Jewellery or jewelry consists of small decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western perspective, the term is restricted to durable ornaments, excluding flowers for example. For many centuries metal, often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewellery, but other materials such as shells and other plant materials may be used. It is one of the oldest type of archaeological artefact – with 100,000-year-old beads made from Nassarius shells thought to be the oldest known jewellery. The basic forms of jewellery vary between cultures but are often extremely long-lived; in European cultures the most common forms of jewellery listed above have persisted since ancient times, while other forms such as adornments for the nose or ankle, important in other cultures, are much less common.
Chopard is a Swiss manufacturer of luxury jewellery and watches. Founded in 1860 in Sonvilier, Switzerland by Louis-Ulysse Chopard, Chopard has been owned by the Scheufele family in Germany since 1963.
The value of diamonds as an investment is of significant interest to the general public, because they are expensive gemstones, often purchased in engagement rings, due in part to a successful 20th century marketing campaign by De Beers. The difficulty of properly assessing the value of an individual gem-quality diamond complicates the situation. The end of the De Beers monopoly and new diamond discoveries in the second half of the 20th century have reduced the resale value of diamonds. Recessions have engendered greater interest in investments that exhibit safe-haven or hedging properties that are uncorrelated to investments in the equities markets. Academic studies have indicated that investments in physical diamonds exhibit greater safe-haven characteristics than investments in diamond indices.
Lorraine Schwartz is an American bespoke high jewellery designer. She has designed jewelleries for a host of famous female celebrities including Beyoncé, Blake Lively and Kim Kardashian. In 2009, Angelina Jolie showed up at the Oscars wearing a pair of emerald earrings designed by Lorraine Schwartz which cost $2.5 million.
Cathy Waterman is a California based jewelry designer and a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She designs “ethereal, feminine, lyrical” jewelry using recycled metals and fair trade stones.
James Claude Taffin de Givenchy is a French-born, New York-based jewelry designer and the owner of the jewelry company Taffin.
Carolina Bucci is an Italian jewellery designer. Born in Florence, Italy, she lives between London and New York City.
Ruff&Cut is an American fine jewelry company founded by Wade Watson in 2008. The company sells ethically sourced jewelry items that contain conflict-free diamonds and gem stones and recycled metals. The company's headquarters are in New York City and its products are sold via e-commerce, retail and wholesale. The name "Ruff&Cut" refers to the ruff sandpiper bird, which inhabits southern Africa, and to cut diamonds; as a whole, "ruff and cut" is a play on words referring to rough and cut diamonds, as well as the ruff sandpiper.
Susan Foster is an American jewelry designer and philanthropist.
Victoire de Castellane is a French jewellery designer who lives and works in Paris.
Caroline Scheufele, born December 14, 1961 in Pforzheim, Germany, is a German business woman. She is the Artistic Director and Co-President of Chopard, the Swiss-based luxury watches and jewellery manufacturer. She is the daughter of Karl and Karin Scheufele, German entrepreneurs who purchased the company in 1963. During the 1980s, Caroline Scheufele expanded the business into the jewelry sector.
Ingle & Rhode is a company based in London, England, that specializes in the design, manufacture and sale of jewellery whose components can be traced to sources certified free of the taint of being produced in substandard working conditions or in a war zone.
Brilliant Earth is a company that designs and sells engagement rings and other jewelry that it certifies as being ethically sourced. According to Businessweek it has been influential in creating a market for jewelry that appears to be ethically-sourced.
Natasha Zinko is a London-based fashion and jewelry designer. She specialises is women’s wear and jewellery design with her main boutique in London, United Kingdom.
A recycled diamond is a diamond, which had a prior use and has re-entered the diamond supply chain.
Dolly Cohen is a jewellery designer based in Paris. She specializes in custom mouth jewellery and has created grill designs for Rihanna, Rita Ora, Drake, and Cara Delevingne.
Ambra Gambale is a South African and Italian artist and fine jewelry designer. Her Skullchemy range of momento mori artworks created from exotic animal skulls, metals & precious stones have been exhibited and sold in London, Notting Hill & Dover Street, Mayfair. Her fine jewellery range is handmade and centred on the use of gold, ebony and diamonds. Her collectors include the likes of pulitzer prize winner Lauren Beukes.
Jelena Behrend is an American jewelry designer based out of the Lower East Side in New York City. Described as fashion forward by New York (magazine), her hammered pieces have been seen on Hollywood celebrities and in feature films.
Narcisa Pheres is an entrepreneur and creative director and founder of PHERES and Narcisa Pheres Fine Jewelry, Italian luxury brand.
Ana Khouri is a Brazilian-born jewelry designer based in New York known for her edgy styled ear cuffs and jewelry created with ethically sourced gemstones. She is the winner of the 2017 ANDAM Accessory Award. She is a member of CFDA and the second contemporary jeweler to garner distinction at Phillips.
