Green, gold and black

Green is turning out to be the main trend colour in current jewellery, along with gold and silver. Fashion watchers are also noticing that women are mixing inexpensive jewellery with more precious items from their collections. According to Raphael Fischer from Germany’s Association of Goldsmiths, there’s high demand at the moment for silver, rose gold and white gold. “They go together very well with winter clothing because of the more muted colouring,” he says.
Thilo Brueckner from Germany’s umbrella organisation of jewellers says many manufacturers are also combining diamonds with coloured precious stones. Green in the form of tourmaline, peridotite, emerald and jade is proving to be the colour of choice for many shoppers.
Along with a trend towards expensive jewellery, shoppers are also buying less precious items to wear, according to Renate Wittgenstein from the Inhorgenta jewellery trade show in Munich.
“Shoppers are combining two or three rings at the same time and they’re doing that with bracelets as well,” Wittgenstein says, adding there’s no longer a barrier to mixing and matching high and low fashion jewellery Anything goes. It just depends on the occasion.
“Shoppers are also mixing and matching jewellery materials. Many jewellery collections in the shops have items that combine precious and imitation metals. Designers are also using wood or leather elements, according to Wittgenstein. Brueckner has noticed the same trend and says porcelain and other ceramic materials and acrylic polymers are also being used to make jewellery. Black is also making a comeback. Blackened silver and stainless steel are selling well and so too is darkened gold. “It’s a variation on absolute understatement,” says Wittgenstein.
Raphael Fischer says single stone rings have really taken off this European winter. Shoppers are also buying rings to match bracelets. “You can really see that matching jewellery is turning into a theme,” explains Fischer. That look works best when all the components have the same basic geometric shape.
When it comes to watches it’s in the area of colour that a trend is showing up. Brueckner says expensive designs that are thinner, narrower and smaller than last year’s collections are selling well. A type of watch that many buyers are choosing is the moon phase watch with diamonds or rhinestones.
In men’s jewellery it appears that younger shoppers are choosing leather armbands with stainless steel or silver elements. Fischer says that older men are choosing rings for the left hand as well as cufflinks and tie-pins. Precious stones are also proving popular with men in winter. Lapis lazuli and onyx cufflinks or tie-pins and rings with diamonds in low-key colours such as cognac brown are the most popular. The signet ring is also undergoing a renaissance.
“Goldsmiths are getting many more requests for them,” says Fischer.