women know best

More women are buying their own jewelry, and getting exactly what they want! Here are some best sellers from our Sylvie Collection.

It used to be that if a woman wanted a piece of jewelry she had to wait until someone gifted her with it. It could be for her birthday, or Valentine’s Day, for her graduation or her anniversary. These days women aren’t waiting anymore. “If I see it and I want it, I buy it,” says a lawyer in Rio de Janeiro, typical of the thinking today. And the occasion for treating herself may be a promotion or a divorce or simply because, as one editor in Tokyo says, “I work hard and I deserve it.” According to a study conducted by the market-research firm Mintel of jewelry purchases in the U.S., more than half of women surveyed who purchased jewelry did so to treat themselves.

One reason behind the shift is that more women are working, making their own money and feeling they can spend it how they see fit. In fact, according to Forbes.com, women now control over $20 trillion in annual consumer spending globally. They are transforming the marketplace, and that includes jewelry. And they aren’t buying trinkets. One jeweler we interviewed in Pittsburgh reported a female executive buying a piece of diamond jewelry that cost in the six figures, while another jeweler in Atlanta said her female customers buying for themselves usually spend couple of thousand dollars. As with all jewelry purchases, the amount spent is based on income, so as more women rise the corporate ladder and earn higher salaries, the price spent on fine jewelry increases as well.

Many women see the purchase of fine jewelry as an investment, as much a part of their financial portfolio as buying stocks, bonds or real estate. And many woman find justification for an expensive jewelry purchase in the realization that they can always pass along a valuable piece as part of their inheritance. Says one New York City mother, “I have two daughters and I’ve picked out the pieces they will inherit. Some belonged to my mother.”

But perhaps a Parisian fashion designer we spoke to best –expressed the most compelling reason for a woman to buy jewelry for herself: “You get exactly the jewelry that you want.”