NEW YORK — Bling appears to be losing its luster.
The phenomenon of over-the-top jewelry and watches popularized by stars such as Pharrell Williams, Eve, Usher and Kanye West is evolving, if not even becoming a bit passé, said jewelers, retailers and other industry experts. The trendsetting hip-hop crowd is less focused on ostentation and comparing carats, turning instead to more refined pieces like fine Swiss watches and quality diamond jewelry.
And the jewelers who custom-make the megabucks necklaces, rings, bracelets and other glittery trinkets — Jacob & Co., Tiret and Sol Rafael — are aiming to go more mainstream to compete with patricians of the business like Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Harry Winston and Piaget.
“With the hip-hop market, we start trends,” said Damon Dash, a founder of Roc-A-Fella Records and chief executive officer of Dash Enterprises who also is a partner and co-founder of Tiret, a fine jewelry and watch firm based here. “We look at the Robb Report and see something that no one else has. For example, six years ago we started wearing Audemars Piguet, and no one knew what that was. So it’s on to the next.”
“For the hip-hop demographic, you have to be aspirational,” Dash explained. “When you make something and spend a lot of money on it, you don’t want to see everyone wearing the same thing.”
Bling arrived by way of musicians and other entertainers who wanted custom pieces to loudly proclaim they were rich and successful. It became synonymous with a lifestyle as well as with the excessive use of diamonds and other gemstones that would be a star’s signature. There was Diddy’s Asscher cut-diamond cross pendant trim, and the veneers studded with diamonds for Nigo, the Japanese designer of one of the hip-hop set’s favored apparel brands, Bathing Ape.
“Old school guys like Run DMC, Slick Rick and Big Daddy Kane were about wearing the most jewelry they could, even if they were diamond chips. [They thought] you need to look like a million to make a million,” said Minya Oh, author of “Bling Bling: Hip Hop’s Crown Jewels” (Wenner Books). “Now it’s ‘How do I hide my diamonds, while getting the right people to notice?’ If you’re a casual person not associated with bling, you may not notice. But someone who is a power player will.”
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To be sure, in a fickle environment where consumers are always searching for the next thrill, bling is far from extinct.
Elizabeth Kanfer, Saks Fifth Avenue’s fashion market director of women’s accessories, said there is a market for large, important pieces, but they need to be more sophisticated. “There will always be a market for over-the-top jewelry,” she said. “We believe in offering unique, one-of-a-kind pieces. Rather than ostentatious, we prefer the words unique and refined.”
During the last two seasons, “ready-to-wear designers have stripped clothes of ornamentation…collections are pared down and restrained,” Kanfer said. “As a result, the jewelry and accessory designers have been influenced by this change and have created more sophisticated merchandise.”
Last year, Jacob Arabov, known as Jacob the Jeweler, who designed Pharrell Williams’ signature 125-carat colored diamond-encrusted medallion and necklace worth an estimated $500,000, announced a new strategy to create more refined women’s jewelry. This year, the so-called King of Bling also launched an advertising campaign featuring classic pink and white diamond bangles, long necklaces and briolette cluster earrings featuring Helena Christensen and photographed by Charles DeCaro and Rocco Laspata. The ads are running in fashion magazines and publications that include The New York Times.
It’s not clear how Arabov’s arrest on June 15 at his 57th Street headquarters here on federal money-laundering charges will affect his business plans or reputation. He was released on $100,000 bond and has pleaded not guilty to participating in an alleged scheme to launder more than $270 million in illegal narcotics proceeds involving a Detroit drug organization.
In November, he told WWD that his goal was to have the same recognition and respect as Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels and other Fifth Avenue jewelers.
The new Tiret line, which translates to “Dash” in French and Russian, is known for its sapphire- and diamond-encrusted watches, costing into the high six figures, that have intricate complications like a tourbillion within an oval-shape case, which is hardly smaller than a deck of cards. Last week, Tiret opened its private 1,700-square-foot gilded baroque showroom at 595 Fifth Avenue to the public by appointment.
“I want to be in competition with Cartier,” Dash said. “When we started, we wanted to identify what our brand meant. We did [bling] watches to get noticed. We have small things, too. We just had to make noise. It’s like, years ago I rented the biggest house in the Hamptons to let everyone know, ‘I’ve arrived.’ The next year, I got a different house.”
Dash has launched a new lifestyle advertising campaign for his apparel lines with a spotlight on Tiret watches. The campaign features former Harry Winston and Tiffany & Co. model Carolyn Murphy and was shot by fashion photographer Steven Klein. The ads hit magazines in September.
Tiret is now pushing fine jewelry pieces featuring a proprietary hexagonal diamond cut called the Exire and the new Tiret Day and Night watches featuring a double tourbillion, which retail for $365,000.
Chris Aire, a nine-year-old firm based in Los Angeles, is staying with its bling styles worn by Halle Berry and Lindsay Lohan, among others, but is homing in on more sophisticated, salable looks.
“You have trendsetters and you have conservatives, and sometimes the conservative people feel like they can pull off the same [bling] image and some just don’t have the money,” Aire said.
Tourneau’s senior vice president of marketing, Andrew Block, sees an evolution in the business. “Initially, it [the custom bling watch] was a niche type of watch. It appealed to a hip-hop star, athlete or actor. I’d say it became aspirational outside of the circle of hip-hop in the last couple of years.”
Block, citing Arabov’s creations, which Tourneau carries, added, “His audience was a narrow hip-hop rapper and his clients got less narrow. His watches started to show up in retailers that were mainstream. Yes, we sell outrageous pieces and [like a complicated watch from Jacob & Co.] it is an outrageous piece to us. But we also sell Breguet and Blancpain, which are very expensive, too. Diamonds have been on watches forever. He just took it to a different extreme, with the color on the dials, big 50-millimeter cases that you haven’t seen before.”
Even on the fashion jewelry side, things are getting more mainstream. For fall, Rocawear, run by hip-hop mogul and entertainer Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, toned down the use of crystals and huge logos in its fashion jewelry line, featuring simple hoops with small “RW logo flame” detail.
“Jay evokes a classic aesthetic,” a Rocawear spokeswoman said of Carter, who once epitomized the bling trend.
“It’s the evolution of the whole genre; it’s been changing completely,” said Paul Cartwright, director of marketing for Lucas Designs, which launched Rocawear jewelry in 2004 at stores like Hot Topic and Demo. “The accessories and jewelry market has to catch on now. People are looking for a little more style and sophistication.”
Lucas is creating a fine jewelry line for Rocawear, as well.
Robert Burke, former senior vice president of fashion at Bergdorf Goodman and founder of Robert Burke Associates, a consulting firm here, said the audience is changing.
“It’s the evolution of the customer,” he said. “Many of the hip-hop artists are wearing tailored suits and the female artists are wearing couture and ready-to-wear dresses… A few years ago, it was tracksuits and a big piece of jewelry.
“We’re going through a more restrained, more refined moment,” Burke said. “It’s not a more-is-more moment. The rap culture has been very revolutionary in setting trends and they have always had an influence on fashion and interest. It’ll always be an interesting barometer on what’s happening. To the retailers and the vendors, it’s an important customer to have.”
Andrew Jassin, managing director of the Jassin O’Rourke Group, a consulting firm here, said the bling jewelers have a shot at attaining their Fifth Avenue dreams.
“There’s been a move from hip-hop urban to classic urbane, [but they] can be the next Harry Winston and Ralph Lauren if they promote and market trend-right all the time — less stylized, less MTV and more acceptable.”