The middle class is changing its approach to buying jewelry and affordable luxury goods, the NRF said.
Auction Raises Funds for Nepal Earthquake Victims
Tiancheng International’s sale featured a collection from jewelry designer Kat Florence to raise funds for A Drop of Life to rebuild a children’s school.

Hong Kong--One designer sold a collection of her jewelry at auction in Hong Kong recently to help victims of last year’s earthquake in Nepal.
On Sunday, Tiancheng International put pieces from designer Kat Florence--four of which had been worn by actress and fashion icon Sarah Jessica Parker as part of her partnership and future design collaboration with Florence--up on the block in its Magnificent Jewellery Charity Auction.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale, which totaled $1.5 million, will go to A Drop of Life, a nonprofit whose main initiative this year is to reconstruct an elementary school for 420 children in Pokhara, Nepal, following the earthquakes there in April 2015.
The final amount or exact percentage of the total that will go to the charity was not available at press time.
The items were offered without reserve in an effort to raise as much money as possible for the donation.
Only 28 pieces of the 38 available sold, according to the auction house’s website.
The pieces that Parker wore include the largest tanzanite, zultanite and Paraiba tourmaline ever offered at auction, according to Tiancheng; those garnered approximately $304,100, $68,400, and $304,100, respectively.
The auction also put up the largest tsavorite garnet ever offered at auction, which went for about $167,300.
The stones were sourced, polished and cut by Florence and her team.
The full list of results of the Tiancheng Auction Magnificent Jewellery Charity Auction can be found online.
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