A Celebrity's Best Friend

Since the 1920s, jewelers have used PR, product placement and celebrities to up the publicity ante and advance their brand. Today, the  influence that stars  wield  at  al l  levels  of  the  market  shows  no signs of fading. Although product placement today is still as important as ever, the way brands and PR strategists at the top end of the game are interacting with celebrities is changing. Relationships between jewelers and celebrities are more intimate than ever – with celebrities becoming close friends and jewelers starting to resemble celebrities.

“Hollywood celebrity dressing began when jewelers used Hollywood movies  such  as Gentlemen  refer Blondes and most notably Breakfast at Tiffany’s  to ensure their brand was at the forefront of people’s minds,” according to Austin Mutti-Mewse, a London-based Old Hollywood  specialist  and  author of  the forthcoming  Pocket Venus.  “In the 1920s jewelers would often ensure their name was included in theater backdrops in street scenes. Jewelers also made bespoke pieces during debutante season, ensuring the fairest of the ball would sparkle in their creations.”

Harry Winston was one of the first to use movie stars for PR purposes. “Winston’s first client was Jennifer Jones whom he loaned thousands of dollars worth of diamonds for the 1943 Academy Awards,” says Mutti-Mewse.  Jones was nominated and won the Best Actress award and since then, Liz Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Nicole Kidman count among the names Harry Winston has dressed.

Chopard is now the jewelry world’s biggest sponsor of red carpet events. The brand has been an official partner of the Cannes Film Festival for a decade, loaning jewelry (and bodyguards) to celebrities each year.  The ensuing editorial coverage adds up to a significant amount of free advertising and, according to co-president and creative director, Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele, enables the jewelry to come alive when it is seen on real people.

Celebrity relationships are of course far from predictable. It al l went horribly wrong between Harry Winston and Sharon Stone after the 1993 Oscars ceremony when the actress was under the impression that her $400,000 necklace was a gift. A couple of years back, H.Stern dropped Kate Moss from their advertising campaign when her drug antics reached the public domain.

But when it comes to the red carpet, jewelers continue to invest huge efforts to secure celebrity product placement. “There is always uncertainty as to whether a person will wear the desired item on the red carpet until the limousine doors finally open,” says Mike Tschida, of Los Angeles-based entertainment agency, Tschida Kabat. “But we try to cover all our bases and protect potential positive media exposure by creating an agreement, locking in the opportunity legally if possible.”

While product placement is one thing, nowadays having celebrities as guests at the coolest parties in town is increasingly important for business. It’s symptomatic of a changing definition of luxury. There are more people in the world today with more money to spend than ever before.  In a celebrity-obsessed, voyeuristic culture, celebrities might be less about mystique, but they are still very much about glamour. Hip, sometimes edgy and inevitably good-looking celebrities now regularly socialize with and befriend their jewelers.

Every jewelry brand wants to claim that celebrities they are associated with are friends or clients and have not been paid, although industry insiders know celebrity endorsement is big business.

Either way – thanks to PR strategists beavering away behind the scenes to orchestrate spectacular events like Montblanc’s temporary opera house built  for one night only in Shanghai, Stephen Webster’s  intimate dinner at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, the Cartier Polo lunch for UK Managing Director Arnaud Bamberger’s 800 “friends” or De Grisogono’s party at the Cannes Fi lm  Festival – being  seen with your jeweler is more fashionable than ever.

Jewelry lovers with a penchant for social climbing have never had it this good. Jewelers are holding an increasing amount of glamorous events with A-listers securing that extra sparkle factor. Just take a sprinkle of celebrities mingling in the crowd, add a breathtaking venue, a handful of diamond-littered high jewelry pieces and a splattering of even higher heels, and there you have it – al l the ingredients for a new kind of glamour.

At British jewelry designer Stephen Webster’s recent intimate dinner, which was co-hosted by rock chick pal Christina Agui lera, at LA’s super cool Chateau Marmont Hotel penthouse, “fashion designers, stylists, marketing people, top clients from Neiman Marcus, business people, financiers and a sprinkle of divorcees” all attended, according to Webster’s publicist. “The whole new experience, where clients feel that they are a part of something unique and cool is very important, especially when they have plenty of money but just don’t have access to celebrities and trend setters. But also, it’s part of a brand image – we all know that Stephen Webster throws great parties and he loves a good party himself.”

“My clients become my friends and my friends become my clients. By three or four in the morning people feel totally relaxed. I love laughing, joking and having a good time and it takes time to build up those relationships,” says Gruosi. “I design jewelry which I believe in. The wearer has to want to wear it and it is only then that the piece looks its worth and oozes glamour.”

He may call them his close friends but there’s no question that Gruosi’s  party guests  – who have  included model and Cambridge University student Lily Cole, supermodel Naomi Campbell and Hollywood actress Eva Mendez – are as priceless as his  jewels when  it comes  to  the  task of brand building.

Last fall, London’s society jeweler Theo Fennell, famed for his regular clients who include the likes of actress Liz Hurley, staged an impressive art installation incorporating his jewelry creations this fall in London’s Royal Academy of Art. Celebrity friends who popped in for the preview included musician and humanitarian worker Bob Geldof and comedian Ruby Wax.

Meanwhile, in October, Montblanc leveraged celebrities to plant itself firmly in the loftiest echelons of Asian high society. Hilary Swank, Elle Macpherson, Daryl Hannah, Kristin Scott Thomas and international press were whisked off to Shanghai courtesy of the brand for its first ever high jewelry launch. The evening involved a $5 million necklace, an opera house constructed for one night, 100 singers and dancers from the UK, U.S.  and  Australia  including  the  leads  from  the London cast of the Phantom of the Opera, a seven course dinner and a long and plush red carpet. Montblanc’s guest list also featured Tibetan princes, Shanghai’s mayor, Asia’s most influential business brains and a bevy of Asian celebrities. “Celebrities are very important for us in the Asian market,” said the new CEO Lutz Bethge in a private interview at the time. “Making them part of our event is a way of making our customers feel valued.”

So with jewelers now becoming friendlier than ever with celebrities, could jewelry designers be starting to position themselves as celebrities? Maybe, but they’d never admit it.

When  asked  whether  he  thinks  of  himself  as a  celebrity,  rock  hard  Stephen  Webster  says, “Absolutely not!  I am a jewelry designer who has been very lucky with the press attention that I have received through making jewelry. Having celebrities buy my jewelry has definitely helped to put my creations in the limelight.”