De Beers is making big moves into the retail market. The diamond company which was once more on the back end of diamond transactions, providing diamonds to jewelers, is now planning to have around 50 stores by the end of the year. In an interview in the Wall Street Journal, De Beers Group Managing Director Gareth Penny said that the company's retail business is still in its "start-up phase and is rapidly expanding, seeking to be in one of the top five jewelry retailers in the world. De Beers currently has seven stores open in the U.S. in San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, New York and Washington D.C.

This is part of a big shift in De Beers over the past few years. Recently De Beers created their Forevermark diamond brand. They are putting their substantial marketing muscle behind Forevermark and planning to build into one of the world's leading diamond brands.

The new Diamond Standard vodka takes a concept I first saw with Diva vodka, a step further, using just diamonds rather than all precious stones to filter their vodka. Their process uses over 600 cut diamonds of up to one carat in size. The grain used is from Poland. The bottle is produced by Saver Glass and is made of perfume bottle grade glass with a 25mm Swarovski Xillion Chaton crystal as its centerpiece embedded within its neckline. The vodka is now being test marketed and sold in Massachusetts with plans to expand into New York and New Jersey and has a retail price of $100.

Certainly with more and more billionaires in Russia, the luxury market there is growing by leaps and bounds. Mostly I have written about retailers like Lamborghini, Gucci and Cartier getting their foothold in Moscow and beyond but now there are a few Russian companies seeking to sell their brands in the U.S. and Europe. In April I heard Russian billionaire Roustam Tariko, speak about his quest to sell vodka in the U.S.; last month, I met with the lovely women from the Russian company Rifesta who were kind enough to show me their diamond jewelry.

Rifesta has been agrowing name in the Russian market for a while now. Rifesta Holding opened its first jewelry shop in Ekaterinburg in 1998. In 2005, the first Rifesta boutique opened in Moscow and in June 2006 the company made their first forays into the U.S. market. At Rifesta the pieces are all made in Russia, from Russian designers and using Russian diamonds.

The pieces are rather distinctive. What struck me about the designs is that they make great use out of small diamonds. The rings are large showy pieces meant to be noticed and appreciated. Each collection has its own theme and style, some of which are more intriguing than others, their Diamond Figures collection and Legends of Elves collections were ones I found particularly striking.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry company has been in bad shape for a while now but now that she and Kathy Ireland have terminated their licensing agreements with House of Taylor it looks like the company is officially over. The company is reportedly insolvent and the loan company is threatening to take possession of all inventory. Both Ireland and Taylor were major shareholders in the company along with Jack Abramov, the former chairman, president, and chief executive officer, and Monty Abramov, former secretary and vice president, both of whom resigned from their positions in April.

In May the company was delisted from Nasdaq and it will be forced to lose the Taylor name. Also, Lyle M. Rose, House of Taylor president and chief executive officer, left the company when they did not pay his salary, but is still hoping for a severance payment of around $150,00. Five other employees were terminated at the same time. The business will likely be liquidated. The company was in business for over three years and did create some lovely pieces such as the "Daisy" necklace shown above.

Simply good sounds more like a slogan for a food company but it's the motto of Hellmuth jewelry. Founded by Gert Hellmuth in 1983 and based in Pforzheim, Germany, the company makes a wide variety of pieces including bridal jewelry and large statement pieces. Celebrities who've worn Hellmuth include Aisha Tyler, Ali Larter and Britney Spear who wore a Hellmuth ring during her performance at the VMAs last year. Many of the Hellmuth designs incorporate crocodile or snake patterns but in a very abstract way that gives the pieces a luxe feel.

Sharon Stone may have gotten in trouble with Dior over her remarks on China recently, but she can still bring in the gigs. Jeweler Damiani has announced that Stone will be their new face. The new ad campaign for the diamond seller celebrates women throughout history starting with Eve up through Ameilia Earhart and today's modern women. Silvia Damiani, who is a longtime friend of Sharon Stone, introduced the new campaign, which was shot on March 20th by photographer Solve Sundsbo, at a press event in Beverly Hills this week.

Champagne is always considered a fairly luxurious drink (even when it's the cheap stuff) but any champagne, cheap or not, is sure to get a class upgrade when it gets served in one of these two glasses. Valued at $400,000 and blinged out with 1,700 white and pink diamonds the glasses were chiseled out of 8kg blocks of rock quartz crystal and it took 5 jewelers 3 months to put them all together.

The set was designed by John Calleija and although they'll be present at the opening of his second store in London they'll eventually be returning to the home of the Melbourne businessman who bought them and plans to turn them into family heirlooms.

The world is becoming ever more conscious of fair trade goods and ethically responsible indulgences like gems and jewelry, and Monique Péan is making that effort all the more beautiful with her nature inspired designs. And not only are many of her creations beautiful and made of rare ancient ivory (the necklace pictured here is made with 12,000 year old mammoth ivory and sells for $25,000) but 50% of her C:W (Charity: Water) collection goes towards providing water and sanitation to disadvantaged people.

[via JC Report]

I can't believe that a handbag made of platinum, over 2,000 diamonds, and valued at almost $2 million doesn't have a name other than "diamond and platinum handbag." We first mentioned this beauty of a bag about a year ago when it was on display in Tokyo and now it seems it will be making it's way around London in honor of London Jewelry Week.

Designed by Ginza Tanaka, the bag features a diamond shoulder strap that can be removed and worn as a necklace, plus the large (8ct) pear-shaped diamond decorating the front of the bag can be removed and worn as a brooch.

The bag is available for sale but due to security concerns the locations where it will appear will not be given to the public ahead of time -- I guess it's just a lucky "right place at the right time" kind of guessing situation if you want to see it!

Walking through the room at the JCK Luxury show in Las Vegas was a dizzying experience, diamonds and gemstones glittering behind glass in every direction. In a situation like that beauty can become a blur but the designs of Henry Dunay immediately caught my eye. Henry Dunay has had a long career in the jewelry business. He started as an apprentice at the age of 14 in New York and has spent over 50 years in the jewelry business, launching Henry Dunay Designs back in 1965. Since then he was won dozens of awards for his designs (including being named the world's best jewelry designer by the Robb Report in 2000 and 2001) and his pieces have appeared in countless magazine spreads. Last year marked the publication of his coffee table book, "Henry Dunay A Precious Life."

Dunay creates both one-of-a-kind pieces as well as collection of earrings, bracelets, necklaces and rings which are sold at stores including Bergdorf Goodman. The gallery below is just a small sample of his designs which have a organic sculptural quality that makes them distinctive. Dunay also uses a finish on his gold called the Sabi finish which which is a hand-textured soft finish that he sometimes combines with a high-gloss finish for contrast. The designs are highly collectible and often fetch high prices at auctions and estate sales. The gallery below shows just a sample of this talented man's work.

You've likely never heard of Martin Rapaport but to the diamond world he's famous. Rapaport is to diamonds what Robert Parker is to wine, a person of tremendous influence. He runs Diamonds.Net and his Rapaport Index defines diamond pricing for the world. On Monday, Rapaport spoke to the packed room at the JCK jewelry show in Las Vegas delivering his pronouncements on the diamond market at an annual breakfast event. Right now, the diamond industry is facing similar challenges seen by the rest of the luxury market. Rapaport feels that the current economic climate offers both opportunity and pitfalls for those in the diamond business.

The news is conflicting, larger stones have been getting higher and higher prices and the huge wealth in China, Dubai, India and Russia is creating a hunger for luxury goods and diamonds and diamond jewelry specifically. This is also a time when the plummeting real estate market in the U.S. and Europe means that the Western world, which fueled the global prosperity in the beginning, is now cutting back on spending. Independent stores and small chains are having a tough time and the news is full of stories of stores having bankruptcy sales where goods are being sold off at below cost.

As of 2007, the U.S. still made up the bulk of diamond jewelry sales, clocking in at 43%. China brought in 8.5%, Europe did 11% and the Middle East was responsible for 4.6%. Until recently, the U.S. had been on a path of prolonged economic growth and our prosperity fueled the global economy expanding the middle class in India and Africa. Small jewelers in the U.S. are now competing with a global market. As I've heard mentioned at other conferences such as the Luxury Summit, the number of millionaires and billionaires is growing worldwide. This might be one reason why the price of big stones is going up far faster than the prices for smaller stones, especially those under a carat.

For jewelry sellers, as I heard in other sessions at this show, branding is more important than ever, especially to new luxury spending markets. Rapaport cautioned though that branding is a "trojan horse" for the retailers. First the retailers convince their customers which brand to buy and then the seller of the brand raises that price. Many stores are worried about the new DeBeers Forevermark, a branded diamond sold by DeBeers. Now the considerable advertising budget of DeBeers will be aimed at marketing that diamond which will be sold at premium price. Rapaport's answer to those competing against this new stone? Hang a sign in your window advertising that you are selling for diamonds for 10% less than Forevermark.

Diamond-laden watch brand Icelink has launched something a little lighter for summer. The latest version of their six-timezone watch is called Bikini and features 12 brilliant diamond stars set into the intersection of the hours and places on the steel case. The watch has a bracelet exchange mechanism so the band can be easily swapped out. The retail price of the 6Timezone Bikini starts at $8,500.

Luxury phone maker, Gresso, already has a Black Diamonds collection, now here's the White Diamonds version. The phone is made of African blackwood with white diamonds set in 18K gold. There are two styles, White Diamonds and Royal White Diamonds. In the Royal White Diamonds version the 23 function keys are done in gold topped with a total of 2.53 carats of diamonds. The White Diamonds version has diamonds only on the navigation keys. Both phones have a screen protected by sapphire crystal glass. The front panel is embellished by a triangle inset of gold and the battery cover is made of stainless steel decorated with leather. The Royal White Diamonds version is limited to 200 pieces selling for 30,000 euros each. The White Diamonds version is 9000 euros. The phones will be at the JCK Las Vegas show this week so hopefully I'll be reporting back to you with a hands-on look at these later this week.

While in Las Vegas the last few days I've seen some big diamonds but nothing even close to this gobstopper. The largest diamond ever auctioned off in Asia , a 101.27 carat stone we first mentioned back in February, sold for $6.21 million to a private buyer at Christie's in Hong Kong on Wednesday. The stone was originally cut from a 460-carat rough. The stone is an F color (D is the highest) and only a slight surface imperfection brought this remarkable stone's clarity value down to VVS1. Only three colorless diamonds of more than 100 carats have appeared at auction, selling in Geneva. The new owner gets naming rates.

Greetings from the JCK Jewelry Show in Las Vegas. The show is one of the jewelry world's major events where manufacturers and wholesalers show their latest wares to retailers and industry professionals. The keynote speaker this morning was Russell Simmons, the hip hop impresario behind Def Jam Records and Baby Phat and now Simmons Jewelry and the Diamond Empowerment Fund. Simmons first became interested in the jewelry business a couple of years ago. He began thinking about jewelry when his then wife, Kimora decided it would be a good idea to make jewelry. His initial response was that he would never buy her fur coats or diamonds, two things he associated with hurt and damage to others.

He changed his mind after doing more research with the Clinton Initiative and other groups and taking his own trip to Africa where he met with Nelson Mandela and learned that while diamonds have caused a lot of pain and suffering they also can do good in the world. He found that in some areas people would starve without the sales of diamonds. This led to the formation of the Diamond Empowerment Fund. DEF works to promote higher education for Africans and so far has raised $9 million for a school in South Africa, the CIDA school which serves 3300 students, It is a four-year school,which is basically a college to teach students and send them back to the townships as teachers. It offers liberal arts education and business classes and the students do all the work at the school except teaching.