KarinK
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The New York Times has an article today,
It's behind a pay wall but let me just copy this small part with a name we know!
"Reflecting on why demand for pearls has risen among both consumers and designers who never had previously considered them, Mr. Paspaley offered an explanation: “If you look to the age of the people who are influencing those fields, and look at what’s important to them, they believe in things like sustainability, ethical sourcing. And if those are your beliefs, then a pearl is the gem for you.”
Pamela Cloud felt much the same way, which is why, in 2022, she founded Roseate, a pearl-centric fine jewelry brand that only uses pearls purchased directly from farmers she has personally vetted, including South Sea pearls and mother-of-pearl from Paspaley; Akoya pearls from Kakuda, a 93-year-old company with headquarters in Ise, Japan; and Tahitian pearls from Kamoka Pearl on the Ahe Atoll of French Polynesia. (While Tahitian pearls are named for Tahiti, they are farmed throughout French Polynesia.)"
Oh, there's more!
"In January, Ms. Cloud visited Ahe and met with Josh Humbert and Celeste Brash, the husband and wife who, along with Mr. Humbert’s father, own Kamoka, one of the oldest Tahitian pearl farming businesses in the region.
On a phone call in October, Mr. Humbert shared the story of how his family got into the business: He was 2 years old in 1973 when his parents sailed to Ahe from Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. His father explored various careers, from fish running to cabinet making, before obtaining a maritime concession, in 1991, to build a pearl farm on Ahe, Mr. Humbert said.
The industry began to boom in the mid-1990s, as jewelers grew enamored of Tahitian pearls and drove up prices. Also known as black pearls, they derive their coloration, which ranges from light gray to midnight black, from the Pinctada margaritifera, or black-lip, pearl oyster.
“It was just like the gold rush in California,” Mr. Humbert said. “A lot of people made a lot of money in a short period of time. They were buying boat motors and Jet Skis and flying from the atoll weekly just to go partying in Tahiti. The scene on the plane would be fun — you’d be with all your pearl farmer friends and somebody would buy Champagne.”
The business experienced its ups and downs, until the pandemic kick started another boom, helped along, according to Ms. Brash, by social media videos that she and their 26-year-old son, Tevai, have posted.
“He’s done these pearl videos with millions of views,” Ms. Brash said. “‘Pearls don’t come from a grain of sand — here’s how we farm them out of a lagoon.’”
Kamoka now has more than 660,000 followers on Instagram, 1.6 million on TikTok and 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube. “We were kind of plodding along and now we’re trying to keep up with demand,” Ms. Brash said. “We’ve experienced almost 10 times growth in the past year.”
Hang on... There's another name coming...
"Demand for Tahitian pearls, in general, has risen markedly in recent years, appearing to peak in the second half of 2023 after a Chinese actress and influencer named Ni Ni posted a series of selfies showing off a Tahitian pearl strand and other pearl jewels.
“Suddenly everyone had to have Tahitian pearls,” Mr. Humbert said. “Wholesalers would come to auction and buy all the Tahitian pearls before the auction even started.”
The craze was most pronounced at the 2023 Jewellery & Gem World Hong Kong show, the pearl trade’s most important fair, said Jeremy Shepherd, the president and chief executive of PearlParadise.com, a pearl jewelry e-retailer in Los Angeles. It “was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” he wrote in an email. “South Sea and Tahitian prices were stratospheric and resellers — almost exclusively from the Chinese mainland — were frenzy buying and literally cleaning out the entire show.”
"At PearlParadise.com, a strand of 10 millimeter by 12 millimeter fine Tahitian pearls now retails for about $14,000, compared with a price of about $10,000 in 2019, and a strand of 12 millimeter by 14 millimeter fine white South Sea pearls now costs about $24,000, compared with a price of about $16,000 in 2019, according to Mr. Shepherd."
It's behind a pay wall but let me just copy this small part with a name we know!
"Reflecting on why demand for pearls has risen among both consumers and designers who never had previously considered them, Mr. Paspaley offered an explanation: “If you look to the age of the people who are influencing those fields, and look at what’s important to them, they believe in things like sustainability, ethical sourcing. And if those are your beliefs, then a pearl is the gem for you.”
Pamela Cloud felt much the same way, which is why, in 2022, she founded Roseate, a pearl-centric fine jewelry brand that only uses pearls purchased directly from farmers she has personally vetted, including South Sea pearls and mother-of-pearl from Paspaley; Akoya pearls from Kakuda, a 93-year-old company with headquarters in Ise, Japan; and Tahitian pearls from Kamoka Pearl on the Ahe Atoll of French Polynesia. (While Tahitian pearls are named for Tahiti, they are farmed throughout French Polynesia.)"
Oh, there's more!
"In January, Ms. Cloud visited Ahe and met with Josh Humbert and Celeste Brash, the husband and wife who, along with Mr. Humbert’s father, own Kamoka, one of the oldest Tahitian pearl farming businesses in the region.
On a phone call in October, Mr. Humbert shared the story of how his family got into the business: He was 2 years old in 1973 when his parents sailed to Ahe from Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. His father explored various careers, from fish running to cabinet making, before obtaining a maritime concession, in 1991, to build a pearl farm on Ahe, Mr. Humbert said.
The industry began to boom in the mid-1990s, as jewelers grew enamored of Tahitian pearls and drove up prices. Also known as black pearls, they derive their coloration, which ranges from light gray to midnight black, from the Pinctada margaritifera, or black-lip, pearl oyster.
“It was just like the gold rush in California,” Mr. Humbert said. “A lot of people made a lot of money in a short period of time. They were buying boat motors and Jet Skis and flying from the atoll weekly just to go partying in Tahiti. The scene on the plane would be fun — you’d be with all your pearl farmer friends and somebody would buy Champagne.”
The business experienced its ups and downs, until the pandemic kick started another boom, helped along, according to Ms. Brash, by social media videos that she and their 26-year-old son, Tevai, have posted.
“He’s done these pearl videos with millions of views,” Ms. Brash said. “‘Pearls don’t come from a grain of sand — here’s how we farm them out of a lagoon.’”
Kamoka now has more than 660,000 followers on Instagram, 1.6 million on TikTok and 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube. “We were kind of plodding along and now we’re trying to keep up with demand,” Ms. Brash said. “We’ve experienced almost 10 times growth in the past year.”
Hang on... There's another name coming...
"Demand for Tahitian pearls, in general, has risen markedly in recent years, appearing to peak in the second half of 2023 after a Chinese actress and influencer named Ni Ni posted a series of selfies showing off a Tahitian pearl strand and other pearl jewels.
“Suddenly everyone had to have Tahitian pearls,” Mr. Humbert said. “Wholesalers would come to auction and buy all the Tahitian pearls before the auction even started.”
The craze was most pronounced at the 2023 Jewellery & Gem World Hong Kong show, the pearl trade’s most important fair, said Jeremy Shepherd, the president and chief executive of PearlParadise.com, a pearl jewelry e-retailer in Los Angeles. It “was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” he wrote in an email. “South Sea and Tahitian prices were stratospheric and resellers — almost exclusively from the Chinese mainland — were frenzy buying and literally cleaning out the entire show.”
"At PearlParadise.com, a strand of 10 millimeter by 12 millimeter fine Tahitian pearls now retails for about $14,000, compared with a price of about $10,000 in 2019, and a strand of 12 millimeter by 14 millimeter fine white South Sea pearls now costs about $24,000, compared with a price of about $16,000 in 2019, according to Mr. Shepherd."
