’Tis the season, if statistics are any indication, to shop for an engagement ring.
Would-be husbands often choose this time of year to propose, taking advantage of the magic and romance of the festive season, while also sensibly merging the financially significant purchase of a diamond with a Christmas present. But finding the right one demands forethought and planning. A ring may be among the tiniest items in a woman’s wardrobe, but it is filled with the most profound and far-reaching meaning.
Diamonds or coloured gemstones? Which setting style? And what choices are left if you’re not in the market for something traditional or classic? Can you buy a loose stone and get it set? Or a rough gem to cut to your exact specifications? Read Vogue’s detailed guide to engagement rings for the answers to these questions and more, along with lots of inspiration to inform your own search.
Natural or lab-grown diamonds?
Lab-grown diamonds have made headlines lately. In September, the Paris-based, LVMH-owned FRED launched a capsule high jewellery collection set with synthetic diamonds in a rare blue tone. Then, in November, Prada unveiled a collection set with triangular man-made diamonds – a nod to the brand’s logo.
For half the price of a natural diamond, you can get a much bigger lab-grown stone, one that comes with eco bragging rights to boot. Or does it? A bit like popcorn, lab-grown diamonds are made by placing a natural diamond seed in mighty machines that develop it through an accumulation of gases (CVD method), or by applying high pressure and temperature (HPHT). Replicating in a couple of weeks the process Mother Nature implemented over billions of years, both methods require colossal amounts of energy, generated in the vast majority of cases from fossil fuels. Seek out brands – such as Vrai and Kimaï – that rely exclusively on laboratories that use renewable energy. Skydiamond, which alchemises CO2 pollution into diamonds, supplies the stones for a capsule collection designed by London-based jeweller Stephen Webster.
Another question to address is price. “Price is lab-grown diamonds’ biggest asset and liability,” explains David Block, CEO at Sarine, a company supplying technologies for the diamond industry. Why? Over the past year, lab-grown diamonds have depreciated on the wholesale market by as much as 90 per cent, but their retail prices have not dropped, meaning that you may be paying more for a diamond that loses value in time.
The current trend in the prices of lab-grown diamonds prompted Olivia Landau, founder and CEO of The Clear Cut, to bundle them in as a complimentary “travel ring” or “place-holder ring” when a customer orders a natural diamond, which we can all agree is a fine deal.
The ABC, and how to maximise the bling
An engagement ring could well be your first significant jewellery purchase, in which case you should acquaint yourself with a new vocabulary – starting with the 4 Cs.
The first C is for carat, which indicates the weight of the stone, with one carat equal to 0.20 grams. (The word comes from the carob seeds that were used to weigh diamonds centuries ago.) The second C is colour, which ranks white diamonds from D, colourless, to Z, slightly yellow. Coloured diamonds are graded differently, as they are prized for the intensity of hue. The third C is clarity, with a scale from F for flawless up to I, for included. The fourth C is cut, which evaluates how the facets of a diamond interact with the light, thus maximising its beauty.
While such jargon might help you to grasp what a sales assistant is talking about, in real life, “nobody is ever going to look at your diamond with a microscope”, points Christian Hemmerle, of the fourth generation family-run Munich jewellers. The key thing is to find a stone that speaks to you.
If you wish to get more bling for your money, choose “warmer white” natural diamonds, suggests Ewa Konior, store director at De Beers in London. “For example, a flawless J colour round brilliant is less than half of the price of a flawless D colour,” she points out. Also called champagne, toffee or cognac, brown diamonds have risen in popularity since Scarlett Johansson unveiled a massive oval-shaped brown diamond ring, designed by James de Givenchy for Taffin, on her ring finger following her engagement to Colin Jost in 2019.
Diamonds also appear bigger in the elongated two-pointed marquise cut – like the stone worn by Catherine Zeta-Jones. “Marquise diamonds are usually shallow, so they tend to concentrate their carat weight on the surface and spread on the finger,” explains Rachel Boston, who specialises in designing bespoke engagement rings.
Another popular way to maximise size and sparkle is by adding side stones in the form of a halo around the central diamond, or two side stones (like Meghan Markle’s ring), or pairing two diamonds in the classic “toi et moi” style popularised by Joséphine Bonaparte and later Jacqueline Kennedy. Jessica McCormack, the maverick London-based designer who counts Victoria Beckham among her clients, loves framing a central stone diamond with blackened white gold that makes the stone pop. But the cleverest trick is to replace a single stone with a “snow” setting of myriad tiny diamonds, as jewellers like Pomellato have perfected.
Again, the most important thing, Boston emphasises, is to “choose a cut you will like. Don’t think about what you ‘should’ be getting, as there are a lot of exciting options out there beyond the standard platinum round brilliant cut white diamond solitaire engagement ring. There are a lot of tips and tricks to choose the ‘best’ and largest-looking diamond, but ultimately it’s much more about the sentiment behind the ring,” she says. Often, a repurposed family heirloom or a ring sourced on the vintage market comes with far more sentimental value.
All the colours you can (and can’t) think of
Despite all the fuss about diamonds, perhaps the most iconic engagement ring of all remains the Garrard sapphire chosen by Princess Diana, and now worn by her daughter-in-law Kate, the Princess of Wales.
“Rubies and sapphires are a great option to bring a pop of colour into your engagement ring,” says Daniela Jayes, a buyer at Mappin & Webb. Demand for coloured gemstones has increased as clients increasingly choose to set engagement rings with their birthstones – February babies would choose an amethyst ring, for example, while women born in July would opt for rubies.
Among celebrities, coloured stones have won many hearts hearts, with Halle Berry wearing an emerald ring and Katy Perry a ruby one, while Ariana Grande’s engagement ring set a perfectly round snow-white pearl next to an oval-shaped diamond, disregarding jewellers’ warnings against wearing such a fragile gem on the finger.
Unusually coloured diamonds and gemstones, which would be dismissed as “ugly ducklings” in the past, are also on the rise. Rachel Boston has created a bespoke engagement ring set with grey diamonds and “salt and pepper” ones, while Notting Hill-based jewellery designer Sophie Breitmeyer says “teal and green sapphires are hugely popular”.
Surprise! Any ring can be an engagement ring
Although the words “engagement ring” typically conjure the image of a slender band topped with a single white diamond – like the very first recorded example, in a 1477 painting of Mary of Burgundy, and as seen in any number of rom-coms since – the truth is any ring can be an engagement ring.
Breitmeyer has noticed an increased appetite for “chunkier eternity bands as well as bolder Etruscan-style rings”, in place of more traditional designs. (One lesser-known celebrity engagement ring in this vein is the slender platinum ring with channel set baguette-cut diamonds given to Audrey Hepburn by Mel Ferrer, which was perfect for her minimalist, sophisticated style.)
“I did not want a classic engagement ring, so my search was long,” says Rosie Lillis, a London-based publicist who chose a Chanel ring featuring a camellia flower and a single pear-cut diamond. “I’m named after a flower, and so is my daughter – it felt like the right choice,” she adds.
Personalisation is also on the rise. Private jeweller Liv Luttrell has noticed some clients buy loose stones first and work with a designer later, while HB Antwerp offers rough diamonds and then co-designs a bespoke cut and ring with its clients.
All of which is to say that there is no right or wrong when it comes to style, and that any ring can be an engagement ring. But Boston offers one good piece of advice: “The combination of a design that reflects your personality and a gemstone you will feel comfortable wearing every day makes for a great engagement ring.”
