Last night Nitin & Navneet Goenka (think Goenka Diamonds & Jewels Ltd.) launched ‘CERES’, a luxury personalized store at Bandra (West) on Turner Road, featuring a designer collection of high end jewelery crafted from the most unique, rare, finest diamonds & precious gemstones. Pitched at “connoisseurs with a passion for the finer things in life” (aka people with money.)
Champagne and sushi floated around a room full of the fully loaded including Maheep Kapoor, Avanti what-are-you-wearing Birla, Neelam Kothari, Haseena Jethmalani, Tanya Deol, Genelia D`Souza, Nandita Mehatani, Alvira Agnihotri, Arpita Khan, Simone Khan Arora, Poonam Bhagat, Farah Ali Khan (Dj Aqueel`s Wife), Rima Jain, Neeta Lulla, Anu Deewan, producer Farah Khan, Aarti Surendrenath, Sangeeta Bijlani, Zoya Aktar, Chayya Momaya, Rhea Pillai, Queenie Dhody, Seema Khan, Anna Singh, Suriley Goel, Gauri Pohoomull, Neeta Lulla, Paulomi Sanghavi, Shaina NC, Ruksana Eisa, Sharmilla Khanna, Anjali Zaveri, Pinky Reddy, Anita Raj, Neelu Amrohi, Yasmeen Karachiwala, Sunny Sara, Sophie Choudry, Pink Reddy and blast from the past Sangeeta Bijlani.
I’m told that the distinguishing feature of Ceres jewellery is that each piece is lavishly crafted to create ‘the antiques of the future.” What a novel thought and way to think ahead folks. (This kind of reminds me of what the good people at Mutton Street (an oddly titled stretch dedicated to woodcraft in Mumbai) and a lovely shop owner in Kerela once told me. Since people love antiques, they dull finish a lot of new creations to give them that ancient treasure look and even scruff up perfectly polished wood pieces for the unsuspecting (and evidently rookie) collectors that drop in daily.
Once again I marvel (enviously) at the ability of some to live in a bubble so far removed from the recession that they’re probably out shopping right now. Last year the Goenka turnover amounted to Rs.450 crores while this year they anticipate 900 crores from the retail segment. (FYI their product range starts from10 lakhs to several crores.)
They even have a range called “G-Wild” obviously targeting gen next, a one stop shop to provide classic pieces starting from 10,000 to 5 lakhs.
As Arthur Miller once said (Death of a Salesman), “The Jungle is dark but full of diamonds.”