CaratNY Now opens today under new owners
The summer market runs August 2 to 4 at the Javits Center, the first edition since Rockview Management Group bought the show from Emerald. More than 70 exhibitors are new or returning.
§1A new owner's first floor.
NY Now opens at the Javits Center this morning and runs to August 4, the first summer market since Rockview Management Group acquired the show from Emerald. The wholesale event covers gift, home, lifestyle, accessories and both fine and fashion jewellery, and the new owner has put its opening statement into the exhibitor list rather than into the floor plan. More than 70 exhibitors are either new or returning after a hiatus, and the organisers count over 90 brands and makers from 19 countries across the show.
The fine jewellery presence sits in two named sections. Luxury Lifestyle carries established brands including Brooke Gregson, Heather B. Moore, Bondeye Jewelry, Eden Presley, Carolina Neves, Dana Kellin and Annette Ferdinandsen. Curated is reserved for emerging luxury designers. Exhibiting fine jewellery names include Dilamani, Hine Fine Jewelry, J Fields Jewelry, Jacob Keleher Jewelry, Lauren Newton Jewelry, Tacit Fine Jewelry, Jewels by Sanjam, Jessica Liu Designs and Yael Sonia. Dorothy Belshaw, the chief executive, said buyers now find "genuine discovery alongside the trusted brands they rely on".
§2Two named sections.
The count of returning exhibitors is the number that carries information. A show that has lost vendors and then wins some of them back under new ownership is being re-underwritten by the people who left it, and 70 is a large enough figure to be a verdict rather than a courtesy. What it does not yet establish is attendance, which the organisers have not published, and which is the only measure that determines whether the exhibitors who came back will book again for winter.
More than 70 exhibitors are either new or returning after a hiatus
§3The number that carries information.
The timing places the show at an awkward point in the buying calendar. August is when independent jewellers commit open-to-buy for the fourth quarter, into a market where American consumer confidence slipped to 90.8 in July and gold sits above $4,000 an ounce, which has pushed retail assortments toward lighter pieces and higher price points at the same time. A buyer walking the Javits floor today is choosing holiday inventory against a metal cost that has risen for a month and a customer who has been trading down by weight.
The trade show is quietly the most exposed format in this industry, and NY Now's ownership change is worth watching for that reason rather than for its jewellery list. Regional shows have been consolidating for a decade while the buying itself moved to catalogues, video appointments and direct reordering, and the events that survive do it by being where a buyer discovers something they were not searching for. Seventy returning exhibitors say the format still has that. Whether Rockview can convert a strong first floor into a durable one will be answered in January, not this week.
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