Look Book

28 | The Jewelr y Book B O O K Y O U R S A L E S MASTERCLASS I N S T O R E NOW! Consultant to Jewelry Suppliers and Retailers Author | Columnist | Keynotes Managers Meetings P E T E R S M I T H TheRetailSmiths@gmail.com by Peter Smith I t feels like it was 100 years ago, but I still remember Tiffany's John Loring describing great design as being a marriage of form and function. It was the first time I'd heard that term and it resonated with me then and has stayed with me since. What the estimable Loring knew of course, was that great design, great jewelry, had to be both beautiful and useful. It must contain an aesthetic sensibility; the understated and organic designs of Elsa Peretti, the simple but striking Paloma Picasso, or the sophisticated luxury of Jean Schlumberger, all different from one another, but profound in their examples of aesthetic achievement. It also needed to provide function. We don't want to simply admire great design from afar, we want to interact with it, touch it, and most importantly wear it. Despite the uniqueness of each individual wearer, when a client wears a beautiful piece of jewelry it should convey a characteristic that suggests it has been created for that person and that person alone. Art for sure, but not just art for art's sake. Besides form and function, there are other significant factors that we ought to be paying more attention to. e psychological benefits of wearing beautiful jewelry are too oen diminished by how we merchandise and handle jewelry. By default, we reduce even the best of what we create and procure to commodity status by over-merchandising display cases, without the appropriate framing, devoid of negative space, and without creating hero stories to elevate the artform and drive customer engagement and aspiration. Regretfully, when the customer still somehow manages to navigate the forest for the trees and is drawn to a particular piece, we allow salespeople to start by unfurling the tag and revealing the price and the myriad component-part details listed on the ticket. At best, a horribly dispassionate and emotionless experience for the customer. We can do better. Just ask John Loring. Happy Retailing! Jewelry Design: Form, Function and Feelings T H E R E T A I L C O R N E R Fall 2024 | The Retail Corner

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