Peacocks are the winners in Chen's book

TIFFANY vice president for the Asia-Pacific region Darren Chen explains why the company's Melbourne store is tripling in size.

AS group vice president of Asia-Pacific for Tiffany & Co, Darren Chen isn't meant to have favourites when it comes to individual jewellery items.

 But at a preview to the company’s famed Blue Book collection (its annual presentation of special jewellery pieces in October), held in Hong Kong earlier this year, he couldn’t help but single out one particular piece. “If I had to pick one I think it would be one of the peacock pieces,” says Chen. “The tanzanites that are in those are perfectly matched and finding that size and that quality is very rare. And the craftsmanship is just amazing.”

The spectacular peacock pieces can be seen in our August fashion gallery, part of our exclusive fashion shoot in Hong Kong at the time of the presentation, which was photographed by Jez Smith. Other pieces from the range can be seen in the Blue Book gallery (for both, see sidebar).

“Seeing things like those pieces is just one of the perks of working for a company like Tiffany & Co, witnessing the fantastic imagination that goes into producing something like that.” says Chen. Also on show at the Hong Kong presentation was Jean Schlumberger’s “Conique” necklace of diamonds and red spinels. The necklace, which
is made with one continuous length of 18ct gold wire that entwines the flowers, leaves, cones and berries, is pictured in this month's fashion gallery.

At the presentation, the company also previewed new collections by in-house designers  Elsa Peretti and Paloma Picasso. For 2011, Peretti has revisited one of her earliest “bottle” designs for Tiffany, whereas Picasso looked to Venice for inspiration.

Later this month Tiffany will open an expanded store on Collins Street in Melbourne that will almost triple its original size. The new 1250sqm space will be spread over three levels and will feature the only Tiffany service centre outside of its New York flagship.

Chen says the new Melbourne store is a sign of the importance of the Australian market for Tiffany. “Australia still holds a lot of growth potential for us and with a statement like this new store our commitment to the market will be evident,” he says, adding that items on par with the pieces shown in Hong Kong will be in Melbourne when the store opens. “The new store will allow us to showcase fine jewellery pieces like these in the way that they should be shown,” he says.

For the first quarter of this year Tiffany & Co reported better than expected results. Sales increased worldwide by 20 per cent to $US761 million. The biggest increase came from the Asia-Pacific region, which posted an increase in sales of 37 per cent to $US167.2 million. In a statement the company said that the Asia-Pacific results were due to substantial growth in most countries but especially in the greater China region. Which helps to explain why the company decided to preview its Blue Book collection – its rarest and most expensive collection of jewellery – in Hong Kong.

“We’ve done this for the past three years as the market has grown,” says Chen. “Once this only happened in New York but now it happens in Hong Kong, London and in Tokyo.”

The Chinese, as it turns out, are excellent customers when it comes to a brand such as Tiffany & Co. “It’s a generalisation but the fine jewellery pieces in precious stones do very well in China,” says Chen. “There is a long tradition of appreciating jewellery in China, so it suits us well. They understand the quality of our products and the craftsmanship that’s behind them and they are very appreciative fans of ours.

“But, you know, the Australian market is an extremely strong one for us, too, and when we show the Blue Book collection in New York each year we have a nice set of Australian customers who come over to see it.”