British Jeweler David Morris Concentrates on Style Rather Than Stars
“What are we going to do to market ourselves?” mused Jeremy Morris, chief executive officer, creative director and second generation at the helm of David Morris, the London-based jeweler founded in 1962.
Rhetorical as it may sound for a house whose stated strengths are its independence and making “incredibly nice jewelry,” as Morris puts it, being one of the last family-owned businesses on Bond Street, and the sole one to have its atelier there as well, is a double-edged sword.
More from WWD
“The competition to attract new clients is very ferocious nowadays,” he told WWD from Greece, where he was about to host an intimate client-only event at his home. “As a smaller brand, we have to offer something [that] is equal but better in a way that we can afford to do.”
The recent rash of star-studded events put on by deep-pocketed brands around the world has “definitely made an us-and-them situation between mega-brands going into the jewelry market and traditional mom-and-dad family businesses,” he said.
Morris saw the family business’ competitive edge as its ability to get up close and personal with the client, stepping up efforts by going to meet them wherever they are. Costly as they are, such initiatives “are much more direct and get much better results much quicker,” he continued.
The pandemic may have changed the way clients connect with jewelry houses but 80 percent of sales remain “in person and in store,” Morris said. “Online is growing but fundamentally in person is where it happens most for high jewelry pieces.”
Cue the reopening of the David Morris flagship store on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, closed at the onset of the pandemic after years of disruptions ranging from the 2015 terror attacks to monthslong protests. Morris said this unintended break provided the opportunity to “refresh, rethink, reboot.”
Despite this, he is not keen to open more flagship stores. “I prefer to concentrate on the jewelry as opposed to the outlets and using pop-ups as a mechanism to draw in new clients,” he said. “Because you need the quality of the inventory.”
To his point: during the brand’s pop-up at the tony alpine resort town of Saint Moritz, Switzerland, earlier this year, a walk-in client walked out with a sizable cocktail ring that had a seven-figure price tag.
After the Swiss resort, the brand will put its jewelry cases down in Abu Dhabi, Monaco and a yet-to-be-named major Asian capital in the coming months.
In addition to these traveling showcases, David Morris will soon venture back to Japan, where it used to have stores more than 30 years ago, through a partnership, and is looking for the best approach for China, where “obviously, the last three years have been impossible but conversations are ongoing.”
The U.S. is another possibility, as the brand continues to enjoy “a high amount of brand awareness,” said the jeweler, with online sales through its own e-commerce, Net-a-porter and Farfetch as well as a pop-up at Bergdorf Goodman continuing to foster the heritage of an erstwhile stand-alone store in Palm Beach, Florida.
According to Morris, the major shift in the past 10 years is how the effervescence of the high jewelry segment, particularly in terms of events, has “created an incredible appetite for high jewelry purchases,” particularly from “people who were probably only buying fashion before,” but followed their favorite labels into the segment and are now expanding to other designers and houses.
That has brought a raft of new consumers, which he described as “a new generation [who] wants to wear their Balenciaga trainers,” but also the need to build better brand recognition.
And that’s where the tried and tested David Morris playbook remains an indisputable asset, according to Cecily Morris, who serves as brand content manager and is the third generation of the jewelry family.
But she also “doesn’t want [the brand] to be considered boring,” steering the brand toward a “younger, cooler feel” with a sleeker image for its website. New packaging has also been introduced, with cleaner lines but also more sustainable materials.
“What I love about the brand and what I want to communicate to everyone else is don’t buy from David Morris if you want something classic. Buy from us because you know we’ve got the best stones, the coolest design and the coolest image,” she said.
In her opinion, there is a great deal to be done in educating clients that “when you’re buying from [David Morris], you’re getting better quality stones and designs” even at a time where “we’re competing with branding.”
That’s another area where the jeweler believes the London-based family business comes out on top. “Where we can do better than [the competition] is in the sourcing, the materials, the understanding of materials that are impossible to buy,” said Morris, quipping that “if it’s not rare, I’m not interested.”
To wit, his 20-year-long interest in Paraiba tourmalines, the company’s recent investment in a Padparadscha sapphire valued at more than 1 million British pounds or his interest in a recently unearthed spinel from Vietnam with a neon blue hue that makes it “hard to believe these things are natural.”
After the “horror show” of 2020 and two subsequent years of steady recovery that saw turnover leap 35 percent while collection sales of fine jewelry increased 14 percent from 2021 to 2022, Morris is pleased about 2023. The privately owned house didn’t disclose the sales of its high jewelry segment.
Strong demand and solid growth continue across its brick-and-mortar stores as well as e-commerce channels in the Middle East, Europe and East Asia.
Not only is the reopened Paris store “making some good inroads” but “all [David Morris’] outlets are doing well and we’ve got all these roadshows that we are doing — we have one going all the time at the moment — so I’m quite pleased that we’re picking up new clients and making some substantial sales at the same time,” he said.
Another area where David Morris is making inroads is the bridal market. In the past two years, the brand has been developing an increasing number of white diamond sets. “We can see the appetite for these within a price point because people are looking for the necklace, earrings, ring and bracelet as a complete set,” Cecily Morris said.
While the lion’s share of the bridal business is off the shelf, notably through e-commerce and even over Whatsapp, with designs such as the Miss Daisy, Illusion and Rose Cut as perennials, David Morris has produced 15 to 20 new sets, including some yet to be released. It is also fielding requests for bespoke multiple iterations around the theme chosen by a bride, for the rest of her family.
Though flowers and hearts having been a longstanding signature for the 60-year-old jewelry house since the days of its founder, Jeremy Morris “never wants to be just pigeonholed as the floral, arty designer,” he continued.
The next high jewelry collection, titled “Spotlight,” is a continuation of sorts of the previous Skylines designs shown last January, further exploring a more linear direction.
Although it may not appear in Paris as it is already spoken for, one of the highlights is a necklace featuring an antique cut 10-carat marquise-cut diamond, in a geometric setting with pink diamonds and “more angular baguettes, which are starting to feature prominently in our designs, that definitely look fresher,” he said.
“High jewelry clients are very slow to change their tastes — they get embedded in the thought process. To jog them along a little bit, we have to take it on the chin and make stuff that might sit around for a few years before it starts to move,” he said. “But I’m willing to do that rather than be bored with what I’m doing.”
Best of WWD
