About Jade
Jade was founded in 2001, as a family business by jewellery designer Karin Delport. Jade offers handcrafted quality & affordable jewellery made from carefully selected precious & semi precious gemstones – designed to last a lifetime. Karin's artistic flair and bold approach to jewellery design has resulted in Jade's unique jewellery pieces becoming prized accessories for style goddesses throughout the world today.
Jade's pioneering approach to jewellery design gives testimony to Karin's choice to lead and not imitate as she breaks from tradition combining materials & colours resulting in refreshingly beautiful creations. Her unique pieces are sold across South Africa including Stellenbosch in the Western Cape and Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. Jade has expanded globally and established distribution channels in Namibia, Switzerland, Germany, and London.
According to the Chinese, Jade brings happiness...
“A man who cannot smile should not open a shop!
...is a quote Karin oft recites with a smile and the warmth that typifies Jade stores worldwide.
DESIGN DIRECTOR KARIN DELPORT
INSPIRATION & INFLUENCES
Jade Design Director Karin Delport was born and raised in South Africa. Her interest in fashion started from an early age as she enjoyed dressing up & making her own clothes. Her passion for jewellery design grew as she acquired interesting gemstones during her travels and started to assemble these stones to create beautiful pieces. These objects were so desired and admired by family and friends that orders soon started rolling in. Karin then started sourcing more gemstones with each journey to exotic destinations and became increasingly inspired to create new designer pieces. Today, Karin continues to source precious and semi-precious materials from all over the world – however she has a distinct focus and interest in the unique and richly beautiful gemstones from Africa – each jewel representing her homeground.
Whilst designing, Karin may start with existing strings of jewels and then tailor-made fresh creations in-store for a specific need. At Jade, all the trained designers generally have roots in tradition but with flexibility and openness to new influences. Under Karin's direction, the team consider design & fashion trends. Jade have kept abreast with changing trends over the years and are, of course watchful of seasonality. For this Autumn and Winter Season people are buying a lot of purple. “Our Amethyst stones have been very popular, says Karin, “They can stand alone or form part of the mix as we conjure up are creation more suited to your individual needs.” Jade designers also consider the global trend to owning more genuine products. For example with crystals, one would rather have one real one than many glass ones. Consumers are usually pleasantly surprised when they discover how affordable the “real thing” is. Its well within reach to purchase a valuable gemstone at Jade – and it's yours for life. The pieces are well-priced and range from affordable entry level (R400-R700) and extend to more exclusive pieces priced up to R20 000.
Besides traditions, fashion and consumers' desires to own genuine products – there's also a move from rigidity and precision to asymetrical balance in design. Consumers are discovering Jade's unique ability to create awe-inspiring centrepieces, using carefully selected stones on a string, or individual colours rather than mixing strong colours. Whether its bigger, smaller and finer – the signature style is always bold – yet finely balanced.
Although Karin designs for customers from across the globe, over the years she has developed an understanding of cultural style nuances and is able to design for sensitivity for all cultures from Italians with the preferences for bulky and bold or the french with their preferences for pearls. However, she encourages individuality and the expression of each individuals own personality. She has developed a knack for reading people. How conservative or liberal they are. Their personality, hairstyle, clothes and make-up usually gives clues. Karin makes recommendations accordingly. “I take time to explore my clients’ preferences at length, which colours are most suitable and which stones match up to the personality I feel in them. I like to consider the needs of each individual women - and tailor beautiful pieces specifically designed for them”
Interested in starting your own Jade franchise or becoming an international agent? For more information on franchising opportunities contact Christoff Delport christoff@jade-sa.co.za to find out about Jade operations, business advice, stock, training, support and infrastructure.