Jewelry

Will Major Jewelry Houses Return to the Biennale des Antiquaires? - New York Times
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Even as the Biennale des Antiquaires opened on Saturday in Paris without its traditional roster of high jewelry brands, organizers said they hoped the houses would return next year, when the event turns into an annual affair.

Once the Biennale was the pre-eminent destination for jewelry houses to unveil their latest collections to high-spending customers from around the globe. But in January, Cartier announced it was pulling out, as organizers put renewed emphasis on the antiques dealers for whom the event was first established. The 13 other jewelry brands that exhibited at the last fair, in 2014, including Bulgari, Graff Diamonds and Chanel, followed suit.

The 28th edition of the Biennale, which ends Sept. 18, instead features four relatively young, contemporary jewelry houses among the antiquarians’ stands: Cindy Chao from Taiwan, Nirav Modi from India, and Boghossian and De Grisogono from Geneva — the latter the only one to have previously exhibited at the Biennale.

“It’s too soon for any confirmations about 2017,” Jean-Daniel Compain, the Biennale’s general director, said in an email. “But, definitely, we hope, as the greatest international old masters exhibitors did for this edition, to see the greatest brands come back next year.”

While Cartier, Giampiero Bodino and Bulgari all declined to comment on the prospects — and other houses did not respond — a Boucheron spokeswoman said the house was talking with Biennale organizers about 2017, adding, “Nothing is set in stone yet.”

Some observers, however, noted that forgoing the considerable expense of a Biennale stand — said to be a minimum of $500,000 in rent for the space alone — will give the houses an opportunity to decide how best to spend their marketing dollars. “They may be saying, Let’s try without it and see what happens,” said Joanna Hardy, a London-based jewelry expert.

They also note that the decisions not to participate reflect, at least in part, changes in the global luxury market.

There now are multiple opportunities to reach customers, including a growing number of international art fairs, such as Masterpiece London and the European Fine Art Fair (also known as Tefaf), whose first New York event, scheduled in October, includes the jewelers Wallace Chan and Reza, both of whom exhibited at the 2014 Biennale. And brands are increasingly turning to private events in diverse locations, as well as focusing on their online presence and social media, to win clients’ loyalty.

But for the jewelers at the Biennale this year, there is still no better way of announcing one’s self on the world stage. “It’s great exposure for the brand: the world’s luxury clients are all in one place,” Mr. Modi said.

With ambitious plans to expand his six-year-old brand, including 100 new stores across the world over the next 25 years, the Mumbai-based diamantaire is not deterred by the current global slowdown in luxury spending. “I am not concerned,” he said in a phone interview. “When you look at hard luxury versus soft, there has been a slowdown since 2014-5, but all the brands are still up 30 to 40 percent since 2010.”

The Biennale’s exhibitor list this year appears to reflect the organizers’ decision to refocus on antiques: 120 dealers are participating, almost double the 63 that showed in 2014. Also, a number of special displays are featured, including an exhibition on the history of time and watchmaking by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, the watchmakers’ industry organization based in Switzerland.

For Ralph Boghossian, a sixth-generation member of the family jewelry house that established itself as a brand in its own right in 2008, the organizers’ stand against domination by giant luxury houses is essential to the fair’s future.

“The Biennale symbolizes the finest craftsmanship in the world,” Mr. Boghossian said. “The brands were doing extremely well but it was losing the essence of the fair.”