A renaissance for Singapore's jewellers

SINGAPORE — The local boutique jewellery scene is currently undergoing a kind of renaissance, with several new labels emerging in the last couple of years alone. Most of them reside solely in the digital realm, which could explain why many Singaporeans remain largely ignorant about their existence.

“There is a growing selection of independent jewellery designers in Singapore. One of the largest challenges is the lack of awareness of our Singapore designers. Because of the high rentals in the main shopping districts, most designers locate their studios at off-the-beaten-track locations, so people cannot find the designers,” elaborated Carolyn Kan, designer and founder of Carrie K. Artisan Jewellery, one of the more high-profile local jewellery brands.

While the blossoming of blogs and social media has seen numerous blog shops selling costume jewellery sprout up a decade ago, these new-on-the-scene jewellery designers are opting to work with precious materials such as gold-plated metals, jade and semi-precious stones in an attempt to bridge the divide between high-end fine jewellery and mass market costume jewellery.

Almost all of the jewellery designers that we have spoken to said they had started creating jewellery because of a lack of affordable, high-quality options that are readily available or jewellery with a unique point of view. “There is too much ‘sameness’ in jewellery shops in Singapore … but this is also true of other merchandise that are sold in shops here,” observed Christina Lim, co-founder and designer at Inizi.

Gaining Global Recognition

Lim was driven to create jewellery for herself when she could not find pieces that she liked, and started Inizi a year-and-a-half ago after years of learning to work with gemstones and metals. Her pieces were exhibited last year at the Bijorhca Paris, an international trade show of fine and fashion jewellery, watches and technical industries in France, and were picked for a special showcase of best-of-show designs by Parisian trendspotter Elizabeth Leriche. Inizi’s new collection is slated to be unveiled at this year’s exhibition taking place in Paris next month.

Feted local jewellery designer Choo Yilin became the first Asian designer to be nominated for the prestigious Mort Abelson award, and was selected in 2010 to present her work at London Jewellery Week and to speak to industry leaders on sustainability. Her namesake label heavily features Type A Burmese jadeite and handpicked semi-precious stones in a bid to challenge the notion of Asian heirloom pieces.

Choo has set her sights on becoming a global luxury brand. “Being in Thailand made me realise how much I wanted to tell important stories of Asian heritage and conservation on a global stage. Dancers have dance as their tool to tell stories, film-makers have film, we have jewellery as our medium to craft these narratives,” said Choo.

“In order for us to have a fighting chance at building a global luxury brand, we need to dig deep into our roots to make sense of what is important to us and that usually means our heritage and culture. The world’s best global luxury brands tap very deeply into their own cultural history and heritage, and very successfully translate those key values into their brand story and DNA. Thus, it was only natural that we did the same for ourselves — tapping into our South-east Asian heritage and culture, and telling stories around that.”

Founded in 2009, Carrie K. has achieved some impressive milestones, including getting picked by Yuji Yamamoto (the son of renowned Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto) for distribution in Japan and showings at New York, Paris, Seoul and Shanghai Fashion Weeks. “Singapore is a small market, so it is important for us to develop presence in larger international markets,” pointed out Kan.

Carrie K. Artisan Jewellery is also stocked at Tomas Maier boutiques in New York and Florida, and locally at Tangs, Quintessential and the W Hotel. She had also collaborated with Disney on a collection inspired by the recently screened Alice Through the Looking Glass film.

Said Kan: “I believe that being approached by an internationally re-knowned brand like Disney is a real coup. Disney explained that Carrie K.’s strong focus on storytelling and quality craftsmanship resonated with them. Our cheeky designs that tell meaningful stories stand out in the jewellery category, which tends to feature more serious, classic designs. We believe that life is too serious, and we offer customers who want an alternative to the more traditional jewellery with designs that have a sense of humour and playfulness to it.”

Re-thinking Jewellery Retail

With high retail rentals and a small local market, most of these boutique jewellery labels are opting to reach out to a global market exclusively via e-commerce, with overseas consumers making up a large proportion of their customer base. A few of these labels include newly launched label Poppy & Maria (founded by a former fashion magazine editor and sales executive) and Simply Allegra, which cites its overseas market at 30 per cent of its customer base, while Inizi gauges it at half of its total sales.

These small independent jewelers face challenges in the retail arena, such as lacking the muscle to being stocked in a major department store. “Department stores could adopt a different approach in taking on new local jewellery brands that is less demanding on the new business. There is often a want to place immediate and sure returns as a top priority in business considerations. But business is also about investing, or co-investing; seeding and nurturing. In the longer term, an affordable (rental) option would lead to having a richer market with more choices for consumers and to more sales for the department stores and the jewellery brand,” said Lim.

Fiona Manini, founder and designer at artisanal jewellery label Simply Allegra, concurred. “Encouraging more independent designers to surface and be entrepreneurial can not only help consumers find more choices in the scene, but also help retailers by having more options,” she said. For Manini, she sells her handcrafted pieces online mainly via word of mouth.

Bucking this trend is established label Choo Yilin, which launched its Mandarin Gallery flagship store this year. “We’ve always made it a point not to sell a product, but rather, an amazing experience. From day one, we were always invested in making the Choo Yilin shopping experience one of a kind,” said Choo.

The brand has seen doubling annual revenues since 2013, and is on track to double last year’s figures with the opening of its flagship boutique. “To be honest, people often tell us that it’s hard for Singaporeans to support local, but thankfully, that was never a problem for us. Our clients have always said how proud they are of us as a Singaporean brand. For that, we are grateful. We wouldn’t be where we are today if not for them.”