The increasing illness in the baby boomer population is one reason. A higher than ever diabetes rate is another. There are no outwards physical signs that indicate “I have a heart condition.” There is not always a way to tell what a person is allergic to in the event of an emergency. Truthfully, all of these are reasons for the existence and importance of medical ID bracelets. But what are they, what is their purpose, and how can they help people with different needs?

Medical ID bracelets come in many different styles, shapes, and designs so that a person can choose one that is not only suitable to their tastes but works well within their lifestyle without hindering it. The idea behind medical ID bracelets is that they serve as a functional piece of jewelry while also alerting those who may help in a medical emergency to a person’s medical conditions. Things that are typically found on medical ID bracelets include heart conditions, being a diabetic, allergies to medications, allergies to bees, foods, or latex, or other medical conditions that can be considered life threatening or important for medical personnel to know in the event of the person needing treatment.

Medical ID bracelets are not fashioned just for older people who might be more likely to need them. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes to even accommodate children who have special medical needs and might be in need of treatment at some moment in time and not able to comunicate their health needs in a way that is important. Some bracelets are tag-style and information is engraved directly on them while others are made to be more discreet.

Some have a panel that slides open and reveals a person’s personal information while other bracelet styles have a removable piece where a person can type out a full description of their medical history or precaustions, which is best suited to those with a complicated medical history. Some types like the latter are changeable as the person’s medical history changes too, and obvious advantage over the other style.

Depending on what one desires the bracelet to be made out of will determine cost. For basic medical ID bracelets that come pre-engraved at most pharmacies with common descriptions such as “diabetic” and “heart condition” a person can expect a relatively low cost. The next expense level would involve ordering a custom engraved bracelet that might take several days or weeks to get, made of stainless steel, and can be purchased for approximately twenty dollars. The more expensive varieties are the medical ID bracelets that allow for the storage of complicated ID papers telling a person’s medical history or that have a little comaprtment to keep information concealed from prying eyes while still bearing a medical symbol on the outside, and the most expensive of this variety are made of gold rather than some other material.

Buyers can expect to pay as much as seventy or eighty dollars for a gold bracelet with this kind of structure to it, if they decide this is what they desire. But no matter what type of bracelet a person decides on, if they have a serious medical condition or are taking certain medicines, any money spent might be a small cost and the little bit of money that saves their lives.

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As consumers rushed to complete their <a href=http://www.jewelleryday.com/ ” target=”_blank”>holiday gift lists online</a>, the analysis showed that fragrance and cosmetics sites experienced a 30 percent increase in the number of unique visitors between November and December, followed by consumer-goods sites with a 23 percent increase, and jewelry, luxury goods and accessories sites with a 22 percent increase, to 24 million unique visitors.

Other sites with a significant increase in unique visitors during the month of December included shipping (21 percent), retail-music (17 percent) and gay and lesbian Web sites (16 percent.)

When it comes to individual Web sites, OfficeMax topped the list for unique-visitor growth in December with a 170 percent increase, fueled mostly by its popular, viral holiday-greeting site Elfyourself.com.

Yahoo Sites continued its reign as the top U.S. Web property in December with about 137 million unique visitors, followed by Google Sites with 133 million and Microsoft Sites with 120 million.

Apple Inc. did well in December, moving up to the No. 10 spot due to interest in the iPod and iPhone as holiday gifts.

Other retail sites that posted big gains in December included Sears, J.C. Penney and Best Buy.

ComScore Inc. measures the digital world based on a global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given the company permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. ComScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions.

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Zale Chief Administrative Officer Rodney Carter didn’t identify the stores, but said the Irving, Texas-based jeweler would be closing unprofitable Zales, Gordon’s Jewelers and Piercing Pagoda stores and “several dozen more” stores later this year.

Zale Vice President and Treasurer David Sternblitz told National Jeweler that the company is not planning on exiting any geographic markets and that “there is the potential that the people impacted get placed at other stores or other brands.”

Zale is one of many large retail chains to announce store closings following a dismal holiday shopping season.

In its earnings call last week, Zale reported same-store sales fell 9 percent in November and December, and total revenues for the two-month period were down 10.1 percent, from $804 million in 2006 to $723 million in 2007.

Speaking at the Cowen and Co. Annual Consumer Conference in New York, Carter also said Zale would cut capital spending from $100 million to $85 million.

Other retail stores to announce closings following weak holiday sales include home furnishings retailer Ethan Allen Interiors Inc., which is closing 12 stores; Liz Claiborne Inc., which is closing its 54-store Sigrid Olsen chain; and Macy’s Inc., which announced three days after Christmas that it was closing nine additional stores, various news sources have reported.

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Billed as one of the most expensive men’s timepieces on sale today, some 50 units of the Grande Complication watch have been by the International Watch Company (IWC) each year since 1990.

The gold version of the wristwatch is priced at 758,000 dirhams (£105,169) and features 71 jewels, 659 mechanical parts and 21 functions and displays, including a perpetual moon display of polished goldstone, which is meant to represent the night sky, according to IWC regional brand manager Gianfranco D’Attis.

It also features a perpetual calendar for the next 500 years, he said.

To date, six of the watches have been sold in the UAE.

According to Forbes.com, collectors’ watches are becoming increasingly complicated and include such features as Greenwich Mean time functions and power reservce indicators, as well as chronograph functions.

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Gary Shuler is director of the jewelry department at Sotheby’s in New York City.

“In general, people’s expectations of what their jewelry is worth are higher than they are aware of” in relation to its true value, warned Cheryl Woodland, a certified gemologist and appraiser in Golden, Colo., who has 15 years experience. The market price for a piece of jewelry, she said, is “what a willing buyer is going to pay; there is no Blue Book for selling a piece of jewelry.”

Many factors affect an object’s current market value, from fashion trends to provenance — a piece’s previous owners, the experts say. A piece owned by someone famous, or with a historical association, may have much greater value than an equal piece with no such back story.

“It is difficult to sell your jewelry,” said Christopher Del Gatto, a founder and chief executive of Circa, a six-year-old concern with stores in Manhattan, Palm Beach, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, and Hong Kong, that sells only preowned, or estate, jewelry.

“You don’t think about selling your jewelry until you have to do it, and it’s tough to find a liquid market for a high-end item,” he said. His firm will write a check on the spot, whether the item is a 75-point diamond or a seven-carat, and it completes a deal with more than 80 percent of clients who approach it, he said. Circa also offers a price in writing, allowing sellers to compare offers from other outlets for a few weeks before making a decision. Sellers from around the world mail their jewelry to the firm or e-mail images.

Both Mr. Del Gatto and Ms. Woodland caution would-be sellers against irrational exuberance when hearing an appraised value of a piece, reminding them that its sales value will be much less. “This business is fraught with misnomers,” Mr. Del Gatto said. The appraised value, he adds, is “the retail value for insurance purposes.”

Gary Shuler, director of the jewelry department at Sotheby’s in New York, agreed that most people don’t understand the difference between the real price and the appraised value. “We might get half to one-third to even one-quarter of what you’ve had the item appraised for,” he said. “Everyone has an inflated idea of the value of their possessions.”

Sotheby’s sells jewelry that has a minimum value of $5,000, and adds a negotiated seller’s premium, which is a percentage of the sale price. A buyer’s premium also applies, adding an additional amount up to 25 percent of the price. But just because a piece is valuable monetarily may not mean there is an eager buyer for it, Mr. Shuler said.

“I send people elsewhere all the time,” he said. “The key is, Are we doing you a service? Are we the best people to sell it for you? We don’t make a market. We reflect markets. And we don’t want the piece back. We want it sold.”

Rahul Kadakia, senior vice president and head of jewelry in New York for Christie’s, said: “There is no rule as to the minimum value for the inclusion of a lot in an auction. We also include exquisite examples of vintage jewels and also items with special provenance which may not necessarily hold the highest estimates in the catalogue.”

“Every now and then, we also see jewels and stones that could well be worth a lot of money but if the style is not suited for a certain market or geographic region, it may be difficult to sell,” Mr. Kadakia said.

Occasionally, he said, “we see items that are really not suited for the sales that we put together and we refer clients to local auction houses or even dealers who might handle these jewels. If something is very suited for the European, Asian or Middle Eastern markets, we would suggest the inclusion of these jewels at our sale centers in Geneva, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Hong Kong or Dubai.”

Gloria Lieberman, director of the jewelry department at Skinner Inc., an auction firm based in Boston with a second sales room in Bolton, Mass., said her firm is one of the few relatively inclusive auction houses.

With two quite different sales rooms and two different audiences, “we make the decision where it should sell,” she said. “I have things for $300 or $500 that are still sophisticated, maybe out of silver or ivory with a certain design quality. Our consignments come from everywhere.”

Just as styles and tastes change, so do the underlying value of stones and metals. “Gold right now is twice the value of 10 years ago,” Ms. Woodland said. Sometimes, a piece can be sold simply for its scrap value.

Impatience will literally cost the seller dearly because the faster the seller needs the money, the lower the price that will be offered, as low as 50 percent of wholesale, she added.

The experts all agreed that before someone even considers selling a piece of jewelry, whether for scrap, at auction or to a local retailer, that person should do research and try to determine its current value. A trained professional certified by the American Society of Appraisers can help.

Kristine Seen, an administrative assistant in Fort Collins, Colo., has learned how tough it can be to sell even 18-karat jewelry studded with diamonds. Her collection, an appraiser told her, could fetch $4,500, a sum she needed to pay the legal fees after her recent divorce. When a local jeweler offered her $800 for all of it, “I laughed at him,” she said. Listing her objects on Craigslist brought a raft of clearly fraudulent buyers.

“This was very much a discouraging experience,” she said.

One other option is consigning the piece with Portero, a three-year-old New York-based online auction firm devoted to luxury objects, including jewelry. The company has completed more than 60,000 auctions. While it sells major names like Harry Winston and Van Cleef & Arpels, it also sells merchandise for as little as $200 or $300.

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Many escaping families split up hoping to improve the chances that at least some of them would make it, said son Hanh Dinh. “But my parents said, ‘Whoever God gave us is family. If we die, we all die. If we live, we all live.’ ”

The seventh attempt in 1979 was successful for all eight family members. They arrived in Indonesia and then in Garden Grove.

Hanh Dinh tells the story to explain why his family makes all their personal and business decisions as a unit.

Hanh and his brother Hai are listed as owners of NQ. Jewellers that recently opened in Fountain Valley. But the whole family really owns this newest store, Hanh emphasizes, just as the whole family owns four other jewelry stores in the Asian Garden Mall in Westminster.

They succeed or fail as a family.

It is an unusual achievement. Only about a third of family-owned small businesses survive into the second generation. Different goals, ambitions and management styles have disrupted more than one Thanksgiving dinner for families that jointly own businesses.

After the Dinhs moved to Garden Grove, family members old enough to work got jobs sewing clothes in the Southern California garment industry, says Hanh, who was nine when the family escaped Vietnam.

“But my mom’s passion, even when she was young in Vietnam, was to have a jewelry store,” he said.

Family members pooled their assets and in 1988, the Dinhs opened their first jewelry shop, Ngoc Quang, in the Asian Garden Mall, one of the largest Vietnamese retail centers in the United States with about 400 stores, more than 150 of them selling jewelry from tiny stalls as well as enclosed stores. Despite that competition, Ngoc Quang became known as a store with quality merchandise, Hanh says.

The children went to the Gemological Institute of America, at that time in Santa Monica, to learn diamond grading and jewelry manufacturing.

As the first shop prospered, the family opened another shop with the same name in the same mall, which built on the reputation the Ngoc Quang brand already had. Tien Dinh and Mui Luong became known in the Vietnamese community as Mr. and Mrs. Ngoc Quang, Hanh said laughing.

Each business was still part of the family enterprise. Everyone pitched in money and labor to build each new enterprise.

“My dad always saw this as a country of opportunity,” Hanh said, “All these years my parents work for the kids, and they wanted to keep us all close.”

Two years ago the family started thinking about the need to reach out to the non-Vietnamese community.

That idea built on the 2002 success of the Euro-Asian Furnishings store that daughter Van Dinh and her husband Peter Phan opened in Fountain Valley for mainstream shoppers.

“The new generation is coming and (the grandchildren) will be American,” Hanh says. “We try to keep them in the family business, but if we’re not approaching the mainstream, there won’t be opportunities for all of them.”

A discount store, Factory 2 U, was closing next to Phan’s furniture store, and the Dinhs thought the location would good for a different, grander jewelry store that Ngoc Quang has built in Westminster.

However, the entire family had to agree on every decision.

“Every meeting we discussed ideas. Some (family members) rejects, some agreed. We continued until everyone agreed on each idea,” Hanh says. “My parents wanted something that flowed and didn’t block the (customer’s) view (of the entire store) so we discussed how to make that work.”

Hanh shrugs at that process as though every family runs its enterprises on unanimous votes.

The resulting store is 8,000 square feet, built in glass and lined in cherry wood. The cases carry such brands as Verragio, ESQ Swiss and Michael B. Flat-screen televisions mounted around the store show videos of various jewelry products.

In the back, jewelry designers and repair technicians work in a windowed room so customers can watch. Security is heavy but not heavy handed.

The family decided on a less Vietnamese name, NQ. Jewellers – deliberately misspelling the word to get attention – in the hope of attracting a broad customer base.

In the weeks leading up to the opening, dozens of people cleaned glass, stocked cases and hung crystals from the dozens of orchid plants around the store.

They were all relatives.

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When Chelsea wore it, she’d suck on the charms. “We would always tell her to take it out of her mouth,” says McGuire of San Jose, Calif.
A couple months later, Chelsea’s school suggested she be tested for lead poisoning. The results showed a lead level of 27, nearly three times higher than the government’s minimum risk level of 10. Soon after, the charms, which contained lead, were recalled.

A year ago, Jarnell Brown of Minneapolis died after swallowing a lead-filled charm, and at least seven other children have been poisoned by lead in children’s jewelry in the past 10 years.

The use of lead paint in toys from China has become an issue after three Mattel (MAT) recalls, including one this week. Now, the federal government is proposing, for the first time, to regulate lead in children’s jewelry.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Consumer Product Safety Commission | Michael Klein

A lack of regulation, spotty testing by manufacturers, an understaffed government agency and few inspections at the U.S. border mean hundreds of thousands of the tiny trinkets parents buy for their children may still have dangerously high levels of lead, some current and former Consumer Product Safety Commission officials say.

The new CPSC proposal, expected by year’s end, would limit the amount of lead that can seep out of jewelry to 0.06% of total content, or no more than 600 parts per million. Those limits were adopted in California this summer and are the same as what’s allowed in house paint and toys.

But critics say the standard is based on outdated research and falls short of what is needed to guarantee children aren’t at risk of the learning and behavior issues linked to lead. “All of the (lead) standards need to be completely revisited,” says Bruce Lanphear, a physician and director of the Environmental Health Center at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital.

‘Catch as catch can’

Despite the fact that lead in children’s jewelry was becoming a concern in the late 1990s, it wasn’t until the poisoning of Colton Burkhart of Portland, Ore., in 2003 that CPSC was shocked into action. The 4-year-old’s blood lead level reached 123, more than 12 times the minimum risk level, after he swallowed the medallion from a vending machine necklace. Today, Colton’s lead level is still higher than 10.

CPSC went from referring to the risk from ingesting lead as “exposure” to calling it “poisoning,” and the staff changed its stance that lead in jewelry was OK if it wasn’t “accessible” to children (for example, if the lead was coated sufficiently). Now, it is not only proposing regulations for lead in jewelry for children under 6 but is considering including older kids’ jewelry, as well.

Lead was banned for use in house paint and children’s toys in the USA in 1978. But the federal agency charged with ensuring consumer product safety didn’t issue its first guidelines on children’s jewelry until 1998, updating them in 2005. The guidelines are not legally binding. However, CPSC uses them as the basis for negotiating recalls when it finds jewelry with high levels of lead.

The proposed regulations on children’s jewelry won’t require companies to test for lead content, although many manufacturers and retailers already do. Testing would continue to be voluntary.

That means jewelry will be treated like most toys under federal law: Companies are not required to test or certify that the products meet safety standards. But they are subject to civil or criminal penalties if they get caught selling products that violate standards. There’s no Underwriters Laboratories seal of approval on toys or jewelry showing they are safe, as there would be for, say, a toaster.

Acting CPSC Chairman Nancy Nord asked Congress in July to require companies to certify that their products meet safety standards. “To my mind, that’s testing,” which, she says, the “reputable firms do.”

Even if a company voluntarily tests its products for lead, the tests may not be above board, says Gene Rider, a vice president at testing laboratory Intertek of Oak Brook, Ill. It works extensively with manufacturers in China.

Foreign suppliers sometimes provide “golden samples (with) test results that always come back good,” says Rider. The key is knowing “what does the test represent?”

“You shouldn’t have to worry whether kids are going to get lead in their toys or jewelry,” says Andrew Krulwich, a former CPSC general counsel who is now a regulatory lawyer. “They’ve got to come up with some requirements.”

The issue has caught Washington’s attention. A bill sponsored by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., would require independent testing and certification of children’s products. The CPSC will hold a U.S.-China summit on product safety next week and a congressional hearing on lead-tainted children’s products, including jewelry, is scheduled for Sept. 19.

CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson says the agency has stepped up random inspections of children’s jewelry and is working more closely with state officials to target tainted jewelry. But the agency has only 82 inspectors nationwide who handle all consumer products. That’s down from about 300 in 1981 and 99 in 2004. There are three openings in the compliance office, where potential recalls are investigated, yet the agency hired two economists this summer.

“CPSC should be focused on enforcement, on inspections and on what is being done right now for preventing dangerous products from getting on store shelves in the future,” says Pamela Gilbert, who was CPSC executive director in the Clinton administration.

Nord says the agency is “not a toothless tiger,” but acknowledges, “We can always do more with more.”

Until Colton Burkhart’s poisoning, children’s jewelry had just been a lower priority for the CSPC than other products, such as all-terrain vehicles, which are much more likely to cause children’s deaths.

“It’s not that CPSC is trying to do bad, but they just have a lot of problems getting a focus,” says former CPSC executive director Michael Brown, who now represents manufacturers as a product liability lawyer. “When you have very few people, you end up with catch-as-catch-can enforcement.”

‘Little-known agents’

Forty-two recalls of more than 100 million pieces of lead-tainted jewelry have occurred in the past four years, including a recall in May of 103,000 High School Musical and other themed necklaces.

Some of the recalled jewelry has been sold and resold by networks of little-known agents, distributors and other middlemen before landing at U.S. retailers, which CPSC acknowledges can make the products difficult to track.

The recall of High School Musical jewelry came after random testing by Tween Brands, the company that owns Limited Too and Justice stores where the jewelry was sold. Its Chinese suppliers were “relatively small operators,” says spokesman Robert Atkinson. “They were names I didn’t recognize. (They were) not part of some big conglomerate.”

The company pulled the jewelry even though the lead levels were so low that they could have come from the air in the Chinese factory where it was made, Atkinson says. “The tolerances here in some cases were almost immeasurable.”

Michael Klein, president of U.S. Toy Co. of Grandview, Mo., who had two recalls in the past year because of lead content in jewelry his company sells, says small companies are overwhelmed by safety regulations, and “It’s almost impossible to keep up with.”

The issue of lead in children’s jewelry should be focused on whether the lead is accessible to children, says Michael Gale, executive director of the Fashion Jewelry Trade Association, which represents about 225 U.S. jewelry suppliers and retailers. If the lead is plated several times with other metals, it would not be able to seep out, the industry told CPSC in a meeting last month. “We’re very concerned about the safety of children and also the ability of our industry to do business,” says Gale.

The attraction of lead

Lead tastes sweet.

That may make jewelry and other items that have lead in them even more tempting for young children to suck on, medical experts say. About 20,000 children under 18 were treated in emergency rooms for swallowing jewelry from 2000 to 2005, according to CPSC. About 80% of them were 6 or younger.

Nearly 300,000 U.S. children under 6 years old have lead levels above 10, the level the government says puts kids at risk. Research now shows that levels as low as 4 can affect a child’s IQ, and the risk doesn’t go away when the level drops. So, Lanphear says, millions more children may be at risk of learning and behavioral issues.

“Some of the effects appear to be subtle,” says Amy Roberts, manager of the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program in Kansas City, Mo. “You may have a child that appears to be growing and doing what they are supposed to be doing developmentally, and you don’t see problems until they become 15 or 16, and they have to make much more complicated decisions.”

Lead can linger in the human body for years, says Richard Leiker, an Oregon health official who worked on Colton Burkhart’s case. “It can be stored in the bones. It may take 20 to 30 years for all of that to come out.”

That’s what scares Erin McGuire. When her daughter’s lead level went back down, she decided there was no harm done. But now, McGuire says, she’s concerned that the lead may have had a longer-term impact as her daughter has started having problems in school despite being part of the gifted and talented program.

“She’s above her grade level in reading but is just blank in math,” says McGuire. “The discrepancy is so large that we’re in the middle of trying to find out if she has any (lead-related) learning problems.”

Contributing: Mindy Fetterman

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According to Global Industry Analysts, China’s jewelry industry totaled $18 billion last year, up 35% from 2001. It is the third largest consumption item among Chinese, after automobiles and housing. By 2010, the country is expected to have the biggest jewelry market in the world.

Fuqi has taken advantage of this trend, achieving an average 57% annual sales growth rate in the last five years. So far it has sold its products wholesale to retailers and distributors. But now the company wants to open its own retail shops, and the U.S. initial public offering will help pay for it.

THE COMPANY

Fuqi was founded in 2001. It has built up a design database of over 20,000 products, mostly made from platinum, gold and other precious metals. Its wholesale markup ranges from 10% to 12%, which can climb as high as 30% by the time it gets to the consumer.

Not surprisingly, Fuqi would like more of that margin. Its retail plan is to open 20 counters and two stores this year and open 60 to 80 counters and eight to 10 stores next year. It also will shift its product line toward finished gemstone items. Historically, this hasn’t been a very big part of the business, but the firm says it has higher margins than the strictly metal pieces.

In November, Fuqi went through a reverse-merger transaction with visitalk.com, a firm in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. However, the deal does not seem to have left the firm with significant long-term debt.

RISKS/CHALLENGES

Investing in China isn’t for the risk-averse, as previous market tremors there this year have shown. As a highly discretionary item, jewelry is perhaps more vulnerable to economic fluctuations than most products.

Much of Fuqi’s working capital comes from accounts receivable, i.e., orders that have not been paid. Major defaults could seriously hurt the company’s cash supply.

Fuqi is vulnerable to commodity prices of the metals and gems it uses. Historically, it has not hedged against this, but it plans to do so in the future. The supply is also heavily regulated by the Chinese government.

It’s hard to tell how the retail strategy will work out, since the firm has never done it before. It also will need to expand geographically, since sales are now concentrated in a few northern provinces.

Fuqi has about $16 million outstanding in short-term borrowings.

THE RESULTS

Sales have ramped respectably in the company’s short life, totaling $92.4 million last year. In the first six months of this year sales gained 12% to $54.2 million, while net income rose 21% to $3.4 million.

USE OF PROCEEDS

Fuqi has not set terms for the offering, but it plans to spend the proceeds on expanding retail operations and product lines and for general corporate purposes.

THE MANAGEMENT

Yu Kwai Chong

President, chief executive, chairman

Founded the company and has headed it since 2001. Founded the first jewelry manufacturing and sales firm in Shenzhen over 20 years ago.

Ching Wan Wong

Chief financial officer and director

Joined in 2004 after two years as a tax consultant. Previously he served as finance director for MindShare China and Carat Media. He holds bachelor’s degrees from both the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Southern Queensland University.

Lie Xi Zhuang

Chief operating officer and director

Co-founded the company after seven years at Shenzhen Ping Shen Gold and Silver Jewelry Co. Holds a management degree from Hunan Xiang Tan University.

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Gross profit as a percentage of net sales more than doubled to 15.9% from 7.0% a year earlier, as gross profit increased to $764,000 in the current quarter from $174,000 in the 2006 second quarter. The company said gross profit gains reflected increased penetration of its higher-margin Elizabeth and Kathy Ireland branded jewelry products. Gross profit margin for the comparable period in 2006 was impacted by sales of closeout merchandise and the introduction of branded products at lower margins.

Even with sales nearly doubling, selling, shipping and general and administrative (SG&A) expenses in the 2007 second quarter were slightly lower at $2.2 million, compared with $2.3 million in the corresponding period a year ago. The increased sales, higher gross profit margin and lower SG&A expenses resulted in reducing the company’s operating loss to $1.5 million for the 2007 second quarter from $2.1 million in the prior-year period.

The company incurred interest expense for the 2007 second quarter of $1.2 million, which included $898,000 of non-cash expense related to the amortization of costs associated with convertible notes. This compares with $782,000 of interest expense last year, which included $573,000 of non-cash expense related to the amortization of costs associated with convertible notes.

For the 2007 second quarter, House of Taylor Jewelry posted net income of $25,000, equal to $0.00 per diluted share, which included a non-cash gain of $2.6 million due to the change in the fair value of the company’s warrant liability. In the year-ago period, the company incurred a net loss of $290,000, equal to a loss of $0.01 per share, which included a non-cash gain of $2.6 million due to the change in the fair value of the warrant liability.

“The favorable results reflect the company’s improved operating performance, as well as continued execution of our business strategies,” said Jack Abramov, president and chief executive officer. “The strong consumer awareness levels of both Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Kathy Ireland, combined with an experienced, passionate and dedicated management team, have enabled House of Taylor Jewelry to rapidly emerge in an extremely competitive industry as a leading international <a href=http://www.jewelryadviser.us/ ” target=”_blank”>jewelry company</a> with a powerful collection of brands.

“We continue to selectively expand our product assortment and channels of distribution to meet the growing demand from consumers for our branded jewelry products,” Abramov said. “We are particularly pleased with the demand, independent door penetration and sell thru for our Kathy Ireland Jewelry line, which targets the broader spectrum of consumers with price points from $200 to $3,500. Going forward, we expect to ramp-up sales, further increase market awareness and expand our Kathy Ireland bridal, diamond and fashion assortments in the most frequently purchased categories.”

For the first half of 2007, net sales more than doubled to $9.3 million from $3.8 million for the first half of 2006. Gross profit as a percentage of sales improved significantly to 13.6% from 4.8% for the 2006 first half. Gross profit increased to $1.3 million in the current six-month period from $184,000 a year earlier. Selling, shipping and general and administrative expenses in the 2007 second quarter declined to $4.1 million from $4.3 million in the year-ago six-month period. The increased sales, higher gross profit margin and lower SG&A expenses resulted in a significant reduction of the company’s operating loss to $2.8 million for the second half of 2007 from $4.1 million in the prior-year period. Included in the $2.8 million loss for the second half of 2007 is $905,000 of non-cash expenses relating to depreciation, amortization, allowances and share based compensation.

The company incurred interest expense for the year-to-date period of $2.9 million, which included $2.2 million of non-cash expense related to the amortization of costs associated with convertible notes. This compares with $906,000 of interest expense last year, which included $573,000 of non-cash expense related to the amortization of costs associated with convertible notes.

For the year-to-date period, House of Taylor Jewelry incurred a net loss of $3.0 million, or $0.07 per share, which included a non-cash gain of $2.7 million due to the change in the fair value of the warrant liability. In the 2006 six-month period, the company sustained a net loss of $2.4 million, or $0.06 per share, which also included a non-cash gain of $2.6 million due to the change in the fair value of the warrant liability.

“We continue to establish and strengthen industry relationships that help position House of Taylor Jewelry in the market as a key branded supplier of consistent, well-priced polished diamonds and diamond jewelry. With the success of this initiative to date and an enviable portfolio of <a href=http://www.jewelryadviser.biz/ ” target=”_blank”>jewelry brands</a>, we are maintaining our focus on expanding growth with an objective achieving and sustaining profitability,” Abramov said.

About House of Taylor Jewelry

House of Taylor Jewelry is a Los Angeles-based international jewelry company whose principal shareholders include entities owned by Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Kathy Ireland, along with members of the Abramov family. It serves fine jewelry retailers worldwide with diverse jewelry collections marketed under the brands Elizabeth(TM), House of Taylor Jewelry(TM), and Kathy Ireland Jewelry(TM) Exclusively for House of Taylor Jewelry. More information on the company can be found at http://www.hotj.com.

Certain statements included in this press release, including, but not limited to, implementation and success of programs to expand and accelerate worldwide branding and related growth initiatives, and statements regarding market potential of our brands, constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements include the availability of funding for current and future operations; the acceptance of the company’s branded products in the marketplace; and the characteristics and pricing of the company’s branded products as compared with competing products, as well as others discussed in House of Taylor Jewelry, Inc.’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. House of Taylor Jewelry, Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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