Annoushka Ducas is engaged on what might be a primary for her 16-year-old gold jewelry model: a group of silver items. “It’s interesting to this altering demographic of Gen Z developing who, actually in the meanwhile, can’t afford gold,” says the British jewelry designer.
She says the road will even go well with shoppers who wish to present jewelry to their kids or godchildren however for whom “the price of gold is a bit prohibitive at that degree”. The brand new “versatile and opulent” designs, based mostly on considered one of her present gold collections, will launch in September.
Annoushka will not be alone amongst fantastic jewelry manufacturers in turning to silver this yr on the again of hovering gold costs. Gross sales figures recommend these launches are tapping into shopper demand.
The value of gold hit a file excessive in April, exceeding $3,500 per troy ounce. It was $3,420 on the finish of June, in contrast with $2,328 on the similar time final yr. The value of silver has additionally risen however, at $36 per ounce, is sort of 100 occasions cheaper than gold.
Value will not be the one attraction of silver, which has loved a powerful presence on catwalks this yr. Hirsh London, which launched the primary sterling silver items in its 45-year historical past final month, has collaborated with Ozwald Boateng on a jewelry assortment to mark the British designer’s 40 years within the style trade. Eight items, designed by Boateng and made by Hirsh, which is promoting the items, are impressed by African Adinkra symbols and Kente patterns. They characteristic diamonds, gem stones and Tahitian pearls, and can be found in gold as a bespoke order. Boateng wore the silver and diamond Hope chain necklace, and silver and sapphire bracelet, to this yr’s Met Gala in New York.
American jewelry designer Nina Runsdorf celebrated the twentieth anniversary of her eponymous model by releasing her first silver assortment, Archive, earlier this yr. She designed the 15 chunky sterling silver items to have cross-generational attraction at an “reasonably priced” price ($375-$1,500). “I acquired fortunate that, as a result of the gold costs are so excessive, it was the right timing for it,” says Runsdorf.
The items are based mostly on jewelry she created as a teen, however tweaked in some instances to include brown topaz. Designing in silver was a “very huge change” for Runsdorf, whose model beforehand used 18-carat gold or platinum. “Silver may be very completely different [in] the best way it polishes, the softness [and] how the stones are set, so it took a couple of yr to have the ability to do manufacturing on it,” says Runsdorf. “It was a studying expertise.”
British goldsmith and artist Pleasure Bonfield-Colombara, often called Pleasure BC, works in lots of supplies. She thinks that as silver involves the fore on the again of excessive gold costs, it is going to assist elevate appreciation of the ability working in it may possibly require. Silver is softer than most gold alloys, and could be tougher to solder as the warmth can’t be targeted in the identical approach as a result of silver conducts warmth extra quickly.
“It’s really more durable generally to work in silver than it’s in gold, and I don’t assume lots of people realise that,” she says. “It’s as a result of maybe there was extra manufacturing, extra availability of silver, that then it’s perceived as much less helpful.” A few of Bonfield-Colombara’s silver and bronze items are costlier than these in gold, she provides, due to the time spent on them or as a result of they’re a restricted version.
For the Artemis necklace she made in 2022, considered one of her largest items up to now, Bonfield-Colombara carved a portrait pendant from fantastic silver due to its moonlike, “mild, luminescent high quality”. This hangs from an 18-carat yellow gold torque. “I’m utilizing stable gold and stable silver collectively,” she says. “In order that in itself is saying I don’t have a hierarchy of which materials is extra essential.”
Moon Pebbles, the primary silver assortment from jewelry designer Pippa Small in her greater than 30 years within the trade, performs on the reflective nature of extremely polished sterling silver. It’s made by artisans in Afghanistan in partnership with the charity Turquoise Mountain.
The jeweller sometimes produces gold-plated designs in Afghanistan however determined to depart these items as textured silver. “In a time of nice darkness and world chaos there felt one thing clear and pure about it; this silvery moon-ish mild,” she says. Since launching in Might, the gathering has offered “extremely effectively”, says Small, who intends to launch extra silver designs.
The quantity of silver jewelry offered by Otiumberg was up 300 per cent within the first 5 months of this yr, in contrast with the identical interval in 2024. The demi-fine jewelry model elevated the variety of silver designs it stocked from 42 to 66 yr on yr. Silver accounted for 20 per cent of its gross sales quantity in January-Might, in contrast with 8 per cent in the identical interval final yr.
In the meantime, the variety of silver items offered at fantastic jewelry store ætla in Edinburgh doubled within the yr to the tip of Might. Proprietor Keira Wraae-Stewart had beforehand thought-about downsizing her silver providing in favour of higher-value gold and platinum. As a substitute, in response to buyer demand, over the previous three years she has elevated her choice of “very creative” silver designs by manufacturers together with Brighton-based The Ouze and Danish jeweller Pernille Holm.
Whereas she thinks the rising price of gold has performed a component, Wraae-Stewart says “that cool tone steel is being requested after much more than it has traditionally . . . we even have it with engagement rings in the meanwhile”. She says these requests are pushed by choice reasonably than worth.
For jewellers, silver provides the prospect to work at a bigger scale than they could be capable of in gold. “It’s actually beautiful to return into silver and be capable of be extra experimental, make a lot greater items after which even have them reasonably priced,” says Scottish jeweller Sarah Brown, who launched her first silver assortment in a couple of decade in Might.
She had been concentrating on the marriage market. Nonetheless, as she developed her gold assortment Move, she created samples in silver to push her method and thought some might translate into items on the market. The result’s the Silver Move line of silver and gold-plated jewelry.
Brown thinks it will “open up a special buyer base” for her work and cater to vacationers who go to her studio on the Isle of Islay. A silver lining to the rising price of gold.
