In the span of one year, I have visited jewelry and watch trade shows in Switzerland (twice), France, and Italy, not to mention countless here in the United States, and, in a matter of two weeks, I will visit another in Dubai. My children look at me as some flight-hopping jetsetter who, for some reason, can still make a mean pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. My friends think I’m either lucky or crazy, and my mother gave up saying the rosary for me because she couldn’t keep up with my numerous flights. But what I do is not much different than what many of my colleagues do: we drag our 60-pound luggages through foreign airports and get into scuffles with taxi drivers who try price-gauging us because we’re “Américain typique” all so we can bring you, our readers, the best and brightest images, feedback, and stories of what’s hot and what’s not in jewelry throughout the world. And why is what the rest of the planet has to say important? Well, that’s what I’m here to discuss.

A recent visit to the September edition of the VICENZAORO trade show opened my eyes to what’s been missing from many of the major fairs and shows that the jewelry industry puts forth in a matter of a year: a conscience. With its “Green Jewellery” theme and focus on sustainability, fair-mined metals, and women’s empowerment, the show embraced what is also on the mind of the millennial shopper, and, in turn, getting retail store buyers to think the way their customers do. In other words, rather than starting the chain from the starting point of the customer and having it go “customer – salesperson – management – buyer – wholesaler/designer/brand”, the show took the process in the opposite direction by getting into the minds of the wholesaler/designer/brand first and working green practices and sustainable efforts from there, eventually passing the information off to the buyer, then management, salesperson, and hopefully, the customer, who likely already cared about green practices in the first place. This was a truly remarkable effort on the part of those who ran the fair, and with buyer attendance up over 20% from this year to last, clearly, they were onto something.

But VICENZAORO wasn’t just a standout because of the show’s discussions of current topics or the emphasis they put on the environment and the earth. After all, these are the Italians we’re talking about, and do we not look to the Italians first when it comes to seeing what’s hot in fashion? Or when it comes to knowing what the next trend is in terms of gold jewelry? We do, which makes being present at shows like these all the more important.

At the BIJORHCA show in Paris last September I learned much about contemporary jewelry and the jewelry artisans who were brave enough to use materials and metals not often used at the fine jewelry and “High Jewellery” fairs I’d attended in the past. It was refreshing, and I covered the show with an enthusiasm that had been lacking after years of walking what felt like the same New York or Vegas halls and the same carpeted ballrooms of jewelry shows throughout the United States. I came home with a different outlook and spread the word to my friends – both consumer and retailer – who’d been tired of either buying or selling silver beaded bracelets. What I found, in a year, was that that movement has started gaining momentum. American consumers gained an interest in unique styles using cool colors, creative textiles, and nontraditional metals, which in turn let American retailers know to start carrying some of the European brands I’d seen not twelve months prior.

Remember that many of the most memorable names in jewelry – be it high end like Chopard, Bulgari, and Fabergé, or lower price point brands like Pandora – have roots that often started in Europe or in Asia. While the world looks to the United States for many things (are you reading this on your iPhone right now?), when it comes to jewelry styles, trends, or even the practices with which jewelry is made, we should still look across the pond for inspiration, which is why I try my darnedest never to turn down the offer to visit one of these European jewelry fairs.

Well, that, and the champagne they serve is usually the good stuff.