Born in India with a rich heritage, Prakshi Sharma grew up with fine jewelry in her blood and a wealth of creativity and art. She launched her own label Prakshi Fine Jewellery in 2012 after having spent two years in New York City. Trained by the visionaries in the industry, Prakshi graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has also won the prestigious Best Bridal Jewellery Design award with her design produced by the industry leader Carolee and displayed at the renowned high street brand Bloomingdales. Influenced by powerful and talented women who have left their mark, the brand continuously strives to redefine the casual luxury space. Prakshi Fine Jewelry designs are stocked in select boutiques in India and the Gulf, in locations including Dubai, Kuwait, Doha, Jeddah, and Mumbai.
Jewelry, especially the fine jewelry industry has offered customization since the very beginning. It’s a core aspect of the jewelry business. Purchasing jewelry is an investment, but also has a lot of emotional value attached and everyone wants that to be reflected and preserved for times to come. It’s an easy form of instant gratification. It’s more of a personalized experience.
Today, everyone’s striving to attain individuality, and hence – customization ( more like personalization) feels closer to our personalities, than a standardized design. People want something that’s uniquely theirs, something that represents their mood, or something that others identify them with or relate with. Our campaign – Girl with a Diamond Earcuff was also conceptualized to celebrate multiple one-of-a-kind personalities.
As Indians, we’ve come a long way from the customized “Carrie” necklace in Sex and the city worn by Sarah Jessika Parker to the “A” that Alexis (Annie Murphy) wears in Schitt’s Creek. Needless to say, the purchase behaviour of the upcoming generations is evolving and is highly influenced by pop culture as well. Social networks and the need to share the distinguishable material aspects of your life also catalyze the need for customization from the point of view of both the consumer and the brand. While they want to showcase their purchase, we want them to talk about it, the services, and more so that others get on the bandwagon as well.
When it comes to individuality, the concept of thoughtful gifting and forging/strengthening personal connections isn’t much far behind either. We’ve talked about the emotion that goes with fine jewelry anyway, but gifting in itself is a sentimental process and with multiple boutique brands coming up, the gifter wants it to be special. It’s not just about giving something, but also something to remember them by. This has given rise to special gifting collections in jewelry including charms, initials, zodiac signs. The possibilities, if you ask a designer, are endless. This also leads to potential clients sharing their information such as birthdays, or anniversaries, which also helps the bank create a data pool from a sales perspective that they can reach out to with new collections, offers, or miscellaneous services in the future.
Even in terms of workwear, we really think personalized classic fine jewelry is a daily staple. People recognize you with these little quips, and there’s nothing better, for the individual, or for the brand/label, because fine jewelry, even today works on word of mouth best.
The need for customization isn’t sought by the brands, but by the consumer who is willing to pay a premium for the same. It only creates an opportunity hard to turn down by any brand and boutique labels especially. It gives them a chance to form personal relationships with the clients, and also learn what people are looking for in general.
Jewelry is a form of art or self-expression for many and hence they want to own something that represents them and their values. But other than that, especially in India, fine jewelry has numerous cultural, religious, and astrological significance as well in terms of metals (gold, silver, rhodium, etc) or gemstones (diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, etc.) Since it’s a conventional mandate to wear a combination of these, the upcoming generation wants to leverage it into a more stylish piece of jewelry, and we think most brands realize that.
Also, owing to the wedding season, we’re getting a lot of customized bridesmaids’ jewelry requests as well. That’s another lucrative area hard to miss as a fine jewelry label.