Dearly beloved, before you panic and cancel your De Beers order, we’d like to caveat this article with the note that classic wedding jewellery – we’re talking the Cartiers, Van Cleefs and Chopards of the accessories world – will never go out of style. There is a reason why Tiffany & Co.’s blue boxes still represent joy for some. But here, in fashion’s micro-sphere, jewellery trends occasionally bubble over into the bridal business and inspire couples to split fron traditional diamonds and take up with (sometimes spiky) alternatives instead. From tablescape bijoux to thumb stacker surprises, here are the treasures to have and to hold in 2024.
Thorns versus hearts
Bespoke is still top of the agenda, as jewellers cast wedding bands to fit precisely around personalised engagement rings, but brides are increasingly thinking outside the box. The Simone Rocha-clad curator Lou Stoppard commissioned Alexander McQueen-favourite Shaun Leane to fashion her a little thorn that would snake around her vintage engagement ring – the perfect off-kilter antidote to the often saccharine wedding market that she found to be “a headache”. Similarly, there was no way a classic gold band would pass muster for Danish bride Pernille August Rosenkilde, who spent no fewer than 50 hours hand-sewing feathers onto her sheer wedding dress. “This is me in a ring,” the quirky, colour-obsessed influencer thought when her partner, Jeppe August Soerensen Rosenkilde, presented her with a playful Nadia Shelbaya engagement ring. It was only right, then, that her band should marry the same Scandinavian minimalism and Middle Eastern jewel tones. Pernille ended up with a heart ring and a molten, artisanal gold band that shone against all those undulating plumes on her big day – something her toddler daughter Lizzi delighted in.
Soft diamonds
“We’re seeing a lot of interest in cushions, ovals and pear shapes,” says Jessica McCormack of the shift to softer stone shapes. “We love setting them east or west with black gold, or on a tilt for clients who are looking for something classic with a twist.” While the celebrity contingent is certainly helping to drive the popularity of these unique stone formations (see: Hailey Bieber’s second Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring), this shift does not just apply to engagement rings. Couples are now choosing trinkets that could once have been mistaken for avant-garde cocktail rings as their wedding bands, and either stacking them or shifting their engagement ring to a different finger entirely. The message: why the hell not?
Thumb stackers as wedding rings
Yes, you read that correctly. Rings that are usually sold as thumb stackers – at least in Jessica McCormack’s Mayfair townhouse – are being repurposed as wedding bands. Think: 3mm or thicker and alternative shapes – such as the wavy gold Carmela, which was inspired by a single strand of spaghetti. While this might make trad jewellers recoil in horror, the chunkiness of the metal sits nicely with bolder gems passed down through generations. Repurposing family jewellery into pieces with modern flair has been a growing trend for some time, as illustrated by Gabar founder Phway Su Aye, whose five-diamond stone Art Deco ring designed by her husband Johannes Loefstrand with Rachel Boston features elements from his late grandmother’s jewellery box.
Hoops for suits
Pearls continue to be popular, but push all preconceived notions of string necklaces and drop earrings out of your mind pronto. Alighieri’s Fragment of Light and Lustre of the Moon earrings hang freshwater pearls from gold-plated bronze studs, that evoke founder Rosh Mahtani’s belief that modern heirlooms should never be perfect, rather tell stories of human imperfection. Speaking of which, many brides are deeming costume jewellery too contrived, and out of line with the broader shift towards timeless fashion over the trend cycle. Just as wedding dress designers, such as Jess Kaye and Rosie Williams at The Own Studio, are being asked to create pieces that “work harder than ever before”, jewellers are being tasked to think about their clients’ everyday lifestyles. A low-key solution? Hoops, such as Alighieri’s Gilded Crustaceans, which are proving popular with women wearing suits to walk down the aisle.
Talismans for the table
Picture this: you’re carving a bespoke wedding band with a client by candlelight and talk turns to ancient totems. This is just an average Tuesday evening in Mahtani’s Hatton Garden workshop, where she lets the lines of prehistoric rock formations influence her custom pieces. When intimate conversations kept coming back to the wedding table – the flower arrangements, the favours, the fancy candles – the designer decided to launch her own “Casa” collection of ornaments as interesting as her jewellery. Demand for the Totemic Devotion napkin rings and Shell of Clarity salt and pepper dishes has soared since launching this summer. Why shouldn’t all those painstakingly considered tablescapes be enhanced with a little bling, too?
Gifting suites
The terrors of bridesmaid dressing demand a whole other feature, but perhaps the thought of wearing a variation of the same peachy dress as six others is less problematic if there’s a gift thrown in to soften the blow. Zodiac necklaces are a current favourite. While brides are in the gifting mood, they are presenting their grooms with brooches or pins that, in some way, mirror the bijoux mood for the big day. The Row-clad bride Emma Leigh Macdonald surprised her future husband Rowan Spencer during his last Bode suit fitting with a Prounis pin mimicking the shape of the engagement ring he had designed for her. (The proposal, by the way, was inspired by the French film Amélie and was as extra as you’d hope.)
