DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT
BY CAROL BESLER
MIKIMOTO
THE ORIGINAL PEARL COMPANY CELEBRATES MORE THAN A CENTURY AT THE TOP
A mong pearl companies, Mikimoto is the undisputed giant. The Japanese Akoya pearl cultivator celebrates its 130th anniversary this year, at a time when pearls are peaking, once again, in both the worlds of fashion and jewelry. Mikimoto can proudly claim to have invented the cultured pearl, along with the established standards of excellence in the production and grading of these beautiful gems. So naturally, its standards exceed all others. Only a small percentage of the world’s cultured pearls meet the quality criteria set by Mikimoto. At a time when supplies of Akoya pearls are dwindling and demand has never been higher, prices for pearls have soared over the past year, and Mikimoto pearls have become especially prized. To pearl lovers, the very best specimens are worth the cost and represent an investment in fine jewelry style, and substance. A Mikimoto strand is an heirloom. The company was built on a foundation of passion. As a boy, founder Kokichi Mikimoto was fascinated with natural pearls and sat for hours watching divers bring in their daily hauls from the waters near Toba, his home town on the eastern tip of Japan’s Shima peninsula. In the wild, fewer than one-in-a-thousand oyster shells can produce a pearl during a lifetime, but Mikimoto began to dream of finding a way to culture pearls and to do it in a way that consistently produced specimens that were perfectly round and smooth. That way, instead of being a luxury only for the wealthy, he could bring pearls to women everywhere.
His ultimate solution was to introduce an irritant into Akoya oysters — a tiny mother-of-pearl bead that stimulates the oyster’s nacre secretion, causing it to naturally create the thousands of layers around the bead that form a pearl. In 1893, he produced the world’s first cultured pearl. His pearls were a hit, and soon Mikimoto opened a store in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district. In the process, he established one of the world’s original luxury brands. Stores in Paris, London, and New York soon followed. Mikimoto didn’t stop there. He sent skilled craftsmen to Europe to learn the latest design techniques and jewelry styles, including Art Deco and Art Nouveau, because he wanted to present his pearls in the finest way possible. He didn’t want to just show pearls as they were, but in the context of very fine jewelry. Mikimoto spent decades blending traditional Japanese metalworking craftsmanship with European manufacturing techniques to create what became the distinctive Mikimoto style. His work built the foundation for modern jewelry production in Japan. Mikimoto has continued to refine and expand upon Kokichi Mikimoto’s techniques, culturing many different types of pearls, including black and white South Sea cultured pearls. Today, 95 percent of all pearls on the market are cultured, meaning that humans played a role in their formation. High-quality natural pearls are very rare and have a premium price, but even among Akoya pearls, top specimens are rare. The top grades — AAA — represent less than 3 percent of the world’s pearl
harvest. Only a small percentage of these pearls would meet the standard and quality set by Mikimoto. The difference is obvious if you know what to look for. Akoya pearls are graded according to several factors, including the following: LUSTER The sharpness and amount of light reflected off the pearl’s surface. SHAPE The more perfectly round a pearl is, the more rare and prized it is. COLOR Pearl color is graded on the depth and saturation of the color. The more strongly colored pearls are more rare and valuable. Certain overtones or exotic body colors command premium pricing at auctions. SURFACE BLEMISHING Pearls with clean surfaces without inclusions like pin-pricks, scoring marks, chalky spots, and
wrinkles are much more highly valued than pearls with multiple blemishes.
SIZE Large pearls are rare. The majority of cultured pearls harvested consist of pearls under 10 mm, and wild pearls in very large sizes are the rarest of the rare, so the bigger they are (all other things being equal) the more valuable they are.
22 LENOX JEWELERS MAGAZINE
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