People are apparently buying a lot of fine jewellery to go with their sweatpants

 

Shopping behavior during this worldwide pandemic has been an interesting thing to observe. Obviously, categories like athleisure and household items have seen a surge in demand, but people are also evidently buying more fine jewelry than one might expect. Moda Operandi recently reported a 35% uptick in fine jewelry sales compared to the same period last year, while a number of jewelry brands have shared anecdotal evidence of sales being much stronger than anticipated in months during which tens of millions of Americans filed for unemployment. 

Direct-to-consumer fine jewelry brand The Last Line told us that gift purchases increased by 35% — excluding Mother's Day and graduation — over the past couple of months, and also that its brightly-colored rainbow pieces, specifically, saw 40% sales growth.

Meanwhile, Kinn (another DTC brand focused on more minimal, everyday styles) said that "post-pandemic" sales have been higher than those during the holiday shopping season, and that it saw a 35% increase in new users on its site post-pandemic, compared to the three months prior. The brand also releases regular drops of vintage jewelry and has seen many of those pieces sell out within 48 hours, even during a pandemic.

In April, WWD also reported hearing from a number of retailers that jewelry sales had remained strong, while Bloomberg shared that "bored rich people" were shopping online for $500,000 bracelets amid the global health crisis. But why?

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