Niche Alert! Fashionable Consumers With Budgets

It’s a paradox: as a fashion editor, my job is to know about high end jewelry, but I cannot afford my own. I deal in platinum and diamonds while owning plastic and CZs.

 

Don’t get me wrong- I love my wooden cuff and the link necklace I bought on the street in SoHo as much as I value the diamond necklace I received as a graduation present, but I’m not crazy about the reaction the former receives from the industry. The following conversation, for example, has taken place more than once:

Jeweler: “Where did you get that necklace? I love it.”
Me: “On the street, in SoHo.”
Jeweler: “Really? [Laugh]. Don’t tell anyone that.”

 

The plight of the luxury writer is lost on many, and so I often adopt a look I call The Vera Wang. Have you ever seen formidable clothing designer Ms. Wang out in the city or at a fashion show?  She wears head-to-toe, casual black, as if she’s just over the whole fashion thing. Similarly, I pretend I’m too immersed and too knowledgeable about jewelry to wear it.

 

Of course, The Vera Wang is not acceptable to jewelers: when a large, fashion-conscious sector of the population is not buying nice jewelry, there is a problem. Time to consider new strategies: fashion-forward but fine (and subsequently cheaper) designs, like Emily and Ashley. Or mixing high and low end materials for affordable and chic results, like EXEX.

 

It is brainstorming time, jewelers. We are here (and by “we” I mean not just my co-workers and me, but almost everyone I know- fashionable people with normal paychecks and high New York rents)! We are ready to buy! It’s the perfect time for you step up and provide fine jewelry for us real-income gals.

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