Women Jewellery Designers. Courtesy ACC Art Books
Women Jewellery Designers. Courtesy ACC Art Books
Women Jewellery Designers. Courtesy ACC Art Books
Women Jewellery Designers. Courtesy ACC Art Books

Luxury

Coffee-table book Women Jewellery Designers offers brilliant insights

The author is the great-granddaughter of Thomas Weir, the founder of Dublin-based jeweller Weir & Sons, and is a fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain

Hafsa Lodi

October 30, 2017

  • English
  • Arabic

In this age, the coffee-table book is both a novelty and an anomaly. In a digital world, where consumers browse art and fashion on their computers, tablets and smartphones, it can be hard to find tomes that are captivating enough to splurge on.

A new book, titled Women Jewellery Designers, makes the cut. Its cover, an ornate, art-deco-inspired necklace resplendent with layers of diamonds and aquamarines, set against a minimal white background, makes it covetable from the outset – and its pages contain fascinating details about female jewellery designers from around the world.

Starting in the 20th century until the present day, readers can learn about key female figures from the fine-jewellery industry. Author Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld reveals that prior to the two world wars, the industry, was in fact, dominated mostly by male designers – even though jewellery was almost solely worn by women. Olga Tritt, the Russian-born designer of the dazzling necklace on the cover, French jeweller Suzanne Belperron, and the imitable Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel are some of the early creatives who helped pave the way for female jewellery designers of the future.

The author brings a unique perspective to the topic. Weir-de La Rochefoucauld is the great-granddaughter of Thomas Weir, the founder of Dublin-based jeweller Weir & Sons, which was established in 1869, and is a fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain. She worked at Sotheby's & Co in London, and wrote a previous book entitled 21st-Century Jewellery Designers: An Inspired Style.

In her latest book, she explores the wearable works of notable designers such as Marina Bulgari, Paloma Picasso, Alma Pihl and Juliette Moutard, and also examines the roles of Jeanne Toussaint, who reigned as the artistic director of Cartier’s jewellery department for a decade, and Renée Puissant, the daughter of Van Cleef & Arpels founders Estelle and Alfred, who served as the maison’s artistic director in the early 1920s. Contemporary female jewellery designers such as Taiwan’s Cindy Chao, Turkey’s Aida Bergsen and Los Angeles-based Cynthia Bach are also featured within the illustrious hardcover.

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Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.

“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.

Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.

He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.

Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”

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Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

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Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000. 

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