Fashion jewelry puts shine back on sales.

Fashion jewelry is making a sparkling comeback.

Double-digit performance has put the gleam back in accessory buyers' eyes as they look forward to 2003. Results have been particularly strong for specialty accessories retailers, who jumped on the trend this spring and garnered the most stellar results.

This renaissance is in large part thanks to the continuation of bohemian, romantic misses and juniors fashions.

Billowing peasant tops and rustic tiered skirts have inspired consumers to accessorize. Dominating sales, an azure sea of turquoise jewelry has been flooding the streets this past season. Western flair makes turquoise a must-have accessory to the best-selling prairie blouses and denim bottoms maintaining favor into 2003.

Renewed interest in funky jewelry couldn't be better news for specialty accessories retailers. Dependent on the category, they were hardest hit by its former stagnation.The jewel of vertical accessories specialty, Claire's Stores, found itself in decline into 2002 after years of consistently positive comps.

At first it seemed another casualty of the economy, until sales started uptrending after the jewelry resurgence. "Jewelry is probably the best category I have right now," says Carol Norman, executive vice president at The Icing by Claire's, Claire's Stores' retail division aimed at customers age 16 to 26.

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