Diamond and Jewelry Articles

The term designer jewelry refers primariy to well known, high profile jewelry designer lines. But the term is also used to an extent in reference to jewelry that is custom made or unique and fashion forward.

Designer jewelry is popular largely as a result of strong marketing efforts that feature artistic creations in glossy advertisements in high end magazines and on television. Successful designer brands carry a very high premium because of the enormous expense of large scale marketing campaigns and because demand allows for it. There is also an element of market control where the top brands sell through a distribution network of authorized retailers who are prohibited from discounting the merchandise.

"Generic" designer jewelry that has similar quality, style and design elements is typically much less costly. Even fine jewelry pieces custom made from scratch can be far less expensive than buying a similar item with a designer name from a retail distributor. Having a piece custom made that has the feel of a top designer jewelry item can mean getting a much better price, larger gemstones, more precious metal, and greater intrinsic value. Designers come and go in fashion and todays' hot designer name may lose its buzz and may even become irrelevant to the market. So it is far better to own a piece with more inherent value and less "brand markup".

While some jewelry designs are protected to some extent by copyright and most designer names cannot be used in marketing without the approval of the designer, most technical design elements reside in the public domain and can be freely utilized in making a custom creation, capturing the same stylistic appeal.

Before paying an excessively high price for a piece of name brand designer jewelry, it is wise to explore the prospect of having a similar item made through custom jewelry design. You may get alot more than you bargained for!

*For a look at some of the custom jewelry designs created for our gemdiamond.com clients please see our custom jewerly design gallery.

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