The prevailing trend in platinum jewellery this year is that of nature. Around the world jewellery designers have been inspired by different elements of the natural world: ranging from the eternal flow of water to the geometric structure of plants. In some markets this trend is also spreading into bridal design. Elsewhere there is a return to simple classic designs for engagement rings and wedding bands.

Why is nature such a popular theme in platinum jewellery? It is partly because of the strong association between platinum and its natural environment. Platinum is naturally white and of great purity: it is usually 95% pure, so it is only alloyed with small quantities of other metals, often from the platinum group, and remains near to its natural state.

What is it about platinum jewellery that makes it so sought after? This exquisite metal is found in very few places on earth, and consequently is both rare and precious as well as being exceptionally durable - lasting for generations. These qualities help ensure that platinum jewellery is the perfect metal for bridal jewellery.

CHINA
The Future is Precious Platinum

Thoughts are turning to the future, to a place where things are perfect, where beauty, harmony and innovation are embraced and where we can escape the present. These dreams create a future that is precious, and that future can be created to today in eternal platinum.

The inspiration for Chinese designers and manufacturers to make this mental leap into the future is the quest for perfection. Spectacular jewellery that fulfils this desire is being created using new technology: full of contradictions, jewellery is, architectural yet emotional, strong yet silken to the touch.

The best exponents of this trend are necklaces, pendants and collars where platinum is close to the wearer’s face, and nestles gracefully on her neck. Motifs for individual pieces draw their inspiration from perfect nature, the stars and the universe.

Dreams can come true and, in the same way that people today are looking to the future for perfection, PGI China forecasts a trend for extra long platinum chains. These chains allow the wearer to express their style and individuality – a precious platinum signature for all women, for all occasions and all seasons.

As couples look to the future, platinum continues to grow in popularity as it is steeped in symbolism and represents a perfect and precious time ahead. Clean and simple designs emphasise the purity of love, while diamonds in the heart of the ring radiate passion. Pair rings, that show togetherness, are gaining popularity amongst couples: considerable design and innovation has gone into creating pair rings of exceptional and enduring comfort.

Platinum jewellery is the future: not just the precious perfection of dreams.

INDIA
With Help From Mother Nature

There has been a shift in peoples’ buying patterns with jewellery no longer seen only as an investment but now as a fashion statement too. The wedding season will continue to dominate the Indian jewellery market with no ceremony complete without the exchange of precious gifts in platinum and diamonds.

This year designs will go beyond the conventional to create curiosity, drama and an element of surprise. Creative boundaries are being pushed to create a look that fits in with Indian culture, attitudes and lifestyle.

Bold designs featuring organic forms inspired by nature are set to be popular. Cut-outs help to make interesting platinum jewellery, by creating a greater surface area, but keeping the pieces light enough to wear. Peacocks, shells and butterflies with a new twist are motifs to look out for.

The trend to buy Kundan and Jadav, alongside conventional designs, looks set to continue. The prong setting also continues to be popular as well as the illusion setting, clusters of diamonds and micro pavé.

With the help of Mother Nature, the latest jewellery designs will make a style statement. This could be abstract, with bold shapes and structures inspired by nature.

GERMANY
Lasting Values

The world seems to be spinning faster and faster and the way we live today demands the ability to constantly change. To succeed in our society, there is a need to be flexible and adaptable, with a wide range of interests. For example, a woman needs to be a caring mother in the morning, a reliable colleague during the day, and in the evening a glamorous conversationalist with her friends and family. Someone may wake in Hamburg on Monday, be at a meeting in New York on Wednesday, knowing that they soon need to be at that meeting in Tokyo. Serenity and lasting values are rare these days.

This is why it is so important to have something to rely on. People draw strength from relationships and family, and from their own unique personal style: and from the values, such as endurance and substance, t h a t p l a t i n um j ewe l l e r y represents. This mysterious, brilliant white metal is not only extremely rare, it also has many other qualities that make it very special.

Several of platinum’s outstanding characteristics can be attributed to its 95% platinum alloy. This purity sets platinum apart as one of the most rare alloys in the world of jewellery. Its resistance and high d e n s i t y ma ke t h i s u n d e r s t a t e d me t a l extremely long lasting.

Whatever is presented in today’s challenging times, platinum gives its wearer reassurance with its enduring presence.

The pieces created by platinum jewellery designers are as diverse and exquisite as the women who wear them. Whether opulently ornamented or sleekly designed, it is the craftsmanship and way in which each piece is able to express femininity that sets this jewellery apart.

Inspired by nature, jewellery designed by Georg Spreng, Meister and August Gerstner has been influenced by natural forms that have matured over thousands of years. These pieces of jewellery are imbued with elegance and longevity.

Thanks to its expressive designs, platinum jewellery takes on the personality of its wearer, becoming part of her over time.

ITALY / France
Nature Speaks Out

The Ancient Greeks identified Earth, Air, Fire and Water as the four primary elements that are the essence o f n a t u r e . A f i f t h element, platinum, has e s tabl i shed i t s e l f besides these. Like the other four, platinum is very bold. Nature has given platinum properties that set it apart from all other precious metals.

Air is the element that welcomes platinum as it emerges from the ground. The ore comes from the bowels of the earth, and it takes ten tons to deliver a single ounce of platinum. Fire lights up platinum in the furnaces, with an incredibly high melting point of 1,768 °C and takes up to eight weeks to obtain an ingot from the ore. Water flowing deep down within the earth frequently accompanies platinum: a silent, shining and sophisticated friend.

Platinum, the fifth element, comes from nature and strives to return to it: when nature speaks out, platinum responds. This year, around the world nature is demanding greater attention and respect, and the world of precious platinum is responding with passion.

The latest collections from Italy see platinum affirming its bond with nature. Platinum symbolises the eternal glittering flow of water and, in a variety of fluid, luminous and almost exclusive forms, conveys the gossamer-like breath of air. Nature’s animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms are also explored, with creations ranging from the extremely realistic to the metaphorical, and from the geometric and essential to the ever more baroque and figurative.

Platinum jewellery takes on the shape of drops, stars, planets, animals and floral designs with an explosion of shapes, lights and lines that are powerful and evocative.

Just as in Nature “nothing is created, nothing is destroyed” the design process follows the same rule. As Henri Poincaré said, “Creativity is the ability to invent new combinations of elements by selecting them from those which already exist”. So, when platinum jewellery is created it integrates existing elements from nature, and reveals something new.

A Symbol of Love
The platinum wedding ring is the ultimate symbol of love; the pure, rare and eternal qualities that are found in this most precious metal perfectly symbolise a lifetime’s love and ensure that the allure endures.

JAPAN
Back to Nature

Japan has seen a return to natural motifs such as flowers, snowflakes and moons in a move away from the bolder jewellery designs seen in recent years. Jewellery created from platinum and, in many cases, diamonds, expresses a range of sensibilities from femininity to coolness. Amongst these designs, hearts are a prominent feature.

Chains that make the most of the jeweller’s skills, with many using considerable amounts of platinum, are popular, due in part to the lower price of the metal.

A continuing trend from last year is Platinum Station Jewellery (necklaces designed to represent the best moments of life, featured platinum motifs or coloured stones, set along a platinum chain). A variation on this theme is rings that represent personal moments of happiness.

Famous jewellers around the world, who have always loved platinum, have unleashed their creativity to enrich and diversify the 2009 bridal collections.

The simplest wedding rings become circles of clear, white light that gleam against the skin. It is their sophisticated designs, with fluid forms, often enhanced by small, rarefied diamonds, original cruciform shapes and new surfaces satin-finished, hammered, faceted or illuminated by the splendour of a diamond. Diamonds may also cover the complete circle of light, pavé-set, or they may be individually set in the platinum, or presented as a solitaire setting with a very large central stone.

There is no doubt that today the choice of styles and designs is wider and more magnificent than ever for those who decide to seal the fateful “yes” with the incomparable elegance of white platinum.

Along with diamonds, pink, yellow, black and brown coloured stones set in platinum are very much in vogue. Pink and white sapphires, emeralds and rubies are increasingly featured in rings and necklaces.

Classic Style for Brides The preference for platinum in the Japanese wedding market remains strong. In 2008, platinum accounted for over 90% of the engagement ring market and 80% of the wedding band market, according to a survey by Zexy (Metropolitan Edition).

Engagement rings with a single dazzling stone in a prong setting remain the most popular, although interest in the bezel setting is growing. In the wedding ring market, simple designs are also gaining popularity although increasingly people are choosing wedding rings with stones. Another new design trend involves traditional Japanese themes, including bamboo, dragons and cherry blossoms striking a chord with those getting married.

United Kingdom
The essence of nature – past and present

With its strong associations with the natural world, pure, inherently white platinum is the perfect metal to capture nature’s essence. Black pearls or diamonds combine with platinum to create modern but simple jewellery. Natural motifs such as tiny seashells, stones, hearts and flowers created in platinum anddiamonds create a carefree and fresh look, fulfilling the dream of most little girls to be the ultimate princess bride.

Vintage trends that hark back to the heyday of the glamorous cocktail and rat pack set of the late 1950s early 1960s permeate many recent platinum jewellery designs. Whether it is the oversized diamonds that are the feature of many earrings and rings or the enduring popularity of coloured stones, all make a sophisticated statement. From pink and yellow diamonds to sapphires, emeralds and rubies, coloured gemstones are no longer the preserve of cocktail rings. Today these stones are featured in platinum jewellery from engagement rings to bejewelled cuffs: they quench the desire amongst many to be different. Pink stones, particularly, have a wonderful feminine feel and are hugely popular.

This yearning for days gone by is also reflected in the workmanship that characterises current jewellery designs. Heirloom jewellery, seen by stylists as a nod to recycling, is very popular and many of today’s designs are based on jewellery that would have been worn by previous generations. Delicate filigree, a technique that makes the most of platinum’s ductile properties, is enjoying a renaissance. This, coupled with the use of enamel as well as the simplest natural materials, further reminds us of less complicated times.

USA
Sculptural Beauty

The art and architecture of exotic cultures find themselves the muses for many of today’s popular designs. Larger bold silhouettes create the framework for this fusion of graceful curves and geometric angles, while platinum’s unique qualities accentuate the grace and grandeur of the design while creating an enduring canvas for a mixture of shiny and matte, textured and smooth surfaces.

Wide openwork platinum bracelets and chunky cuffs continue to be popular on the fashion front and are being worn on the red carpet by almost every celebrity of note. The natural whiteness of platinum makes it a perfect frame for both diamonds and the unique and interesting combinations of diamonds with coloured gemstones and non-precious elements being put together by today’s designers. Multi-layered platinum pendants are still in demand, along with long platinum chains set at intervals with platinum or gem stations. Lar ge architectural style collar-necklaces are another trend being shown by designers and gaining popularity on the fashion front. On the ears and hands, bigger is better with exaggerated proportion and a mix of precious and semi-precious, finished and rough-hewn gems and finishes.

For brides and grooms the mood is classic and romantic. Some br ides are choos ing classical styled jewellery with elegant and simple lines. Stylish but simple e l e m e n t s c r e a t e i n t e r e s t wi t h t h e des igners mi x ing a variety of setting styles and finishes in one piece. Brides who prefer a more romantic look are opting for platinum settings with the shimmer of diamond micro-pave. Grooms are opting for solid platinum bands with unique finishes.