GemGenève tells its story in Hong Kong

In early March, the GemGenève team travelled to Hong Kong to host a lunch for international journalists, bloggers and influencers, to give them the full background to GemGenève and introduce its founders, Thomas Faerber and Ronny Totah. The hosts were also delighted to welcome the Consul General of Switzerland, Reto Renggli to the lunch.

Some 20 members of the media, from Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, the USA and even Australia, gathered around a long table in a private dining room in the Grissini restaurant in the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The theme of the lunch was “Seek and Find”, an invitation to explore and discover at GemGenève. The table was decorated with beautiful flower arrangements in white boxes, printed in black with “Seek” and “Find”. In the same spirit of quest and discovery, the guests were each given a magnifying glass.

Thomas Faerber and Ronny Totah related the story of GemGenève, why and how they developed the concept. They explained how they both felt there was a need for a new-style jewellery and gem show in Europe, a show that was more intimate, focused on quality and integrity, an event, for both trade and public that would truly reflect and reveal the international world of gem and jewellery trading.

Also at the lunch, Jasmine Vidal, responsible for communications at GemGenève introduced jewellery historian, journalist and author, Vivienne Becker. Vivienne gave a short talk in which she showed how GemGenève will be a microcosm of today’s fast-changing jewellery world. She offered insights into social and cultural megatrends, and analysed the latest design directions, touching on the significance of discoveries of new gem deposits, mainly in Africa, that have given designers an unprecedented palette of gem colours. To illustrate this, Nomad, New York-based gem merchants and GemGenève exhibitor, lent a spectacular set of three mint green Merelani tsavorite garnets to show the press.

Vivienne also gave the journalists went through styles and periods of antique and 20th century that would be on offer at GemGenève. The guests were fascinated by the jewels that were lent by exhibitors to illustrate the different eras and styles. The jewels were passed round the table giving the guests the opportunity to handle the jewels and listen to detailed explanations by Ida Faerber, who shared her impressive knowledge of jewellery history. The pieces on display included 18th and 19th century diamond jewels, an Art Nouveau ring by American maker, Marcus & Co and jewels by Suzanne Belperron, lent by GemGenève exhibitor Pat Saling, as well as Kashmir sapphires and a coloured diamond ring.

Finally there were two contemporary designer jewels by Belmacz London, which linked to the announcement at the lunch of the Designer Showcase at GemGenève – more to come in our next news!

Founders Ronny Totah & Thomas-Faerber

Jewellery Historian Vivienne Becker

Discovering Antique Diamond brooch