Having been a visitor to the Bazaar Jewelry International Designer Salon for years, jewelry designer Wang Shenglin attended the event this year in another capacity-as an exhibitor.

Along with 11 other alumni from the jewelry training center of the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, the 27-year-old brought his modern feather-inlaid jewelry collection to the exhibition at the Shanghai Powerlong Museum on Dec 10.

This was the first year the salon was held in Shanghai instead of Beijing.

"I'm very appreciative of the platform and the opportunity provided by the organizer to let my young jewelry brand Huanluan be a part of this event and showcase our designs to more jewelry lovers and consumers," says Wang, who launched the brand in 2011.

This year, the Bazaar Jewelry International Designer Salon invited 34 jewelry designers who brought more than 1,000 exquisite jewelry pieces for the salon.

"Unlike the traditional or industrial jewelry exhibition, which focuses on professional audiences, we are an exhibition that combines art and jewelry," says Jing Jing, editor-in-chief of Bazaar Jewelry, the organizer of the salon.

For the past five years, the Bazaar Jewelry International Designer Salon has focused on promoting independent jewelry designers, in turn benefiting hundreds of designers.

According to Jing, this year's edition of the salon could be ranked as its best as it attracted 10 times the public attention compared to the first year. The sales of most brands attending the event also hit several million yuan in the three days, the highest in all its years.

"Most high-end jewelry brands have performed well both online and offline this year compared to the previous year. The epidemic does bring opportunities to local designers as many foreign brands have had to shut down their stores. But most importantly, the era is changing," says Jing.

The scale of the domestic jewelry industry increased from 220 billion yuan ($33.6 billion) in 2009 to 677.7 billion yuan in 2017, making China's jewelry industry among the fastest growing in the world. According to market-research firm Zhiyan Consulting, the scale of the industry is expected to exceed 800 billion yuan in 2021.

"The sharp rise of the market is mainly due to the significant changes in people's perception of jewelry. Chinese consumers used to prefer buying jade, jadeite, gold and other jewelry with values that would maintain or appreciate. Some would buy these kinds of jewelry just for collection," says Jing.

"Today, young people just like jewelry as a part of daily life. The so-called accessories in the past can no longer meet the needs of today's consumers."

Moreover, the various means of gaining exposure, such as WeChat, Taobao and even the e-commerce platforms from Weibo and Xiaohongshu, have been helping independent designers reach out to consumers more effectively, Jing says.

The success of this year's event has gotten Jing thinking about making Shanghai the new permanent venue.

"Another reason why Shanghai would be an ideal venue for the annual salon is because the Yangtze River Delta has a very good understanding of jewelry and a good balance between business and art. This would help with the development of our local designers," Jing says.

Though the domestic jewelry market is booming and the number of independent designers is on the rise, there are still some issues that need to be tackled for the industry to achieve healthy development.

Jing points out that the domestic jewelry market is currently facing similar issues to China's fashion sector of the past, which is a lack of originality. Other problems faced by designers include being adept at managing their businesses and establishing a supply chain for manufacturing.

"Most designers lack the ability to promote their brands. There also needs to be greater funding in the supply chain and costs need to be lowered," says Jing.

"That being said, we already have amazing jewelry designers such as Anna Hu, Cindy Chao and Chen Shiying, who have garnered attention on the international stage. I'm confident about our designers' future."