Every July, the India Expo Centre & Mart in Greater Noida becomes the country’s largest meeting ground for fashion jewellery buyers and manufacturers. This year, from 14th to 17th July 2026, it hosted the 20th edition of the Indian Fashion Jewellery & Accessories Show (IFJAS), organised by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) and pulled in a reported 179,000+ visitors across its four days.

Numbers like that tend to get read as a retail story. But for anyone building a career in jewellery design, IFJAS is something more useful, a live snapshot of what global buyers are actually sourcing right now. And this year, the signal was hard to miss; sustainability wasn’t a side note at IFJAS 2026, it was one of the show’s defining themes.

What Is IFJAS, and Why Should Aspiring Jewellery Designers Care?

IFJAS is a B2B sourcing fair, not a consumer exhibition. Its audience is importers, chain stores, distributors, and wholesalers from across the world.

This distinction matters. A consumer show tells you what excites people. A B2B sourcing show like IFJAS tells you what the industry is willing to invest in and hire for. The show covers everything from statement fashion jewellery and personal accessories to bags, scarves, and footwear, with exhibitors drawn from craft hubs such as Delhi, Agra, Noida, Mumbai, Lucknow, and Jaipur.

Sustainability Took Centre Stage

Across its 12 product categories, IFJAS 2026 gave real floor space to eco-friendly jewellery and sustainable fashion accessories, alongside its usual mix of handcrafted and costume jewellery, leather goods, and embellished apparel. Exhibitors used the show to demonstrate artisanal techniques applied to more responsibly sourced materials, a sign that “sustainable” is moving from a marketing label to an actual production category.

The broader sustainable jewellery market, spanning recycled gold, lab-grown diamonds, eco-friendly gemstones, and upcycled pieces, was valued at roughly $18 billion in 2025 and is projected to climb toward $28 billion by 2033, growing at close to 6% a year, according to industry market analysis.

Consumer research cited across the industry suggests that around 7 in 10 buyers globally now say they’re willing to pay more for products from companies with a demonstrably lower environmental impact. The materials driving this shift are consistent across sources: recycled precious metals, lab-grown diamonds, ethically mined gemstones, and upcycling or repair programmes that keep existing materials in circulation rather than mining new ones.

Traceability has become part of the pitch too, with certifications like the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), Fairtrade Gold, and the Kimberley Process increasingly used to back up sustainability claims with something verifiable.

Put simply, buyers aren’t just asking “is it beautiful and affordable?” anymore. They’re asking “can you prove where this came from?” That question is reshaping what jewellery brands look for when they hire.

New Career Pathways Emerging From the Eco-Design Shift

As sourcing criteria change, so do job descriptions. Several roles are becoming more prominent as a direct result of this shift.

Role	What It Involves	Best Fit For
Sustainable/Eco Jewellery Designer	Designing collections around recycled metals, lab-grown stones, and low-impact materials from the concept stage	Design-first thinkers who enjoy material constraints as a creative challenge
CAD Designer for Eco Collections	Building 3D models and prototypes that specify sustainable materials and minimise production waste	Technically inclined designers comfortable with CAD/CAM software
Sourcing & Compliance Specialist	Verifying supply chains against RJC, Fairtrade, or Kimberley Process standards	Detail-oriented professionals interested in ethics and documentation
Merchandiser for Ethical Brands	Curating collections and pricing strategy for eco-conscious retail lines	Commercially minded designers who like the business side of jewellery
Brand & Content Strategist	Communicating sourcing stories and sustainability credentials to consumers	Creatives who enjoy storytelling as much as design

None of these are entirely new professions, but the “eco” specialisation within each one is where demand is visibly growing, and where fewer designers currently have deep expertise. That gap is an opportunity for anyone starting now.

Skills to Build for a Sustainable Jewellery Design Career

If you’re a student or early-career designer looking at this shift, here’s what’s worth prioritising:

• Material literacy: Understanding recycled metals, lab-grown diamonds, moissanite, and alternative natural materials, not just traditional gold and gemstones.
• Certification awareness: Knowing what RJC, Fairtrade, and Kimberley Process actually certify, and why buyers ask for them.
• CAD proficiency: The ability to prototype designs digitally, reducing material waste before a single piece is physically made.
• Trend forecasting: Reading shows like IFJAS not as spectacle, but as market research.
• Storytelling and merchandising sense, because sustainable jewellery sells on its story as much as its design.
• A strong jewellery design foundation covering design fundamentals, gemology, and CAD, still underpins all of this.

How to Prepare for This Shift

If a sustainable jewellery design career sounds like the direction you want to head in, the most practical starting point is still a structured education in design, gemology, and CAD, the fundamentals that let you work with any material, sustainable or otherwise, with confidence. From there, staying current with sourcing standards and material innovations (the kind on display at shows like IFJAS) is what keeps a designer relevant as the industry’s expectations keep evolving.

Explore IIG South’s jewellery design and gemology programmes to see how a formal foundation in this field is structured, from B.Sc. in jewellery design and gemology training to focused courses in jewellery CAD and merchandising.

How is fashion jewellery different from fine jewellery as a career path?

Fashion jewellery careers tend to move faster, follow trend cycles closely, and increasingly involve materials like recycled metals and costume-grade alternatives. Fine jewellery careers lean more on precious metals, natural or lab-grown diamonds, and gemstone grading. Many designers build skills across both.

FAQs

Curious what it takes to build a career in jewellery design, gemology, or CAD with sustainable specialisation included? Explore IIG South’s courses and find the programme that fits where you want to take your career.