Gem Visions, Swarovski’s industry-leading trend and design service, has offered its insights to the fine and bridge jewelry sector for more than a decade. The yearly assessment analyzes the zeitgeist to identify the megatrends driving design directions. Swarovski’s team of industry experts distills the data into four multilayered trends still open to interpretation. As an aid, Gem Visions compiles a template of colors, textures, and materials for each design direction. Themes are matched to the Swarovski Genuine Gemstones and Created Stones best suited to the desired gemstone story.

The first trend direction, Magic, inspires jewelry creators to blur boundaries. Multiple facets that awaken a jewel’s infinite depths and new setting methods that float stones with little or no visible metal inspire a perception of craftsmen as magicians. Light and shadow reign, night blue and burgundy morph into light blue and lilac. Swarovski Genuine Blue Sapphire and Swarovski Marcasite delineate this dynamic.

Eternity celebrates the everlasting. A palette of honey, amber, and citrine explodes with more intense tones. Flashes of brilliant orange, blue, and green mix with warm whites. Swarovski Genuine Citrine and Swarovski Genuine Peridot are perfectly on trend.

The third design concept, Body Art, regards the human form as an arena for innovative jewels. Shades of pink and burgundy with flashes of amethyst and turquoise flatter the skin, while precious metals and leathers blend with synthetics. The focus on man-made materials suits created stones like Swarovski Zirconia and technologically enhanced gemstones like the color enhanced Swarovski Genuine Topaz.

Radical Craft is a contemporary studio culture offshoot reflecting the client’s increased involvement in the processes behind a jewel. This radical manifesto encompasses electronics, robotics, and 3-D printing. A masculine palette of industrial grays and khakis softened by orange and pink pairs with such angular cuts as square, baguette, triangle, or forward-integrated elements like Swarovski Plastic Presettings.

The four Gem Visions trend directions for 2016 present unique opportunities for creation and storytelling, each interpreting the overarching theme of “Then. Now. Next,” which links the past to both the present and the future in its own unique way.

JCK