According to available data, luxury spending in India has increased five times in the last five years, but this is not necessarily great news for the jewelry industry. Business Standard reports that the share of jewelry in this potential gold mine has actually dipped.
So how do you create jewelry innovative enough to compete against jewel-studded mobile phones or sleek cars? Shimul Vyas, coordinator of the Post Graduate Program in Lifestyle Accessory Design at the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, believes that concepts offering utility value may just be the push jewelry needs.
Business Standard quotes Vyas as saying: “We have begun such research and our students are trying to develop innovative products like smart jewelry or therapeutic jewelry.”
So, one student came up with a piece of gold jewelry with a hidden microphone, while another turned a bauble into a USB drive. Other students preferred to focus on ‘therapeutic jewelry,’ based on the Indian belief in the influence of chakras on the human body. In such cases, certain gemstones are used to strengthen the wearer’s spirit.
Vyas notes that some sections of the industry are also working on concepts like ‘work jewelry,’ referring to items that women can wear to work without feeling flamboyant.
Business Standard quotes Hemant Shah, Director of Dia Vente Jewelry, as saying: “As a product, jewelry innovation is essential, but it is only now that players in the industry have realized its significance. In such a fragmented industry like jewelry only innovation and generic advertising will help develop the product in the lifestyle category.”
Be that as it may, Vyas states that the acceptance of such innovative concepts in Indian jewelry remains to be seen. Russell Mehta, CEO of Rosy Blue India, notes: “It will take another 2-3 years for the Indian consumer to move from viewing jewelry as a traditional or investment product to accepting it as a lifestyle consumable at par with other such products.”
