Market Instability Meets Fashion Revolution

The first test of the new free market came at the end of the decade, when the large amounts of Chinese goods depressed prices for some categories and the production of Tahitian black cultured pearls skyrocketed with little control over quality. Prices for lower-quality black cultured pearls in particular plummeted, a situation that took several years to reverse as the French Polynesian government imposed stricter controls on exports. The Japanese attempted to move akoyas more up-market by concentrating on larger sizes, while the South Sea producers increased their luxury marketing and advertising campaigns. At the same time, cultured pearls in pastel shades of green, violet, pink and blue began showing up in designer pieces in the late 1990s, while a producer in the Philippines launched a marketing campaign for gold-colored goods. Within the past few years, “chocolate pearls” have become a fashion item. Once rejected by pearl producers and distributors who thought only in terms of black and white, such fancy-colored cultured pearls started a fashion revolution that still continues (figure 4).