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The fashion news from Baselworld 2007 is the strength of continuing jewelry trends from past seasons. Links and rose gold, two of the strongest trends at this edition of the fair, have been important for the past year.
What is new this time is more dramatic color than we have seen for many years. Although browns and neutral colors continue, many new designs this year feature bold gem tones, including ruby, rubellite tourmaline, amethyst, and blue sapphire.
Black and white continues also, either in the classic two-tone combination or all-black and all-white. Pearls are particularly strong this year, including in many collections that don't normally feature pearls.
Many new pieces launched at the fair have a soft engraved, matte, or satin finish. Links with a softer shape and a soft-looking finish are particularly strong. A matte finish on rose gold helps to deepen and distinguish the rosy color of the metal.
The continuing focus on nature led this year to jewelry inspired by the animal kingdom, including a particular interest in sea creatures.
The strength of circles continues, too. This year there were many new designs in pendants, earrings, and cuffs featuring overlapping circles or links, giving the effect of bubbles.
Many designs featured coins and relief motifs. Actual antique coins were featured in designs by Giorgio Visconte, Gurhan, and Bulgari.
In designs by manufacturers for a wide market, negative space is becoming more important as the evolution of the circle necklace continues to influence other designs. Instead of clusters, diamond designs now feature larger open silhouettes. Pendants are still the most important fashion pieces.
Several designers and brands created distinctive new collections that were shown for the first time in Basel. Shaun Leane launched "Captured," a new collection featuring an exclusive new teardrop shaped gem cut in moonstone and chalcedony with pavé. Each teardrop is held, or captured, in his signature delicate spiked shapes, often covered in pavé diamonds, black diamonds, or blue sapphire.
"Top Kat," a new collection by Stephen Webster, is based on the popular cartoon's skeleton fish. New styles from Stephen Webster also include spur earrings and bandolier-inspired bracelets with faceted bullet-shaped gems.
Marco Bicego has two interesting new collections. A new group of large oval links utilize the company's signature coil in a new way. The satin-finished bean shape of the "Confetti" collection has been transformed into organic-looking bezels set with rose cut diamonds in a new rose cut collection.
A strong new men's collection from David Yurman includes a new group of exotic textures created directly from natural materials like coral, sea urchin, sea horse, and alligator. Yurman also created rings in cast titanium set with PVD coated black diamonds.
Hong Kong gem engraver Wallace Chan launched an extravagant collection of one-of-a-kind jewelry in carved and cast titanium. Chan's insects and animals are bold in scale, thanks to the light weight of titanium, and amazingly detailed.
And Brazilian brand F.R. Hueb featured the new "Toujours" collection with an exclusive triangular flat cut in white topaz, citrine, ruby, and blue sapphire that was reminiscent of rough crystals.
Celebrity favorite Lorraine Schwartz is showing large-scale ruby blossoms, antique ivory and jade set with diamonds, as well as the translucent gray and butterscotch diamond crystals that were so popular on the red carpet this year. — Cheryl Kremkow