Welcome back to my day-by-day breakdown of the 2023 edition of The COUTURE Show, which recently concluded at the Wynn Convention Center.  As my notes were more comprehensive on Day 4, I have broken out each of the designers with whom I met—Arunashi, Goshwara, Karen Suen Fine Jewellery, Bayco, and Assael—into their own articles.  Enjoy!  And now: Bayco!!

Sunday, June 04: Day 4 (1pm – 6pm)

While It is unescapably accurate that the role of colored gemstones and minerals, as well as colored alloys, and techniques such as enameling, have become increasingly more prominent in jewelry design as people become more concerned with expressing their own personalities and individuality than in years past; it always amuses me when I learn that another editor has come away from COUTURE declaring that “Color” is a hot trend.   

Besides the fact that colorless diamonds are always going to be in style—certainly, if DeBeers has anything to do with it, and especially with the rise in high-quality lab-grown diamonds—you’d have to have a heckuva lotta nerve (and be ignorant af!) to walk up to anyone affiliated with any the five acclaimed jewelry houses I met with on the last day of COUTURE 2023, look them in the eye and tell them, with a straight face, that color is new, is back, is a trend, or is anything other than one of the pillars upon which they (and in many cases, previous generations of their families) have built their respective companies. 

Anyhow, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let’s get to it!

BAYCO:  The great Bevy Smith once said, “There are two kinds of people in this world: Size queens and people who lie about it.”  And while she wasn’t talking about jewelry, that statement rings especially true to anyone familiar with Bayco and the three generations of Hadjibays behind the Maison.  And while I was late to the Bayco party—only meeting with them for the first time at COUTURE 2022 after Victor Velyan took me by the hand, marched me over to where the Hadjibay brothers, Giacomo and Moris, were talking with Moris’s son, Marco, and introduced me to them—I was an immediate fan.  Bayco specializes in colored gemstones of exceptional quality, and often of notable size.  Last year, the piece that stuck with me was the gobsmacking 72-carat Octagonal Cabochon-cut Zambian Emerald on a platinum bracelet with more than 41 carats of round-cut colorless diamonds in a honeycomb setting so finely assembled that it feels like a textile.  The $2 million jewel found me apologizing (in jest) to the Hadjibays for the mess that I’d pretended to have made as a result of the small orgasm I joked about experiencing while fondling it.

This year, while there was indeed another emerald that caught my eye, in the form of the platinum ring featuring a spectacular 18.65-carat Vivid Green Square Emerald-Cut Colombian Emerald flanked by a pair of exceptional pear-shaped colorless diamonds (3.23tcw); it was all about the sapphires for me.

There was the juicy 17-carat Briolette-cut Orange Sapphire from the Spada Collection, set on a necklace of 18K gold set with 6.15cts of colorless diamonds, and the 15-carat Emerald-cut Orange Sapphire and Diamond Ring set in 18K gold between a pair of epaulet-cut colorless diamonds (1.23tcw); as well as the 13.60-carat Exceptional Natural Unheated Cushion-cut Green Sapphire flanked by colorless epaulet-cut diamonds (1.07tcw), set in a platinum ring; not to mention the 5-Row Multi-colored Sapphire Bracelet featuring 165 emerald-cut natural multicolored sapphires totaling 58.65-carats set in a five-row bracelet of 18K gold, that pairs so marvelously with each of the sapphire pieces I’ve previously mentioned.

But the star of the show, and perhaps the most spellbindingly alluring piece I viewed at COUTURE 2023 was the ‘The Mediterranean Blue’ Sapphire and Diamond Ring from Bayco’s Imperial Collection.  A very rare and very large emerald-cut natural unheated Ceylonese sapphire of 46.23-carats with exquisite color, clarity, and brilliance, surrounded by 26 shield-cut colorless diamonds (8.15tcw) set in a ring of platinum.  As I wore it, turning it this way and that to catch the fire exposed by the meticulous cut, the beguiling shade of blue reminded me of the shadows in one of David Hockney’s pool paintings and the darkest waters of Capri’s Grotta Azzurra.

Sure, there were other pieces that caused a flutter in my tummy, like the Two-Tone Platinum And 18kt Yellow Gold Diamond Bangle, an exceptional piece centered upon two matching components—one set with fancy vivid yellow diamonds (1.85tcw), and the other with colorless diamonds (1.60tcw)—each featuring a kite-shaped diamond and two shield-shape diamonds that have been set in the shape of an arrowhead; as well as the Carved Emerald and Rose-cut Diamond Necklace from Bayco’s Mogul Collection, a breathtaking necklace comprised of 31 hand-carved Zambian emeralds (86.12tcw) in the Mughal style, hung with 65 large pear-shaped rose-cut diamonds (21.21tcw) and set in platinum. But as lovely as they are (and they most definitely are), it’s that 'Mediterranean Blue' that’s living in my brain rent-free.

COUTURE 2023: Day 4, BAYCO
Wynn Las Vegas
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