The slot machines are clanging—but never in your favor! It’s literally 110 degrees in the shade (if there were any shade) but no matter, no one is going outside! Like Christmas or your birthday—but even more fun!—the Couture jewelry show rolls around every year. Held at a vast ballroom in the Wynn in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, the event is open to retailers and media, not the general public, and serves as a showcase for the latest, and presumably greatest, offerings from the 350-or-so exhibitors in the house. Many of the same people turn up every year, which gives a cozy, family-reunion feeling to the whole affair.
If you are new to jewelry land, here is a quick primer: this is all fine jewelry—not high jewelry, which is all one of a kind, though a few of those show-offy designs sneak in. There are no costume pieces, either, and the stones are all natural (no lab-grown gems, please!). In fact, the easiest way to get a dealer to hate you is to say, “Oh, I think lab can be nice! There’s a place for lab!”
