Amanda Gizzi, director of public relations and special events for Jewelers of America, shared spring 2015 jewelry trends with a seminar audience at the American Gem Trade Association GemFair Tucson last week, and also discussed how to incorporate these trends into your social media strategy.
JA has partnered with an Italian company, called Trendvision Jewellery & Forecasing, which provided Gizzi’s trend information.
Among trends she cited you might want to keep in mind for spring shopping:
- Soulful gold, also a leading trend in 2014, may have a tribal, organic or heirloom look.
- Sinous Serpents. Snake elements remain popular, with both mysterious and playful looks. This look can be subtle, with just the suggestion of a snake’s curves.
- Flights of Fancy, from fairies to insects and flowers. Look for wing images alone or wings on creatures including butterflies and dragonflies.
- Mysticology. Edgy amulets are prevalent, especially amulets with a darkly religious or punk tone.
- Biogeometry is inspired by the repetition of patterns in nature and can include honeycomes, spider webs and floral. Everythng has more open space, with flowing lines and cutouts that show off the wearer’s skin.
- Cosmic Gradation is a futuristic look featuring shimmering pavé, ombre, organic gems and astronomical motifs.
- Sculptural Geometry. Color blocking and cubes have been trending for a couple of years. But now, shapes have more movement and cubes are more three-dimensional with a doming effect. Shapes are still sculptural but not as square and rigid as in past seasons.
- Luxe Levels. Everything has layers. This trend includes cage designs, dimensional layers, patterns, embellishments and scrolls.
Color Story: And while probably most of us are well aware that the rich red tone of marsala is the Pantone color of the year, Pantone’s secondary colors are not as well publicized.
Gizzi says “scuba blue,” for example will be a standout for spring and summer, meaning that turquoise could make a comeback not seen since 2002-2003, when the gemstone made a rare appearance on the streets of Manhattan. The polished, robin’s egg-blue variety of turquoise in particular fits this color prediction.
Glacier gray is another color well suited to jewelry, with the popularity of Tahitian pearls and oxidized metals, for example.
Strawberry ice meshes nicely with pink sapphires, rose quartz and other milky pink stones.
Social Media Strategy: As for social media, Gizzi notes that posts with images get 87 percent more views than those without, so photography is essential in promoting your business and makes sense when you’re sharing information about how trends tie in to what you have to offer.
Gizzi also urges retailers to boost their Facebook posts, if they aren’t already doing so. One post for which she paid just $5 to boost was seen by more than 2,000 people, liked by nearly 200 and inspired more than a few comments. Un-boosted, meanwhile, only 281 followers even saw it, due to changes Facebook has made to how the news feed works.
“You don’t have to boost every one,” she says, “But even if you spend $1, you’ll see results immediately.”
And if you’re ready to branch out from Facebook, try using Instagram, a mobile, image-based social media outlet that’s a natural fit for jewelry and that garners unprecedented engagement from followers.