Peter Smith gives tips on leading meetings, developing marketing, and making trade show appointments in the age of short attention spans.
Price Upon Request: Paris High Jewelry, Part I
In the first of a two-part series, National Jeweler explores the new haute joaillerie collections from several storied maisons.

Paris--In the first of a two-part series, National Jeweler explores several storied jewelry maisons’ flirtations with the very heights of jewelry design in their high jewelry collections, presented last week alongside the haute couture showings in Paris.
Opera was the theme that united Chaumet’s four distinct groupings of high jewelry.
The Pastorale Anglaise group, for example, was an ode to the Glyndebourne opera festival held annually in England. The jewelry highlighted spectacular emeralds surrounded by a riot of color gemstones arranged to mimic the pattern of a Scottish tartan.
The Aria Passionata pieces, meanwhile, were a tribute to the emotion of Milanese opera with their mix of red gemstones like rubies and rhodolites, and the Rhapsodie Transatlantique collection interpreted New York opera as a romantic and sophisticated affair in cool-tone white gold accented with vivid pops of color.
De Beers debuted its Lotus collection, of which a rough macle diamond-- a flat, triangular twinned-crystal diamond--was the star, juxtaposed with the diamond company’s more traditional, polished stones on a long necklace.
The water flower gave De Beers plenty of inspiration, whether translated into a cornucopia of white diamonds arranged like “petals” open to the sunlight in brooch form, or as a mix of rough, natural color diamonds set against their cut, white diamond counterparts in styles meant to represent the flower as seen in a mix of shadow and light at various times of the day.
Buccellati’s signature “rigato” engraving and intricate openwork designs were elevated with the incorporation of exquisite gemstones and ornate configurations of diamonds in the Italian house’s haute joaillerie offerings.
Not to be missed was the diamond tiara that featured a removable drop pendant meant to rest on the wearer’s forehead.
Cindy Chao showed pieces representing themes central to her career, flora and fauna, displaying her particular affinity for dragonflies, but also making a departure with the No. X Red Diamond Ribbon Ring, new for 2017.
The ring featured an exquisite 1.51-carat cut-cornered square fancy purplish-red diamond set in 18-karat white gold with an array of white diamonds, all set in 18-karat white gold.
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Buying discipline at trade shows starts with clarity about your inventory levels, Smith writes.























