Le Vian, a family-owned jewelry company with roots going as far back as the 15th century, will participate in this year’s JCK event in Las Vegas. With this upcoming show, Le Vian will bring with it a collection of jewelry that embraces beauty and an optimistic outlook towards the future. As a company that is a watchdog for celebrity trends, Le Vian brings with it a promise of relevancy and adaptability as trends shift and move in the contemporary style landscape.
GRAZIA USA sat down with CEO of Le Vian, Eddie LeVian, to talk this year’s catwalk at JCK, the company’s private collection of jewels, keeping your finger on the style pulse and what it takes to tackle an olympian effort such as coordinating a catwalk for this year’s differently-shaped event.
Q: What is inspiring you for this year’s catwalk?
Eddie LeVian: For years, I have admired how the annual consumer electronics show leverages its appeal as a platform to tell the world what products are about to hit the market in the coming year. With that in mind, JCK is the biggest annual jewelry industry event in the Western hemisphere and that’s why for Le Vian, JCK is such a key moment each year as we unveil our trend forecast for the year ahead. For 2022, Le Vian will bring to life three central motifs – Positivity, Love and Resilience. Our message of Positivity is inspired by sunshine and its various iterations, alluding to sunny days ahead. Resilience comes in the form of an increasingly popular metal, platinum, which becomes tougher with every knock, a notion now so apt and strengthening.
Q: What makes the cut as a future trend at Le Vian?
Eddie LeVian: There are 3 factors that come into play. With Le Vian being a favorite with Hollywood celebrities from Rihanna to J. Lo and Addison Rae, we watch celebrity trends closely. But what is also very valuable and enables us to have our finger on the pulse of what’s trending is our strong connection with our collectors who give us regular feedback, often via the thousands of trunk shows we hold annually through our thousands of authorized Le Vian retailers. In addition, we enjoy close relationships with top fashion editors who share with us their insights into the interplay between fashion and jewelry trends.
Q: What will be different this year?
Eddie LeVian: There will be more interactivity at the event, including the ability for remote and in-person attendees to vote on the trends. We’ll also be showing rarefied jewels from the LeVian family’s private collection including highly prized padparadscha sapphire parures, or jewelry sets.
Q: What does it take to stage a glittering catwalk show for Le Vian’s VIP audience in Vegas?
Eddie LeVian: At the heart of the preparation for Le Vian’s 2022 Vegas catwalk, lies the conception, design and production of thousands of individual designs that encapsulate the 7 trends we’ll be unveiling on August 29. It’s an enormous operation that takes up most of the year prior to the event. Le Vian is a jewelry brand but increasingly, with our burgeoning social media channels and investments in broadcast-quality film and online TV and video production, we are also very much in the entertainment business. Staging the Vegas catwalk is almost like putting together a televised awards ceremony.
Q: Reflecting on your 21st year of the Le Vian Trend Forecast, what are your most memorable moments of previous years?
Eddie LeVian: Over the years we have been fortunate to have world-class musicians including Grammy award winner Macy Gray performing for us in Vegas. But what really stands out for me is what happened at Le Vian’s most recent live event, which was the fundraising catwalk at Vegas in 2019. A waiter, a single father at the event was so moved by our fundraising, that he made an impromptu request for the microphone and pledged $200 of his money on the spot, which sparked an immediate standing ovation from the entire room of 500 attendees. This then also inspired a billionaire in the room to up his own donation by a handsome 6 figure sum. This incredibly moving moment was captured on a 1 minute film and featured in this Daily Mail article, shared over 300 times.
