Transcript
|Today is a really special day for me because I’ve had the huge honour of being chosen to be one of five judges for the Design Awards at the Couture Show Las Vegas. Now in its 10th year, the Vegas Couture Show brings together some 250 carefully selected jewellers from around the world, chosen for their originality, the quality of their work and, of course, their design skills.
The awards ceremony is one of the highlights of the show and everybody turns up for the big event. These awards look to recognise and celebrate great design in jewellery. Each of the five judges spends time carefully considering each entry, and then together they decide who is going to be the winner for each category. The judging starts at 8am sharp over breakfast, and often there is a lot of controversy as each of the judges has their own opinions and ideas of who should win. But finally, after almost two hours, we all came to an agreement.
Amongst the winners, the highlights for me were:
Hearts on Fire, who won the award for Best in Haute Couture, which is a category that you have to imagine being worn on the Red Carpet.
Brazilian designer Silvia Furmanovich won for Best in Innovative with her Dipped Orchid Earrings.
Plevé’s beautiful cuff won for Best in Diamonds Above $20,000.
Ron Rizo: I think that we won because of the unique nature of this Plevé technique for which, after five years, we have finally been awarded an international diamond patent. So I’m very proud.
And Best in Diamonds Below $20,000 went to Reho.
Christian Tse’s delicate and whimsical Dandelion Ring won the Best in Platinum prize.
Christian Tse: I’m super happy to be here, thank you.
Astoundingly lightweight is Majoral’s Best in Silver necklace. Australian pearl specialist Autore walked away with the prize for Best in Pearls. Waving the British flag, Tomasz Donocik won a prize for his earrings in the Colored Gemstone Below $20,000 category.
Spinelli Kilcollin in his debut year walked away with two awards, one for Newcomer and the other for Best in Gold.
Spinelli Kilcollin: It was the right year for us to do the show. I think there have been a lot of people kind of watching us and I finally get to kind of meet everyone, it’s been an amazing show for us here.
So congratulations to all the winners and to Couture who organised the most exciting jewellery show in the world.
If you want to know all that’s happening in the world of jewellery and watches, visit my website www.thejewelleryeditor.com
