rough purchases to increase liquidity even as jewelry retail consumption continues at levels higher than last year.

“The credit crisis of 2008/9 was centered on consumer credit and the banks that were supporting it. This had a dramatic effect on the consumer. The current crisis is centered on sovereign debt and the largely European banks that are its holders, while consumer off-take remains resilient,” said Robert Gannicott, Harry Winstion Chairman and CEO.

“Although we continue to make small sales of specific rough diamond assortments to specialist clients, we have elected not to make broader rough diamond sales into an unstable market that seeks bargains. As a result, significant rough sales revenues from this period will be deferred into the fourth quarter, and possibly subsequent periods. This time of the year is traditionally quiet in the rough diamond market being the Jewish and Indian holiday periods. We expect a return to normality in November as demand increases in the lead-up to the Christmas, Indian wedding and Chinese New Year seasons.”

Chocolate Diamond Dessert Costs $34,000

A U.K. jeweler and a hotel chef have baked what is being billed as the world’s most expensive dessert and at 22,000 pounds ($34,700) there's few who wikll ague this claim. In fact, the Guinness Book of World Records will make it official when someone actuallys purchases the dessert.

The bejeweled chocolate dessert was the creation of the Wave Jewellery retail store in Kendal, U.K., and Marc Guilbert, the head chef at the nearby Lindeth Howe Country House Hotel. It’s an extravagant show love that will cost a lucky couple 22,000 pounds ($34,700).

Paul Henderson, the co-founder of Wave Jewellery,  selected a contempory 18k rose gold ring centered with a deep chocolate colored 2.62-carat diamond to complement the chocolate “pudding.” The ring can be made to fit any finger size after enjoying the dessert.

The cake—which will be launched during National Chocolate Week (October 10-17)—is made with four different types of the Belgian chocolate flavored with a combination of peach, orange and whiskey.

Styled like a Faberge Easter egg, the crafted dessert is layered with champagne jelly and a light biscuit joconde. It’s finished with bitter dark chocolate and glazed with edible gold leaf. It is further decorated with handmade chocolate flowers. As a finishing touch the dessert is served with champagne and strawberry caviar.

If that’s not enough luxury, the dessert comes with one of the finest and most expensive bottles of dessert wine—Chateau d’Yquem, which is priced at around 500 pounds ($788) per bottle.

The dessert also includes a complimentary night’s stay at Lindeth Howe and an evening meal.

The current world’s record, according to Guiness, is held by New York’s Serendipity 3 Restaurant with a $25,000 Frrrozen Haute Chocolate sundae.

Anyone wanting to buy the dessert will need to order it from Wave Jewellery three weeks in advance. For everyone else, the dessert will be on display at the hotel.

Wave Jewellery also has stores in London, Manchester, Lancaster and Bowness.

De Beers Uses Augmented Reality to Promote Forevermark

De Beers is allowing people all over the world to “virtually try on” a new jewelry collection that features its Forevermark diamond brand.

The mining giant has turned to augmented reality (AR) to make this possible. AR is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input. In this case people using their computers are able to see rings, earrings and pendants from the new Forevermark Millemoi collection sparkle in the light and to see how the jewelry will move as they virtually wear it in a seemingly live 3D environment. Those who wish to experience this can go to the “My Forevermark Fitting” website, see a demonstration of how it works and then download the software. Below is a video of the demonstration.

With a Webcam and a printer, users go to the website, print a page that has seemingly generic images (“symbols”) and cut the images as directed. On the computer screen the paper is transformed into a piece of jewelry. It’s as if the person is looking at a mirror and wearing the product.

“Not only does the experience reflect all the beauty of a Forevermark diamond; it is also a remarkable digital achievement to have jewelry moving with the wearer in real time.” says Stephen Lussier, Forevermark CEO.

My Forevermark Fitting is the first deployment of a 3D virtual try-on for Forevermark diamonds, the branded diamond in which De Beers say is the product of beauty, rarity and responsibly sourcing. The company says only one percent of its diamonds earn the Forevermark brand. Each diamond receives a microscopic inscription of the Forevermark icon and an individual number.

Forevermark worked with creative agency AKQA and 3D augmented reality company, Holition, to create the experience.

Jonathan Chippindale, Holition CEO, says this particular application of its AI technology is the first time the jewelry actually moves when worn.

“Not only is the user able to see real time light move throughout the Forevermark diamond, they are additionally able to imagine the way in which the unique articulated design will flow with their movement; a true reflection of the actual item of jewelry which comes to life when worn,” he said.

Of course, regular readers of this website will be familiar with Holition through its work with jewelry and watch companies Tacori, Boucheron, Tissot and, yes, De Beers.

The Forevermark Millemoi collection is currently available in China, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Singapore and Malaysia.