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Latest in bling: It's a guy thing
Latest in bling: It's a guy thing
Men are expanding beyond gold chains, and jewelry retailers
are accommodating
By Teri Agins
The Wall Street Journal
Are real men ready to shine?
Retailers -- from the mass-market Kay Jewelers to the venerable
Tiffany & Co. -- are hoping so, as a new generation of
ordinary guys under 40 warms to such trinkets as titanium
pendants, three-diamond rings, silver dog tags and ID bracelets.
Once considered a fringe market for rockers, rappers, gay
men and gangsters, men's jewelry is inching toward the mainstream.
The same guys who read Cargo magazine, enjoy shopping for
jeans and facial cleansers are looking to personalize their
look in new ways, says Allan Steinmetz, chief executive of
Inward Strategic Consulting, a marketing firm. "Accessorizing
with jewelry is part of that," he says.
Retailers are responding, albeit gingerly. Earlier this year,
Tiffany quietly expanded its watch and cufflink collections
to include a broad range of sporty men's jewelry including
silver pendants, rings and bracelets mostly priced at $150
to $350. Tiffany has enlisted in-house designers such as Paloma
Picasso and Elsa Peretti to craft a number of masculine jewelry
styles in silver and titanium.
The company got a boost when it outfitted actor Brad Pitt
with a silver pendant and cufflinks for the movie "Ocean's
Twelve." After photos appeared of Pitt wearing the jewelry,
men started showing up at Tiffany's asking for the "Brad
Pitt pieces."
Other celebrities have been potent pitchmen. Singer Lenny
Kravitz and actor Orlando Bloom have been photographed for
magazine covers wearing jewelry designed by Philip Crangi.
Six years ago mall mainstay Kay Jewelers began marketing single
diamond-stud and small gold hoop earrings for men. Now, flashier
diamond rings have emerged as a favorite for bridegrooms.
Kay, owned by Sterling Jewelers, says its typical male jewelry
customer is 18 to 45. "This is definitely a generational
thing," says David Bouffard, marketing director at the
768-store chain.
To be sure, men's jewelry still represents a small part of
overall jewelry sales. At Tiffany, it is 2 percent of sales,
according to Jon King, senior vice president of merchandising.
And yet jewelry for men is considered the fastest-growing
sector in the fine jewelry industry, according to the Jewelry
Information Center, an industry trade group.
Last year, men's jewelry, excluding watches, represented about
10 percent of the $48.3 billion in fine jewelry sales in the
United States, according to a study by National Jeweler magazine.
Comparative figures aren't available, but retailers say the
category was considered virtually nonexistent a few years
ago.
Now, enter guys like Brendan Dolan. A sophomore at Emory University
in Atlanta, he favors Nautica or Polo long-sleeve striped
shirts and wears a silver chain with a tiny letter D pendant.
"Plenty of guys wear stud earrings," he says, adding
that most of his college buddies also wear simple jewelry
that is visible, but not too loud. "It's almost manly
to wear a chain, because it shows that you are confident with
yourself, no matter what you do," Dolan says.
Men's baubles have come a long way from the era of hippie
garb and Nehru jackets, when men widely wore peace-sign pendants
and love beads for a fleeting and curious fashion moment.
In the mid-1970s John Travolta, in "Saturday Night Fever,"
encouraged a nightclub look that included gold chain necklaces.
Jewelry has always been more popular among Latino and black
males. Hip-hop stars like Sean Combs and Kanye West even managed
to make pave diamonds macho. While most men aren't going for
the same bold MTV look, retailers acknowledge that the bling
factor has helped sell men on diamond-faced watches, as well
as larger diamond stud earrings, says Kay's Bouffard.
Anthony Massari, a 40-year-old sales marketing executive in
Pittsburgh and a father of three sons, wears a gold Rolex
watch, cufflinks and an occasional bracelet or pendant. "I
wear French-cuff shirts almost everyday to work," he
says. "I am successful, and I like to dress well."
Still, many older baby boomers feel uncomfortable with jewelry.
Steinmetz, the marketing consultant, says his sons sport fancy
watches and sometimes wear pendants on black rubber cords.
But Steinmetz, 53, sticks to his gold watch and wedding band.
"Most older men are past all that," he says.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051204/BUSINESS/512040391
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