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Retail News: Charles Skibell Interviewed About Success; Luxury Panel Discusses High-End Retail Shift May 02, 2017 (0 comments)
Jeweler Charles Skibell Interviewed About Success
Dallas, TX—Charles Skibell (lef), fourth-generation jeweler and owner of Skibell Fine Jewelry, recently was a guest on the ‘PlayMakers’ Talk Show with Steve Klein. The show focuses on executives and entrepreneurs and their secrets to success. Click here to listen to the podcast.
As many retail jewelers do, Skibell began his career at the tender age of 13, working as an engraver in his great-grandfather’s jewelry shop, called Schlom’s. After earning a degree in psychology from the University of Texas, he changed his path and headed to GIA for a GG in residence diploma. After earning his GG, he worked in Beverly Hills for a time, then moved to Dallas to work in the jewelry salon at the Neiman Marcus in Northpark. He launched his own appraisal service, Texas Gemological Services, and opened Skibell Fine Jewelry in 1984, moving to the Preston Center in 1995.
Luxury Experts Discuss High-End Retail Shifts
New York, NY—“Transforming Retail” was one of the topics discussed at the Initiatives In Art & Culture’s Seventh Annual Gold Conference, held last week in New York City. Mickey Alam Khan, publisher of Luxury Daily, was the moderator of a discussion with Andrea Hansen, founder of LuxeIntelligence, and Hedda Schupak, editor of The Centurion Newsletter.
Khan asked both Schupak and Hansen to name the top transformations they’ve observed in luxury retail, as it pertains to jewelry. Hansen named the rental economy as one she sees transforming retail: whether it’s renting a dressy gown from Rent The Runway or a vacation home from Airbnb or even having a sip of rare $5,000 wine extracted by a needle instead of buying the bottle, consumers are now able to “sip” luxury without having to own it, both metaphorically and literally. She says all this is part of consumers’ evolving perceptions of luxury. (Read more on that here.)
Schupak, meanwhile, cited the rise of direct-to-consumer luxury brands that provide quality at a much lower price than branded counterparts, such as Warby Parker eyewear, Everlane apparel, or Parachute linens. She also cited the rise of athleisure wear as a driving force that’s impacting jewelry design as well as purchasing patterns.
Left to right: Mickey Alam Khan, publisher of Luxury Daily; Hedda Schupak, editor of The Centurion Newsletter; Andrea Hansen, founder of LuxeIntelligence.
But it all ties into one of the most important aspects of marketing luxury, which is owning and telling your story. Consumers forge connections with luxury products and, by extension, with the brands themselves, says Hansen.
Schupak emphasized the need to get out there on social media and any other appropriate media. “If you don’t grab your own narrative and tell your story, someone else will and they won’t get it right. You have to take control of that,” she said.