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Episode 98: JCK Las Vegas Report, Lab-Grown Reset, Tracing Diamonds
Description
Just back from JCK Las Vegas, JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates recap highlights from the big event, where they were delighted to see a return to the liveliness of pre-COVID shows. Diamond trends were a hot topic among attendees and exhibitors, so Victoria and Rob delve into a range of buzzworthy diamond-related observations from Vegas. Among them: Lightbox’s foray into lab-grown engagement rings and how intensifying focus on the three P’s (provenance, people, and planet) is reshaping the industry.
Sponsored by De Beers: institute.debeers.com
Show Notes
01:38 Top Takeaways From JCK Las Vegas
06:16 Diamond Report
09:55 Lightbox Introduces Bridal Jewelry
14:27 Tracr and the Traceability Issue
Episode Credits
Hosts: Rob Bates and Victoria Gomelsky
Producer and engineer: Natalie Chomet
Plugs: @jckmagazine; institute.debeers.com, lasvegas.jckonline.com
Show Recap
Top takeaways from JCK Las Vegas
Victoria and Rob report that the mood was upbeat at JCK Las Vegas, with attendance strong and vendors reporting brisk sales. Rob says it felt “like the old days—exhausting and exhilarating.” Victoria was struck by the vibrancy of people’s moods, evident from Day 1 of the JCK Luxury show. “People said it rivaled recent past years in terms of sales, and those were some of the best years the industry has ever seen,” she notes. While 2023 is unlikely to beat 2022, strong sales at the show bode well for the fall season and the final quarter. The downturn over the past six months might simply stem from people needing to restock, which they did in Vegas, she theorizes.
Victoria was pleased to see a robust mix of familiar faces and newcomers, including those in the Natural Diamond Council’s Emerging Designers Initiative, and a good turnout by the Black in Jewelry Coalition in the Design Collective.
Diamond report
After moderating separate panels on lab-grown and natural diamonds, Rob concludes that both categories face challenges. Natural diamonds are losing market share, while prices are sinking in the lab-grown sector. The two sectors need to find ways to work together, he stresses. There’s talk of lab-grown manufacturers moving away from engagement rings into fashion jewelry. Given the abundance of lab-grown fashion jewelry and colored diamonds Rob saw at the show, that reset may be happening already. While he didn’t spot many unusual shapes among th