By Nivedita
New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS) Indian consumers, especially women, are becoming more educated in terms of understanding diamond jewellery pieces and India is a huge inspiration for designs, says Milan-based international design expert Federica Imperiali.
"India is a very important and emerging market," Imperiali, also the design head of Forevermark brand globally, told IANS in an e-mail interview during her visit to Mumbai.
"The country plays a big role in deriving inspiration for our collection and helps in telling a beautiful design story through jewellery and product development which is very appealing to other markets. For instance, Venice every year hosts this renowned exhibition of Indian gems and jewels from The Al Thani Collection which explores five centuries of the jewelled arts made in and inspired from India,"
"This is a key attraction for many tourists who visit Italy," she added.
Imperiali also feels that "commercially, India is growing as a country and consumers in India, especially women, are getting more and more educated in understanding diamond jewellery".
"Basis our research we have seen that bridal jewellery has been more dominant in the past. However, the woman of today is growing and prefers diamond pieces that are more minimalistic and modern," she said.
Imperiali is the Head of New Product Development of the Forevermark Studio based in Milan, Italy. A part of the brand's team from the early days, she has contributed to develop the brand's main collections under the direction of Costantino Papadimitriou, Head of Brand Strategy and Innovation.
In India, one of her first bespoke collection were the 2015 Trend Collections, as well as developing brand association with designers like Bibhu Mohapatra and Sabyasachi Mukherjee.
"These associations have received a great response from not just the Indian audience, but it has helped us open doors to global markets. We always keep the local taste and style in mind while designing the collection. However, as a brand we follow a global DNA.
"In addition to this, the collection has been preceded by the Indian woman who is also growing up to be more global in her tastes and choice with the increased access to social media and new connectivity we have worldwide. We would like to make these two collaborations long term and look for more opportunities to collaborate with them in the future," said Imperiali.
Any other association with Indian names in future?
"We are surely looking at collaborating with other brands in the future. However, in this given moment there is a great demand for both of these collections from international markets like China and the US. Hence, for now, we would like to capitalize on these collections by sharing deeper stories on the inspiration of the designs and how you can style them for different occasions and outfits," she said.
On the upcoming spring summer 2018 trends, she said: "We have come up with unique designs such as asymmetric rings, transformable pendants and stackable rings that can be mixed and matched with her mood."
(Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)
