In this week’s episode, JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates discuss outgoing Natural Diamond Council (NDC) president David Kellie’s legacy and the challenges ahead for the group. Victoria reports on several exquisite new pieces in the high jewelry world, including a million-dollar Mellerio necklace inspired by Marie Antoinette and Boucheron’s ghostly albino thistles, remarkable for their delicacy and the incorporation of nontraditional materials. Finally, Rob reveals the inspiration for his newest mystery novel, Making a Killing in Diamonds.

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Sponsor: Jewelers Mutual (jewelersmutual.com/solutions)

Show Notes
02:34 David Kellie leaves Natural Diamond Council
09:34 Mellerio unveils a 172 ct. tribute to Marie Antoinette
15:43 Boucheron turns thistles into exquisite jewels
19:47 Rob pens another killer novel

Episode Credits
Hosts: Rob Bates and Victoria Gomelsky
Producer and engineer: Natalie Chomet
Editor: Riley McCaskill
Plugs: @jckmagazine; robbatesauthor.com; jewelersmutual.com/solutions

Show Recap
David Kellie leaves Natural Diamond Council
Rob updates listeners on major news from the diamond world. David Kellie, CEO of the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), has announced his plans to retire at the end of the year. Rob and Victoria praise Kellie’s skill as an ambassador for the sector and wonder whom the NDC might tap as his successor. It’s an important and challenging position, given the issues with natural diamonds and the need for effective marketing today, Rob points out.

In the past, the council had an annual budget as high as $90 million, primarily funded by De Beers and Alrosa, but money from Alrosa dried up after the Ukraine invasion. The NDC’s budget temporarily dropped to a scant $22 million this year—precious little for marketing an entire category, Rob notes. Angola has stepped in, donating $8 million to supplement this year’s natural diamond marketing budget, and De Beers matched the sum, he reports.

The Luanda Accord, which Kellie helped put together this year, should ensure a robust budget for the NDC in the future. Under the pact, major diamond-producing countries will contribute 1% of their annual diamond revenue to marketing and promotion through the NDC. “It basically means that a lot of the diamond producers and a lot of the diamond centers like India and Dubai and Antwerp are going to help fund the NDC going forward,” Rob explains. However, it’s unclear how the money will be collected, he says.

All of this comes at a time when the consensus is that the natural diamond community needs to ramp up marketing efforts, Rob says. The industry was built on category marketing with campaigns like the iconic “A diamond is forever,” but the messaging ground to a halt about eight years ago. “It’s not surprising that when you stop advertising, demand goes down,” says Rob.

He and Victoria weigh the odds of Kellie’s replacement coming from outside the industry, given how often the group has tapped candidates from other fields in the past. Whoever steps in will have a big job, Rob says. There’s no magic bullet to revive an entire market, and heading the NDC is daunting at a time when consumers are bombarded with information from lab-grown diamond makers, Rob and Victoria agree.

One of the Kellie’s biggest achievements, according to Rob, was renaming the organization from the Diamond Producers Association to the Natural Diamond Council. Before the name change, many people used the term mined diamonds. “We all say natural diamonds now, which is a much better term than mined diamonds since [some people] have these negative…ideas about mining,” Rob says.

Mellerio unveils a 172 ct. tribute to Marie Antoinette
While others head off for vacation in late July, Paris’s high jewelry houses show off their most important new collections. Victoria’s social media feed is “flooded with photos of massive diamonds and really spectacular colored stones,” she says. Some very inventive pieces have caught her eye, including a remarkable necklace from Mellerio.

Founded in 1613, Mellerio has “a very legitimate claim to being the oldest jeweler in the world,” Victoria says. The current president and artistic director, Laure-Isabelle Mellerio, is the 14th generation to run the company, whose flagship is near the Place Vendôme, the epicenter of Parisian high jewelry.

As Laure-Isabelle told Victoria in an interview for JCK, she visited Marie Antoinette’s private apartments in Versailles when they reopened in 2023 after a lengthy renovation and was intrigued by the wall coverings adorned with pineapples, considered the king of fruits for their rarity in past centuries. She decided to create a one-of-a-kind necklace to honor Marie Antoinette and reflect her sumptuous style.

The piece, called the Jardin des Rêves (Garden of Dreams), took nearly a year to complete. It features 14 types of colored gemstones totaling 172 carats, set in 18k gold, and is priced at about $1 million. The pièce de résistance is an 18k gold pineapple pendant encrusted with colored gemstones, which hangs from a Mellerio-cut diamond. The pendant can be removed and worn as one in a pair of gem-encrusted pineapple earrings that is part of the parure, or matched jewelry set. “It’s just so cool-looking,” says Victoria.

As it turns out, this wasn’t Mellerio’s first jewelry tribute to the famous French queen. The high jewelry house made a cameo bracelet for her that was on display at Bergdorf Goodman along with other Mellerio pieces last year. The bracelet’s provenance—and the fact that it still exists when so much jewelry from that era has been broken up—is remarkable, in Victoria’s opinion.

“There’s this link to the past and this incredible reimagining of what Marie Antoinette might have worn were she alive today,” she says. “These aren’t the kind of jewels our listeners typically trade in, but it’s the kind of jewelry catches people’s attention.”

Boucheron turns thistles into exquisite jewels
Another high jewelry collection that impressed Victoria was Boucheron’s series re-creating plants and thistles, the brainchild of creative director Claire Choisne. They’re “utterly remarkable,” says Victoria. “The verisimilitude is stunning.” They look like ghostly, albino thistles, she says, “but they’re actually jewels.”

Claire’s work is also noteworthy for the inclusion of nontraditional materials, Victoria says. “There’s a real…risk-taking in her design and a real vision that sets Boucheron apart, in my eyes, from all the other high jewelers…. They’re not using space-age materials literally borrowed from the aerospace industry like Claire is doing at Boucheron,” says Victoria.

While it’s fascinating to see what’s possible when money is no object, Victoria confesses that she often wonders who buys lavish high jewelry pieces. She thinks the very fact that such work is still being produced when the climate for luxury goods is challenging shows how enduring jewelry’s appeal is. The high price of gold is further proof, she believes.

Rob notes that jewelry is outperforming the rest of the luxury sector. As consumers question whether luxury fashion is worth the price after all, jewelry’s lack of branding could be a plus, he thinks. The idea of owning something that’s “a little more eternal” and unrelated to the cachet of a specific luxury designer may resonate more and more.

Rob pens another killer Nnovel
Rob’s latest mystery novel, Making a Killing in Diamonds, comes out on Aug. 12. This is the fourth book in his Diamond District series, revolving around protagonist Mimi Rosen. The new book is fun and fast-paced, but longer and more ambitious than the earlier books, in Rob’s opinion.

The plot of Making a Killing in Diamonds involves lab-grown diamonds, but the story also explores the broader topic of authenticity. Rob got inspired to write it after ChatGPT came out and prompted him to think about “what’s real and what’s not real, and how do we deal with a world that’s going through constant changes and constant disruptions,” he explains.

Though Rob’s not sure there will be a fifth installment in the series, he reassures fans that he’s left the door open for the main character to continue her adventures.

Preorder Making a Killing in Diamonds on Amazon, or go to robbatesauthor.com.

Any views expressed in this podcast do not reflect the opinion of JCK, its management, or its advertisers.

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