MILAN — A luxury brand doesn’t always need bells and whistles to create the credibility that leads to diversification.
Roberto Coin proves the point. The high-end jeweler quietly built a solid reputation and is branching out with a namesake fragrance, diamond-encrusted timepieces and a retrospective book due out in late 2007. Also in the pipeline are a capsule collection of evening bags featuring black sapphires and a diamond clasp, and freestanding stores.
“Diversification, along with innovation and complex craftsmanship, is a way to keep coddling and surprising our customers,” said Coin, founder and chairman of the privately owned jewelry firm based in Valenza, Italy. “That’s because consumers buy more with their eyes than their pockets.”
Details of the retail expansion are still being mapped out, but a store in Dubai is to open in March. Outposts in Macau and Atlanta will be next. The Dubai store will be decorated in muted tones, save for a central aqua green panel.
“I consider myself more of a jewelry creator than a designer,” said Coin, who added that the brand’s strengths are intricate styles that discourage counterfeiters, and staying ahead of the trend bandwagon rather than jumping on.
Coin is constantly pushing his creative wit. Before most of his competitors, and sometimes before ready-to-wear designers, he embraced animal prints by creating giraffe spots and tiger and zebra stripes with gold, diamonds, tigereye and onyx.
“I didn’t invent the giraffe, but when I did it in 1998, it was before the motif appeared on the runways of Yves Saint Laurent and Roberto Cavalli,” he said.
Coin reworked Pucci swirls in brightly colored enamel, and his passion for the Disney movie “Finding Nemo” led to rings in the shape of curled fish.
His creativity is also evident in a patented diamond called “100 percent,” which intensely intersects light, thanks to 100 facets.
The diamond stems from an agreement with Indian site holder Rosy Blue.
“After 18 months of reediting the edited version, we had this special diamond,” said Coin. “It opened a new market for us because this diamond is a guarantee for us and for our consumers.”
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Coin uses the white and colored diamonds liberally for earrings, rings and chokers. Stones upward of a carat bear a GIA warrant, complete with a laser-etched number on the girdle.
Roberto Coin jewels are carried in 1,200 points of sale worldwide, more than half of them in the U.S., a market that accounts for 50 percent of sales. Coin’s collections, including ones designed exclusively for the U.S., are carried at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Bernie Robbins and Hamilton Jewelers, among others.
Coin’s foray into jewelry came after a stint in the hotel business in the U.K.’s Channel Islands. Faced with the choice of opening his own hotel or going after his longtime dream to design, he chose design.
“All I knew was that gold is yellow, sapphires blue and diamonds white, but I took the plunge,” said Coin.
He learned quickly.
In 1984, Coin started as a wholesaler and then designed private label lines for Saks, Neiman’s and Tiffany & Co. He launched a namesake line in 1996. He has designed 41,339 styles, taking into consideration the various declinations, and still churns out 500 new styles annually.
Each creation has a tiny good-luck ruby embedded discreetly on the interior or back side.
Prices range from $500 for chains with a tiny diamond pendant to $200,000 for a choker of diamonds and precious stones.
“I like to look for the impossible and I do, constantly,” he said. “I still haven’t found it, but it’s extremely stimulating.”