Letting Your Fine Jewelry Travel Incognito

Jewelry designers Gail Ravins and Marci Landis will never divulge their list of clients, but they are fairly open about the type of women who, only in the privacy of their own homes, place an order.

“I wouldn’t be realistic if I didn’t tell you that our jewelry simply doesn’t appeal to the gal who doesn’t have,” Landis says. “Most of our customers are well-to-do and already have a significant collection of fine, important jewels.”

Travel Safely

What they don’t have, however, is a collection of fine, important, fake jewels--jewels that they can safely travel with and perhaps even leave on a bedside table in a hotel room instead of locked away in a safe-deposit box.

Ravins and Landis specialize in designing what they like to call “look-alikes” or, as their firm name calls it, “Whisper-Travel Jewelry.”

They also specialize in teaching their clients how to wear it--preferably mixed with a few of their real jewels “so even your best friends will never suspect some of it is fake,” Ravins says.

“Our premise is that if our jewelry is lost or stolen, it will cost no more than the price of one good dinner,” Landis says. “And if, by chance, you happen to be burglarized, you can have a ‘here, take it’ attitude as well. And believe me, burglars are no different than anybody else. They can’t tell the difference either.”

Landis, a fine artist, and Ravins formed their partnership three years ago shortly after they met in an art-appreciation class. Ravins tells the story that she was invited to a black tie affair and needed some fine jewelry to go with her gown.

“My tiny diamond earrings just didn’t cut it, but when I looked around, I realized I couldn’t afford anything that looked halfway impressive. So I called Marci and asked her where she got this fabulous pair of earrings she had worn to a party we had both been to; she said she wouldn’t tell me but she’d let me borrow them.

“I was stunned until she added, ‘I paid $3 for them several years ago, so don’t lose them. They are my very favorites.’ ”

Ravins adds that she and Landis agreed that there were a lot of women out there who, if really pressed, would buy the real thing but would rather get by with a wardrobe of faux jewelry for everyday or when they traveled. It was then that they decided to sell merchandise that they would design out of their homes to help ensure an element of privacy for all involved.

“We deal mostly in stones because that’s what women hesitate to take with them when they travel,” Landis says.

The odds are that if you have something in mind, Landis and Ravins have it. How about a Lady Di sapphire-and-diamond ring? Or some fabulous Tahitian black pearls? Or classic, old-money diamond-and-pearl earrings? You can get it, for prices ranging from $11 to $130.

“I was recently at a formal affair in Texas,” Ravins says, “when this loud man started shouting at me, ‘Hey blondie,’ from across the room. He proceeded to point to my bracelets and say: ‘I like your gold bracelets; wanna sell?’

“Well, I was wearing a set of gold bracelets with pave diamonds--Whisper travel jewelry--so I gamely said, sure. The man threw me three $100 bills and I threw him my bracelets. (About $20 each.) After dinner, I went back up to him and told him he had change coming. He was shocked. He had never suspected the stuff was fake.”

Ravins goes on to say another client of hers recently was burglarized at a hotel. “The poor guy took all her Whisper jewels and left the small, real ones. We all had a good laugh.”

The stories go on and on. A woman at the Helmsley Palace in New York left her Whisper diamond bracelet in an ashtray in a limousine because the catch was broken. As she departed for the night, a breathless concierge retrieved it for her.

With a grand smile, she flung it back at him and said, “Monsieur, it is your tip.”