Mining the Past
Brazilian jeweler H. Stern is famous for its stones. Today the family-run company is turning its heritage into gold
By Sarah Raper Larenaudie/Rio de Janeiro
Fall 2005 Style & Design
"Going to Brazil? Buy stones." That's the advice offered by everyone
from your great-aunt to your taxi driver, and they're right: experts say
more than half the world's fine-colored gems come from Brazilian mines.
But until the 1950s those resources were underexploited. Miners were
focused on industrial exports, like iron ore and mica, and didn't even
bother to pocket the gemstones they dug up. Establishment jewelers in
New York City, London and Paris snubbed anything that wasn't a diamond,
an emerald or a ruby.
Hans Stern helped change all that in 1945 when he founded H. Stern, a
Rio de Janeiro—based gem and jewelry company. Ever since, he has been
teaching the world to think aquamarines, amethysts, citrines and
tourmalines whenever Brazil is mentioned.
A German émigré who arrived in Brazil as a teenager with his parents in
1939, Stern began buying stones on consignment, financing his first
purchases by hocking his accordion. Today H. Stern is among the 10
largest international fine-jewelry brands, with a retail network of 160
stores in 12 countries and estimated annual sales of $500 million. (The
company is privately held and does not publish financial data.)
At 83, Hans Stern may be frail in appearance, but he still clocks in
every morning at 8:30 and has no intention of retiring. Many of the
day-to-day operations, however, have been turned over to his sons and
nonfamily managers. And they have positioned H. Stern as an
international luxury brand, with expansions into watches and a licensing
arrangement with Diane von Furstenberg.
The most thundering change was ordered by Stern's oldest son Roberto in
1995, when he shifted the product focus away from individual pieces
designed around specific stones to jewelry collections based on themes.
Three of the company's six designers immediately quit. "For my father it
was very tough to understand that a consumer could desire an imperfect
stone," says Roberto, 45, motioning to a $2,565 Sunrise bracelet in
which citrines and other pastel stones, chosen for color rather than
quality, are joined by strands of 18-karat-gold wire.
In the store's modern wood-and-glass showcases are collections based on
feathers, drops and tiny leaves executed in a variety of materials. Some
lines use only gold or diamonds and no colored stones. A simple Golden
Stone ring in yellow gold, in the shape of a river pebble, costs $1,100;
the same ring in a larger size, loaded with diamonds, costs $12,000.
Overall, collection prices are focused on the $1,000 to $5,000 range,
lower than Bulgari's or Cartier's.
In the gem business it's widely believed that stones bring good luck,
and H. Stern has seen its fair share of late. At the World Watch and
Jewelry Salon in Basel, Switzerland, earlier this year, colored stones
were a key trend across price categories, appealing to women who buy
jewelry for themselves (a growing segment) and reflecting a playful
consumer attitude. Von Furstenberg has proved an especially enthusiastic
cheerleader. She pursued Hans Stern for more than 25 years before
managing to persuade Roberto to partner for a jewelry collection; her
bold pieces were launched last year. "At Stern, even before they
modernized their lines, their workmanship was exquisite," von
Furstenberg tells French fashion editors gathered at her Left Bank
apartment in Paris. She has invited them for lunch to see her
collection, casually displayed between two Warhol portraits of herself.
"I visited the workrooms. No one has these workrooms, not at this level
of craftsmanship. They have 600 people there," she says. "I wanted to
scream. I was so happy."
Von Furstenberg is just back from Brazil. Nearly all the French editors
are going—Brazil is white hot. Rio and São Paulo designers, including
Carlos Miele and Isabela Capeto, are attracting editorial attention
abroad; a slew of models led by Gisele Bündchen have broken out of the
fashion pages; and Brazilian soccer stars like Ronaldo are idolized by
the Harry Potter set.
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