Jewelers Throw Parties, Get Publicity at 80th Annual Oscars Awards

Hollywood has been abuzz with activity preceding the 80th annual Academy Awards to take place, as scheduled, Sunday evening in Los Angeles.

Bloomberg says that the rising price of gold has caused the price of each gilded eight-and-one-half-pound Oscar award, which is actually a pewter figure, plated in successive layers of copper, nickel, silver and gold, to rise from $400 last year to $500 today.  

Luckily for secondary industries such as jewelry and paparazzi, the writers’ strike ended, allowing a tribute to diamonds and fashion on the red carpet. A Diamond Is Forever hosted a week-long celebration at the glamorous Chateau Marmont. Five specially designed red carpet fashion looks, from different designers, paired with diamond jewelry creations will be displayed at the event.

The pieces were made by fashion designers Rodarte, 3.1 Philip Lim, Joyovich-Hawk, Alabama Chanin and Livertine, and combined with jewelry pieces from Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, Camilla Dietz Bergeron, Munnu/The Gem Palace and Neil Lane, respectively.

Italian jewelry house Damiani also hosted its own pre-Oscars party at the Presidential Suite of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. To drum up press attention, Giorgio and Silvia Damiani, third generation of the jewelry dynasty, hosted big celebrities, such as Sharon Stone, Geena Davis, Paris Hilton, Noa Tishby, Sean Kanan, Tony Denison, Yvonne Scio and Franco Nero.

A contingent of Canadian designers, including jewelry designer Rachel Mielke of Hillberg & Berk, was invited to set out their wares in the Beverly Hills Hotel in the run up to the awards ceremony.

Mielke commented to the Canadian Leader-Post that she would be showing her “one-of-a-kind, red-carpet-ready jewelry” over the weekend, in the hopes that a celebrity will pick one of her designs to wear on the red carpet, an irreplaceable publicity generator. She would also be attending a pre-Oscar VIP party, where she would have another chance to show her designs.