Retail Roundup: Week of June 9

News and noise from the retail jewelry front.

Gitanjali Group Opens Its First Specialty Store

Mumbai-based jewelry brand Gitanjali Group recently launched its first global multibrand store in Dubai. The 2,000-square-foot boutique features looks from designers including Asmi, Natshatra, Nizam, Gili, and Adler & Roth. “The brand represents the new age Indian woman, celebrating her new found economic and social independence,” said Bollywood actress and brand ambassador, Priyanka Chopra, in a statement. Chopra added, “The brand aims to fulfill every woman’s innate need for self expression, while lauding her inner fire.” Alrighty then.

L.A.’s Claude Morady Estate Jewelry Thinly Veils Kristen Stewart’s Recent Visit

It’s an unspoken rule (and survival tactic) among Hollywood jewelers to be totally discreet about the shopping habits of its most high-profile clients. And while L.A.’s Claude Morady Estate Jewelry claims to “not comment on clients or customers who come into our store,” its owners couldn’t resist dashing off a thinly veiled confirmation on its Facebook page that real-life Twilight couple Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were recently shopping for rings at the shop. The retailer posted a link to a tabloid engagement story on the couple on their Facebook page, along with the caption “We can neither confirm nor deny first hand knowledge of this rumor.” Followed by a smiley face. Which might as well have been a winking icon. It appears that the post has since been removed from the site.

Deitz & Taylor Jewelers Closes

After 67 years in the business, jeweler William R. “Bill” Deitz closed his shop, Deitz & Taylor Jewelers in Hickory, N.C., last week. His father, William P. Deitz, opened the store in 1929 with partner Douglas B. Taylor. A year later, the Great Depression swept in, but the men kept their families afloat by trading watch work for groceries. Bill Deitz started working with his father in 1945 when he was a senior in high school, and became the store’s sole proprietor in 1964. “I’ll miss my old customers and all the friends I’ve made,” Bill told a local newspaper, “but I’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s time to go.”

Maryland Jeweler Sells Engagement Ring to Former Miss Maryland’s Beau

Little Treasury Jewelers, the official jewelry sponsor for the Miss Maryland pageant, recently sold an engagement ring to the boyfriend of former Miss Maryland, Carlie Colella. During her reign last year, staffers at the store took a snapshot of the beauty queen smiling and wearing a Hearts On Fire diamond ring she’d taken a particular shine to. Her boyfriend, Daniel Mazzei, called up the store 10 months later and bought the ring—whipping it out and proposing in front the entire audience at the Miss Maryland 2012 pageant in Hagerstown, Md., on June 23. Mascara-stained tears, of course, were shed.

Former Miss Maryland, Carlie Colella, modeling a Hearts On Fire ring that her fiancé later bought (courtesy of Little Treasury Jewelers).

Colella’s fiance proposing on stage at the Miss Maryland pageant this month (courtesy of Little Treasure Jeweler)

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