Imagine, with a summertime wedding or party in mind, you want to buy a new piece of fine jewelry, the category that includes items made of precious metal and glittering with gems.
Even if you’re shopping from your favorite chair at home, finding the right piece isn’t always easy. A recent Google search for a diamond solitaire necklace, for example, generated 21.7 million results.
And even when you find a style you like, how can you be sure it was made well and would be good value for the money?
Earlier this month, The New York Times gathered a group of jewelry professionals at the Warren Street Hotel in Manhattan to hear their views on what shoppers should look for when buying fine jewelry, the fact that demi-fine jewelry is sometimes lacking and the challenges of opening certain clasps with long fingernails.
Around the table were Kim Nelson, a jewelry maker and assistant chair of the jewelry design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology; Amber Mitchell, a fine jewelry buyer for the online retailer Moda Operandi; Catherine Sarr, founder of the jewelry brand Almasika and a former De Beers Group communications executive; and Jennifer Shanker, founder of Muse, a jewelry showroom that represents designers such as Bea Bongiasca and Silvia Furmanovich, and also an owner of a jewelry-centric boutique in New York City.
