#TreatYourself
Gone are the days when we need to wait for a man to buy us a diamond – increasingly, women are buying their own jewellery and it’s having a pretty significant impact on the market.
According to a new report by Coresight Research, jewellery sales in the US are dropping during the holiday season (a traditional time for gifting) as online sales and shifting attitudes towards jewellery reshape the buying landscape. This follows previous reports by fashion search platform Lyst which revealed that 78 per cent of jewellery sales on site came from women purchasing pieces for themselves and Net-a-Porter’s own research showed 60 per cent of women were no longer waiting for men to buy jewellery for them and that 1 in 4 intended to buy jewellery themselves ahead of the holidays.
This theme is one that jewellery brands have picked up on, including Canadian cool-girl jeweller Mejuri. Last year, the brand introduced a line of commitment rings for the first time and were surprised at the response from women who bought the pieces as gifts for themselves. In a release, Noura Sakkijha, the CEO and co-founder of Mejuri said, “When we launched our first collection of non-typical engagement rings, we were pleasantly surprised that customers who bought included not only women getting married but also women treating themselves. Given this context, we wanted our next generation of rings to incorporate both classical stone cuts and non-classical stone arrangements; designs that can be celebrated by everyone, for all moments.”
The new collection includes eight fresh styles in two unique arrangements – the Italic Cluster Ring and the Linear Cluster Ring, each of which is available with various stones including diamonds, green sapphire, peach morganite and prasiolite and finished in either 14k yellow or white gold.
Speaking with FASHION about the launch, Sakkijha said, “Our engagement collection is about celebration – buying a piece for them or for you, for a milestone, a love story or an achievement. Our pieces are non-traditional and asymmetrical. We know our 62 per cent of the purchasers are women buying for themselves, so we can have more fun with the designs – and I especially love that you can engrave a message inside the band. It’s always been important for us to celebrate love of all kinds and equalize the purchasing narratives surrounding it – whether you’re dating, getting engaged, married (or, in the words of Emma Watson), self-partnered.”
Well we know what we’re getting (ourselves) for Christmas this year then.