Steinmetz and Harrods Cooperate on Exclusive Diamond Jewelry

The Steinmetz Group and the British department store Harrods have struck a luxury cooperation that brought some 400 of Harrods best clients to the store for an after hours dinner followed by a fashion and diamond jewelry show.

Harrods has invited 400 of its most loyal clients to their jewelry department after closing hours to kick off the start of the holiday shopping season with a diamond jewelry show as the central event of the evening.

Each jewelry item was hand crafted by American jewelry designer Christian Tse and set with Steinmetz diamonds creating unique, individual items set with high clarity / fancy or D-F color gems.

The highlight of the evening was a very rare article, the Blue Empress, a 14-carat, pear-shaped, vivid blue diamond modeled by British socialite Yasmin Le Bon. The Blue Empress went on auction and bids already went as high as  ï¿½10 million.

It is the most expensive diamond ever to be offered at a department store and the first time an expensive diamond jewelry item was up for auction in a department store.

Bids can be submitted until just before Christmas, while the rest of the jewelry will be offered until mid January.

Another first in this evening was the type of involvement on a retail level on the part of the Steinmetz Group, usually a diamond miner and rough diamond trader, which its involvement with polished diamonds was most noted until now with big size, high priced stones offered to exclusive clients.

The group is now placing a bigger emphasis on its polishing operation, expanding it to smaller stones, and apparently seeking new venues to market the goods.

The cooperation with Harrods is part of this new direction, following in the footsteps of the entire diamond industry that has been concentrating in the past couple of years in an increased focus downstream towards various retail initiatives.