Retail Matters Podcast: The New Crown Jewels: How Enduring Value is Propelling Jewelry Ahead of Fashion in the Luxury Marketplace

As leather goods lose their cool amid rising prices and quality concerns, fine jewelry is emerging as luxury’s shining star.

For aspirational Millennial shoppers, a handbag was often their first significant luxury purchase. Now, Gen-Z is increasingly eyeing jewelry as its first big splurge and buying handbags secondhand.

Jewlery is proving to be luxury’s most resilient category amidst a broader downturn that has seen even fashion and leather goods stalwarts like Chanel and LVMH report falling sales. Last year, while the luxury market as a whole declined 1 percent, jewelry still managed modest growth of as much as 2 percent, reaching €31 billion ($35 billion), according to Federica Levato, senior partner at Bain & Company. High jewelry performed particularly well.