Golden Moment for Affordable Luxury
You might have read something, somewhere, about the great luxury slowdown.
For those who need a reminder, the global luxury market lost approximately 50 million customers in 2024 as young and old consumers pivoted towards the experiential, eschewing high prices for lasting memories.
However, one sector has remained immune to this decline: the jewellery market, which grew by 2 per cent that same year.
It’s a trend that has continued into 2025.
According to a report from Citigroup, US consumers are spending more on luxury jewellery while pulling away from handbags and clothes, and the reasons are tenfold.
Above all, jewellery boasts a great cost-per-wear price.
When chosen wisely, it avoids the trend-based nature of clothes and handbags, making it a more reliable investment.
The value of jewellery also often increases over time and its ability to be worn by people of all ages, sizes, shapes and genders means its audience is broad and far-reaching.
Inflation, too, plays a role: while the price of luxury handbags has soared since the pandemic, for the most part jewellery prices have remained steady.
Finally, in a world built of Zoom, Teams and Google Meet, a new wave of young customers has begun investing in items that can elevate their screen time: necklaces, pendants and rings.
This is all without discounting, as the Business of Fashion calls it, the “consumer desire for lasting value, emotional resonance and self-expression”.
All of this, and more, has ushered in the demi-fine jewellery boom, a category first popularised by luxury e-tailer Net-a-Porter and now used broadly to introduce affordable, everyday pieces using precious metal.
Across the world, brands like Missoma, Monica Vinader and Mejuri, with USPs of sustainable production, lifetime repair policies and community-driven marketing, respectively, as well as lower price tags, have created a new market for jewellery producers.
And closer to home, a new wave of Irish entrepreneurs has followed suit.
Seán Layton founded Cork-based Ivy’s Attic during the pandemic when he moved home from a graduate programme position with H&M in Stockholm.
Hungry for another opportunity and freed from the burden of expectation, he set up an Instagram account to sell vintage jewellery after his sister began buying some online.
The brand started with costume jewellery, difficult to source, harder to scale, prompting Layton to pivot to demi-fine when he found the right suppliers.
“So many demi-fine brands started during the pandemic, because there was this energy where it wasn’t scary to take risks,” he says from his Marina Market premises.
A second outlet in Douglas has opened and, at the time of writing, the brand is set to reach €750,000 in revenue by year-end.
Much of Ivy’s Attic’s (it’s named after the family’s border collie) stock is sourced from France and Spain, and is made up of stainless steel, sterling silver (both retail at roughly €35-€85) and some 9-carat gold (which peaks at €200).
They work directly from the supplier, something that cuts out the middleman and keeps customers coming back.
“We owe a lot to the education that’s happened around jewellery,” Layton says.
“Before, the likes of gold-plated or stainless steel jewellery were seen as cheap, but now people know that if you look after it properly, it can last.
“The Irish customer has traditionally been quite ripped off when it comes to jewellery, so we try to be fair with our pricing.
“And at the end of the day, and particularly with the price of gold at the moment, people can’t afford to spend thousands on jewellery.
“So we offer a space where they can treat themselves, make them[selves] feel good and not have to break the bank.”
The price of gold has hit historic highs this year, following sustained upward trajectories for some time.
This has paved the way for brands like Layton’s and Croía, which deal exclusively in gold-plated jewellery, to fill the gap.
“It’s the closest thing to solid gold without the price tag,” Croía’s founder Shauna Burke says.
Her pieces either have a 925 sterling silver or brass base, or a plating of 14-carat or 18-carat gold.
“They also have an extra layer of e-coating [a process that will adhere a nano-ceramic coating to the surface of jewellery], so they just don’t tarnish.”
Burke founded Croía in college when her part-time retail job was made redundant. Looking for a challenge and confused by the green mark left on her finger after wearing an “expensive” ring, she began researching materials.
“You’d think a price tag reflects longevity, but that’s not always the case,” she says.
“When I found out more about materials, I realised you could get really good products for lower prices.”
Croía’s market spans Ireland and the UK mainly, but has a growing base in Europe thanks to influencer marketing and social media campaigns.
“Our midprice point [from €38.95 to ‘around €80’] is so accessible,” Burke says.
“And with the high-quality products we produce, a lot of our customers are returning ones.”
That their products are easy and affordable to ship also stands to them.
“When influencers post items they’ve received from us with the tag #gifted in, say, a haul, the reality is that very few people are coming to our website. But after a while, when they begin to style the pieces themselves because they genuinely like them, you’ll get followers asking them where they’re from, and that’s regularly a huge return-on-investment.”
One Dame Lane is another Irish demi-fine success story, albeit for consumers who want to spend slightly more.
With a price range between €40 and €500, the brand started life in 2017 as a beauty business before owner Lyndsey Cavanagh pursued a passion for jewellery-making.
“I did a goldsmithing course with the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland and started to sell my pieces in my premises,” she says via Zoom.
Cavanagh has just visited the brand’s third bricks-and-mortar premises, which is currently under construction.
“I was very luckily embraced by Irish media and stylists who began requesting my pieces for shoots after getting their eyebrows done with me and seeing my stuff on display.”
After lockdown, One Dame Lane reopened solely as a jewellery business. Growth was immediate.
“Vogue Williams, Joanne McNally and Roz Purcell started wearing my stuff, which turned things around very quickly,” Cavanagh says.
One Dame Lane sells mostly sterling silver and gold-plated jewellery, but they also have solid gold and bridal collections which use AAA-grade pearls made in-house.
From the beginning, sustainability was built into the brand’s core values; One Dame Lane promotes responsible shopping and has set up a pre-order for items so they don’t over-manufacture.
“Our return customers are up 25 per cent, which takes a long time because they have to see that our products last the test of time before they purchase again,” Cavanagh says.
The brand also prioritises customer service, responding to social media queries individually and even driving to customers’ houses when they want to swap an item for an event.
The demi-fine jewellery industry is set to continue on its seemingly never-ending wave.
According to the experts, this is down to the desire for self-expression amid a slew of wealth minimalism-centric trends.
Shauna Burke of Croía Jewellery
But according to those with skin in the game, the reasons are multitudinous. First, connection.
“Our customers are so happy to be part of a community,” Burke smiles. “It’s something we hear all the time.”
Second, accessibility. “We provide confidence at a price that won’t compromise rent or childcare,” Layton says. And third, and perhaps most prudently, flexibility.
“Jewellery is great because you don’t have to fit into it,” Cavanagh concludes.
“You can re-wear it, mix it, stack it, layer it. As opposed to a garment, which might let you down when you really need it.”
Photo: Sean Layton pictured at Ivy's Attic Jewellery, Douglas Village Shopping Centre, Cork. Picture: Alison Miles
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