The last time we heard of Fabergé was when the Rothschild Fabergé Egg was to be auctioned by Christie’s for an estimated $18 million. Not much has been heard from the luxury jeweler for quite awhile. Fabergé, known to be the jeweler to the last Russian czar and creator of the legendary Imperial Easter eggs, has finally decided to stir from its deep sleep. On Wednesday, the famed jeweler unveiled its first jewelry collection in more than 90 years to be available through a web site. This new collection of 100 pieces of jewelry has no Imperial eggs. It consists of beautiful gemstone earrings, rings, and brooches based on motifs, like flowers and animals, from collections, created more than 100 years ago.
Fabergé’s owners created the collection, a group of investors led by the British private-equity firm Pallinghurst Resources, to revive the brand by reuniting it with the Fabergé family’s heirs. The exquisite collection’s management and design team include Mark Dunhill, former president of Alfred Dunhill, and Frédéric Zaavy, an avant-garde Parisian jeweler, who have helped to make every piece unique and desirable.
Besides such professional names, the jeweler has also come up with a unique marketing strategy. The beautiful collection will not be sold through retail outlets but through its Website and 15 sales representatives. Fabergé has hired I.B.M. to create a technology that would allow customers to enlarge the image of the product on the screen, look at it from different angles, and contact the sales team, which speaks 12 languages at any time. Prospective buyers can then either visit Fabergé’s flagship store in Geneva to buy the jewels or get a representative to meet them anywhere in the world. This new collection’s price ranges vary from $58,000 for a ring to $10 million for a bracelet inspired by Monet’s “Water Lilies.” Despite the hard-hitting credit crunch, Fabergé expects to turn a profit within five years. And for those who wish to see the Imperial eggs, Mr. Dunhill said that there is every possibility that they might produce them sooner or later.
[Forbes]
