The Glitter of Heritage

Having been in the jewellery business for a long time, you probably have the pulse of the Indian consumer. Are they different in each city?
Our clients come from all over India and while they have different consuming habits, there is one thing in common among them—they are all discerning. Jewellery is not a casual buy. They’re looking for heirloom pieces and they know we are known for it. Although we make contemporary jewellery as well, the perception is that of the traditional. So our buyers come looking for gemset pieces, not chunky gold jewellery.
 Having said that, there are significant patterns of purchase. For instance, while the south will look for traditional designs, in Delhi, they want pieces that have a high value in diamonds not just design. But once they see our designs, they are addicted. Then again, while the mature consumers look for larger pieces, younger ones demand smaller contemporary stories. We have people who come to us and pick up a piece from each of our collection. In that sense, we also become part of collectors’ collections.
Mumbai buyers, on the other hand, are very careful buyers. They know exactly what they want and their ability to make quick decisions impresses me. Mumbai is a cultured, mature market.
 
You have recently returned to Mumbai with a store at the Taj Mahal hotel. Tell us more about it.
We opened in January with an exhibition on Ganjam’s heritage pieces. Our store, however, will carry contemporary jewellery as well, since clients in Mumbai know exactly what they want. We are also catering to a younger audience and intend putting up pieces at a lower price point, since in this segment, the frequency of purchase is much more. There will be contemporary collections from time to time, and we will rotate them in all our stores so that all our clients can experience our products.

What do you see as trend forecasts in jewellery this year?
Several prominent trends:
1. Although people will continue to buy them, solitaires are not that strong as a trend; coloured stones are. Stones like Rubelites, Tanzanite, real pearls top the buyers’ lists. The appreciation for these are growing and in fact they cost more than solitaires.
2. People are looking at trying out new designs with a mix of gold, diamonds and stones.
They also want a lighter touch to designs—casual chic that can be worn at a cocktail and to a wedding alike.
3. An increasing number of people are getting very particular about the finish of the jewellery they buy. There is a strong need for the Indian jewellery industry to concentrate on making this (finish) on par with world standards. Ganjam being a nearly vertical brand, we are able to control how jewellery is fashioned from sourcing to finishing the  piece.

What is your opinion of Bespoke jewellery, a word that is being bandied about these days?
Bespoke has always existed in India. Then, jewellers began to stock and turned into retailers and traders. Now it’s come a full circle where traders want to be seen as designers. However, Bespoke is not just ordering your jewellery and custom-making it. Bespoke jewellery entails everything from sourcing the stones, understanding the client’s taste to creating a special piece. These are one-of-a-kind pieces. There are jewellers who are doing bespoke pieces the way they are meant to be, but largely, it has become just a nomenclature; a marketing exercise.
Bespoke is what tailors in London create on Bond Street; it is Cartier’s strength when they created Art Deco pieces, or Tiffany when they presented the art nouveau collections. It is not about the price. The value is in the intangibles. And as time goes by, the value of these intangibles increase more than the piece itself.
 
What is Ganjam’s single piece of uniqueness?
I can say with pride that all our products are hand-crafted. That is our USP. In our country, handicrafts are a-plenty, but the craftsmen are a neglected lot. At Ganjam, we take pride in our craftsmen and their work. In the last 8-10 years we have been working with the World Craft Council and ensuring the craftsmen take pride in their work. In the West, legislations exist for hand-crafted goods. In India there is none, when in fact there should be, since there are so many craftsmen who could put our country on the world map of craftsmanship. There are about 68 to 70 million people who live by their craft in our country. Based on these figures and on the fact that hand-crafted, today spells luxury, we should be the No.1 luxury producers in the world. And yet, we clearly aren’t.
At Ganjam, we are trying to change the perception, in the mind of not just the people, to afford greater respect towards hand -crafted goods and towards the craftsmen, but also making sure craftsmen do not belittle their own work.