John Atencio is a JCK Las Vegas original. The Denver-based designer was among the group of advisers who worked with the show’s founder, JCK‘s then publisher Charlie Bond, on the debut edition of the fair in 1992.
“I’ve been coming to JCK for 30-plus years, with a four- to five-year intermission,” he tells JCK. “It was a huge hit that first year—and still is.”
In 2024, Atencio will return to the Design Collective (booth #15030) with a refresh across all of his collections, including a brand-new line designed by Lex Atencio, the younger of Atencio’s two sons.
“There are a lot of new customers in the marketplace, and some older customers are retiring, and the trend is light and airy and stacking,” John says. “We’re doing smaller, finer pieces in existing collections. We’re also adding diamonds; there’s a thirst for bling. So we’re taking good pieces that have sold for years and years, we’re modifying them, and adding diamonds. We had a lot of channel diamonds, and now we’re adding more pavé to brighten things up.”
Below, the designer walks us through the highlights of three key 2024 introductions.
Havana
“This is Lex’s second collection. He’s in his mid-30s, and he’s pretty tied to a group of upcoming businesspeople. People want yellow gold now, they want a broad look, and stackables. This new collection is more about the gold and about having pieces that have a good gold flash with smaller diamonds that are a lower price point for younger people. And things they can stack.
“It started with cigar bands. Lex came in and said, ‘We need to do cigar bands.’ I put a pencil to some of the ideas he had. ‘No,’ he said, ‘Wider, wider, they want knuckle to knuckle.’ And this whole cigar band turned us on to cigars…and that’s where the Havana name came from.”
Sahara Diamond in sterling silver
“Last year we introduced Sahara. We had several collections, like Bellagio, referencing hotels on the Strip around the Vegas show. We’re adding pavé to the collections we’re fond of. It was a slam dunk to follow through and make the Sahara Diamond line its own collection.”
Initials
“It seems to be a big trend with people adding multiple pendants and layering on top of chains on the neck. We’ve had a call for a lot of initials and didn’t have anything, so we decided to make it a line. We used the same letter set we use for our brand name. We now have pendants from A through Z in two colors, 14k yellow gold and 14k white gold, and only with diamonds.”
Top: “M” initial pendant in 14k yellow gold with diamonds, $995
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