A Moment to Last
From antique diamonds to yellow gold and minimalist settings, brides are seeking timeless elegance with a personal twist.
Engagement rings, it should go without saying, are designed to endure. Unlike the fickle world of fashion, where trends come and go every season, bridal jewelry styles can stick around for ages.
“When we talk about trends in jewelry, it’s a bit of a misnomer,” Sam Broekema, editor-in-chief of Only Natural Diamonds, a magazine published by the Natural Diamond Council, tells The 1916 Company. “Trends move slowly and it can be about personal taste. Though obviously, things do have moments.”
You don’t say!
As most people know by now, the jewelry moment of the year, and likely the decade, took place in late August, when the pop star Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce revealed her antique cushion-cut old mine diamond ring in an Instagram post announcing their engagement.
“Mic drop,” Broekema says. “The fact that they chose an antique diamond that isn’t D Flawless, that is a warmer hue, underscores the fact that it has a history, that it’s natural and that it’s linked to the idea of permanence.
“These were diamonds that were cut for candlelight, not for paparazzi bulbs,” he adds. “It’s right on the money in what we’re seeing in bridal trends, which is an appetite for antique jewelry and antique diamonds that people are re-setting. There’s something very elegant and classy about this return to tradition.”
The yellow gold setting and “warmer” vibe of Swift’s diamond ring are especially on-point, Broekema says. Yellow diamonds — be they M-color stones with a slightly buttery cast or full-on fancy vivid diamonds, as saturated as the sun — are of growing interest to bridal shoppers, many of whom are drawn to the gems because they stand apart in a sea of same-looking lab-grown. “Being able to reinforce the difference is key,” Broekema says.
Those aren’t the only bridal trends Swift’s ring is guaranteed to amplify. In her choice of a minimalist bezel-set ring, the pop star has, wittingly or not, made clear that the ubiquitous halo styles once favored by her fellow Millennials, which feature a ring of pavé diamonds around the center stone, are too fussy, too elaborate, too redundant in the age of lab-grown. Who needs a frame of pavé when the center commands so much attention?
To further distinguish their rings, brides are opting for graceful yet unpredictable east-west settings; toi et moi styles that serve as perfect symbols of shared love; elongated cuts, such as ovals and marquise shapes, that flatter the finger; and chunky yellow gold bands. “Maybe a cigar or bombe setting,” Broekema says, “which makes it feel like a personal piece of jewelry rather than something bridal — it’s super chic.”
If you remember one thing about the bridal ring selection this fall, however, it’s that you can’t go wrong emulating Blondie. “Anything Taylor Swift-approved draws intense interest,” Marion Fasel, a jewelry historian, author and founder of the website The Adventurine, says. “Her diamond is an elegant, elevated stone and of course it’s going to have influence. People are losing their minds.”