The Paris Collections: Where are the Diamonds?

Paris Fashion Week marks the end of ‘fashion month’, a four week stretch of the spring/summer 2014 designer shows in New York, London and Milan, with the fashion capital as the final stop. I’ve been studying the collections online this week (The Huffington Post offers a great round-up of the most influential shows if you need to get caught-up) and one thing keeps coming to mind: where are the diamonds?

I will not get in to the boring, logistical details of what needs to happen to have jewels of William Goldberg’s caliber as part of these runway presentations (security, insurance, and so on), but one can’t help but wonder how much more authentic these collections would be if each look is accessorized with the jewelry that most of the woman who will buy these clothes wear every day. Let’s be honest, the ladies who sport Givenchy and Stella McCartney to lunch at Cipriani or while boarding a private jet to Palm Beach also own major jewelry.  

Don’t get me wrong, I know that the point of these bi-annual shows are to sell clothes - which is why they need to be front and center - and to be fair there were some jewelry statements made for next season, like the oversized pearl chokers we saw at Chanel. However, my opinion is that if these collections are supposed to be portraying a certain lifestyle and look, it is not realistic to show models without, let’s say, a pair of diamond studs at minimum. 

I get that I am in the jewelry business and that is where my focus lies but I love fashion as well, and I think that high fashion and high-end jewelry need to go hand in hand.  

The models just look naked to me!