K.S. Sze & Sons

This is one of those secret sources that women tell only their closest friends about. The Chinese owner, who is known to all her customers as Elsa, sells her own designs but also sought-after copies of the biggest name jewelers, including Verdura, Van Cleef and Buccellati. She uses gold and platinum and real stones as well as cubic zirconia (ask and she’ll tell you what’s what), and her prices are at least half of what you’d pay for the real thing. Society ladies from all over the world have been such loyal customers that sometimes she makes trunk show visits to New York and Los Angeles. (Ask to get on her mailing list). The main shop is in the Prince’s Building, but there is also an outpost on the mezzanine level of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Connaught Road.