JCK Show Jewelry Trends Small is big. That's the new message exhibitors and retailers exchanged during the five-day JCK Show in Las Vegas. Call it caution in the face of a mellow year, as millennium mania peters out. Jewelry designers, manufacturers and distributors noted the change by offering jewelry either small in size or price, but still big on imagination. Diamonds Out are the 4-ct.
Patterns are popular, especially diamonds set artfully to look like checkerboards or basket weaves.
Rows of diamonds line up in new ways, sometimes at unusual angles. The modest version of a diamond line bracelet features engraved or brushed metal spacers separating fewer diamonds and bringing elegance at a lower price point. Picture the usually rounded prong with the rounded part sliced off, leaving the prong flat and flush with the diamond. Its a reflection of the fashion world's renewed interest in black and white clothing, though these jewelry styles also look smashing with bright primary colored clothes as a backdrop. Green and blue gems were also ubiquitous.