Fall 2010 and Winter 2011 Jewelry Trends

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If you’re a beaded jewelry maker who likes to maximize your sales throughout different seasons, then you should learn to adjust your jewelry styles and looks to meet upcoming fashion and jewelry trends. While no one can guarantee what will be the “hot” new jewelry trend in the coming years, there are some definite designs, colors and overall themes in the fashion and jewelry world that are becoming more popular every day!

Here’s a great example of a pendant that tells a story and has a theme..

In general, the economic downturn has affected the fashion and jewelry industry by trimming back some of the frills and over-the-top gaudiness and colors of the past and this upcoming fall and winter’s trends seem to be moving back into a more subdued mode than you generally see during the spring and summer months. Here are some of the fashion and jewelry trends you can expect to see in the 2010/2011 season:

Themes, Stories and Words: Having a story to tell is a big part of the fashion and jewelry business at the moment. One way to accomplish this is to tie different pieces together with an overriding theme so that they aren’t necessarily matching, but more like complimenting each other. If you’re making a coordinated jewelry set of earrings, a necklace and a bracelet then you’ll want to use a similar beads and colors in each piece, but maybe not use the same materials for all three. Many jewelry pieces are even being coordinated with clothing in order to tell a story or convey some sort of hidden or double meaning in some cases. Granted, it isn’t always easy to make bead jewelry with a story involved, though I have seen more and more jewelry makers including a little “story” card with their jewelry. The story card can be as simple as explaining the inspiration for the piece and how it was made or it can include a fictional account of the jewelry piece or just include a poem or short story that vaguely references the jewelry.

Examples of jewelry based around poems and stories can be found in at the CND Jewelry Tales blog and even Rose Klampman’s Bead and Wire Wrap Poetry. One obvious way to tell a story or tie in a theme is with charms and other “trinket” type jewelry pieces and accessories which are still popular.

Generally, you’ll want to stay away from themes that could be construed as being gaudy or overblown. Some other themes that are big this year are animals, “period” and historical replicated jewelry pieces from the 1930′s and 1940′s and jewelry that tells a tale of survival, strength or hope. nimals are big, as are “period” piece reproductions from the 1930′s and 1940′s. For some examples of how stories and words are being used you can look no further than Amazon.com’s story pendants.

Natural Materials and Metals: Long gone are the days of making jewelry only out of gold and silver. These days the value of gold is so high that many traditional and handcrafted jewelry makers are completely avoiding it. Gold is almost exclusively reserved for upscale audiences and jewelry pieces because of the rising price. That leaves room for a lot of other metals to be used for jewelry, including silver, copper, bronze and steel. More and more metal jewelry is foregoing the polished metal look and instead moving towards the hammered, aged, scuffed and generally worn look. Men are still buying and, more importantly, wearing jewelry themselves and they tend to gravitate towards the less flashy and more inexpensive metals with a masculine feel.

Natural materials such as stone, wood, and colorful but not precious gems and stones are still highly desireable and sell well. A lot of fashion and jewelry designers are dialing down in brightness and loudness due to the economic hard times that many people are going through. Bright plastics, artificially colored stones and shiny or glitzy materials are not even being worn by wealthy people or most celebrities these days.

Recycled and Local Materials: Call it Frugal Chic, but fashion and jewelry have been taking a cue from the “local foods” movement and many jewelry makers and designers are looking to make beautiful pieces of jewelry with materials and supplies that are made and sourced locally instead of buying beads from someone halfway across the world. Show respect for limited resources is a hot topic and will be for quite some time. Along those same lines, more and more people are buying and wearing jewelry and other fashion accessories made out of recycled or repurposed materials. I’ve featured lots of examples of recycled jewelry in the past. Of course, you can even combine the metal and recycled feel if you’re been making steampunk jewelry for your customers.

Jewelry Trends That Are Over: Asian and Indian influences were seen in the past, but not so much now. Though jewelry made from charity beads are still popular, you will generally see less world culture influence in handmade jewelry. Jewelry that’s over-the-top glitzy or too bold to be practical is also not as popular as it once was.

Trends aside, almost any sort of affordable handcrafted or handmade jewelry is still selling well. If you have a jewelry business of your own, then you know the importance of being able to sell jewelry in a down economy. Pawn shops and gold buyers have been reporting that record numbers of people are getting ride of their gold and gemstone jewelry, pocketing the cash and then using some of that money to buy smaller and less expensive pieces. Many people are, essentially, downsizing their formal gold and diamond jewelry collections of the past for more personal and more practical beaded and handmade jewelry.

Now I have a quick question for all you jewelry makers out there: Do any of you regularly change your style or make different jewelry based on national or local trends? Or do you simply stick to your own unique style and make jewelry that pleases your tastes first?