In the luxury market, customers are often courted into making purchases and rewarded for their showcase of loyalty to a store or a brand. A returning client may have a chilled bottle of champagne waiting for them upon their next appointment, or their lunch paid for at the bistro next door after they’ve left the shop. Good sales associates remember birthdays and important milestones, they memorize coffee and scotch preferences and pets’ names, children’s birthdays. Yet when it comes to a Birkin, the perennial “It” handbag by French luxury design house Hermès, prospective buyers are the ones doing all of the wooing.

While seemingly antithetical to the current, “Quiet Luxury” trend of today, tiaras and other headwear are making a decided comeback. At the recent Cannes film festival, as reported by Marion Fasel of The Adventurine, Chanel ambassador Margaret Qualley stunned in a star headband from the brand’s High Jewelry collection, and model Isabeli Fontana wore a stunning brooch by contemporary designer, Elsa Jin, as a hair piece. Earlier this year, at the 2024 Met Gala, celebrities from all walks of life rocked headpieces, from subtle flashes of sparkle to over-the-top-ornate.

Retailers who are interested in carrying antique, vintage and estate jewelry are often faced with a few obstacles. Exceptional retailers want to have a comprehensive understanding of the product they carry, they want to make sure the pricing is beneficial both to their stores and their customers, and they need to ensure that they have the right client for the pieces they carry.