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How did you get interested in the jewellery industry?
My family deals with loose diamonds in the wholesale segment.
I decided to enroll in the Gemological Institute of America (GIA)
in Los Angeles and took up a course in jewellery designing and gemology.
After working with my dad for about two years, I branched out. From
dealing in wholesale diamonds, I moved to wholesale jewellery. Eventually,
I decided to open a retail store of my own, because it’s reaching
the end consumer which matters.
wholesale segment is your forte. what prompted you to enter
the retail jewellery market?
In the wholesale trade, you’re limited to a certain number
of clientele. But as far as retail goes, you can reach out to a
lot more people. With markets becoming more direct the middleman
is being eliminated. So it’s better to start off a retail store,
like I did five years back. If I had started today, it would’ve
been a much tougher situation as competition has gone up almost
four times.
What sets you apart from other jewellery designers?
The exclusivity of my designs is what sets me apart. With a
play of colours in our diamonds the combination that we get into
is quite unique. Our strength is our designing. If it wasn’t for
our designing, we’d be back by a good five- six years.
Where do you retail?
We retail in Bandra, Mumbai right now. We also supply to a
store in Dubai called Sharda jewellers. The designs are very innovative
and include a lot of emeralds and rubies to cater to the overseas
market. The Arabic clientele requires bulkier stuff compared to
India so we design specifically for Dubai. With the entry of
branded jewellery, where does it leave individual designers?
It is the right way of going about things. Brand imaging is
what everyone should look forward to in the future. But it’s all
a matter of priority and budgets. Jewellery being such an expensive
field, not everyone can get into that league. Today, if branding
is here to stay, then people would spend a little extra and go towards
a particular brand. I think that’s what every positive jeweller
should look towards achieving.
You are known to specialise in bridal jewellery. What are the
current trends in this segment for this season?
People are going in for chunkier pieces. Primarily now, colour
I feel is on its way out. There is more use of diamonds-a combination
of rose-cut diamonds, which have fewer facets and gives a more classic
and antique look.
What other fashion statement is jewellery making?
As of now, long earrings are still in. But people are getting
back to the necklace fashion that had become completely obsolete
a while back. Big bracelets are back. India, being a relatively
new market for the diamond jewellery, it’s been only in the last
10 years that this segment has become more popular as compared to
gold. People are now cultivating a taste for jewellery.
What are your future plans?
Within the next year and a half, we are planning to open two
more stores in Mumbai. Internationally, we’re targeting Dubai, because
of its proximity to India so as to be able to monitor the entire
process.
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