The Tamesis
Welcome to The Scoop: a weekly email series in which I ask fashion insiders about the week’s stories. This will be a way for the Vogue business community to synthesize and reflect on the latest headlines every Friday and get a little inside scoop.
This week’s guest is fine jewelry designer Lucy Delius. Prior to launching her business in 2022, Lucy worked in PR in the jewelry industry. This helped hone her understanding of her customers during a stressful time in the luxury industry. The prices of gold and silver had been rising for months, and Lucy examined them carefully.
Lucy launched a range of black pearl jewelery last week. I called her to talk about necklaces and discovered a treasure trove of business tips for aspiring luxury entrepreneurs. enjoy.
Hi Lucy, any scoop?
I’m in New York right now, launching our latest collection called Nyx. It is based on black baroque pearls. This is actually the first time we’ve worked on pearls.
You live in London. Why launch in New York?
We have a huge customer base here. I come to New York a few times a year and we do trunk shows. We also come to Los Angeles once a year. And then we sometimes work with outside hosts—usually existing clients with good connections in places where we don’t have a foothold, like Charleston or Miami.
Trunk displays are not a new concept, but I feel like more and more people are doing it. is that so?
Trunk displays are a hot-selling tool for me and many other brands right now. We often book hotel suites and have private appointments. This is a great way to meet people. We opened a store in London in October, but they are very helpful when you don’t have retail space. We have a very strong wholesale business and I often make personal appearances in-store, which also works well because people like to meet the designers behind the products. But the trunk show is more intimate.
Why is the United States so focused?
Speaking of luggage shows, I used to do them in the UK before opening this store. But I’ve found that this model doesn’t work so well in the UK as our prices have continued to rise over the years. I think there is a way of displaying jewelery in the UK where people want to see something of high value under the cabinet or for sale in some way. I don’t think those barriers exist as much in the United States. And, American women know a lot about jewelry. They love entrepreneurship and women-led businesses. This is an important driver of brand growth.
