January 9, 2024 |
The New York Times labelled Grace Coddington an “accidental celebrity” after her pronounced presence in the 2009 US Vogue documentary, The September Issue. She stepped down as the magazine’s creative director in 2016 and there’s absolutely nothing accidental about her celebrity now. Recently we even got used to seeing her flaming hair almost every night in our living rooms on TV.
The style legend and her Persian cat are two of the stars in Pandora’s unexpected blockbuster Diamonds for All advertising campaign. The model Precious Lee and the make-up free Pamela Anderson also appear. And, of course, the Danish high-street jeweller threw its mega Lab-Grown Diamond District party on Lafayette Street during the New York Fashion Week SS24 shows. That Mario Sorrenti, with director Gordon von Steiner, shot the ad, also says much about Pandora’s level of investment in the lab grown diamond world, creative and otherwise. It’s all part of an expensive “luxury” turnaround as the world’s largest mass-market jewellery brand seeks to shift its reputation as a high-street charm peddler to one of serious fashion fine jewellery player.
It has undoubtedly produced the most glamorous statement yet about the world’s most divisive brilliant white stone, and that Sorrenti-von Steiner campaign is more fashion forward than it might at first seem. Because, if expert opinion is anything to go by, fashion and lab grown diamonds are set to be a dazzling match made in heaven. That Prada, hot on the heels of its Eternal Gold fine jewellery debut last year, has just launched the follow-up collection, one set with lab grown stones, pretty much seals the deal.
Earring and necklaces by Hatton Labs
And not just because it’s Prada but, naturally, it’s about how the Milan house has taken full creative advantage of the “futuristic” material offered to it. From a jewellery- design angle, the Prada lab grown diamond Eternal Gold collection is already a more interesting proposition – its intricacy, statement stones and fuller proportions are a step up from the debut line’s solid shapes, all the while highlighting the volume and richness that gemstones bring to jewellery design.
Unlike other brands that have embraced lab grown diamonds as an eco-friendly alternative or less-expensive competitor to natural ones, Prada has all but bypassed “emotional” connections and gone straight for the technical jugular. Cue the debut of the “Prada cut”, a lab grown faceted triangular diamond – the house logo reflected in a whole new light.
Paul Zimnisky, an independent diamond analyst, pinpoints how this kind of creative thinking is likely to make all the difference in the lab grown diamond field. “I think we will see lab diamonds produced in shapes and colours not found in nature and this will undoubtedly allow the industry to differentiate from natural diamonds,” he tells me from New York.
But while other brands can, and do, create lab grown diamonds in expensive, customised shapes, Prada is also celebrating its position as a fashion brand unencumbered by a fine jewellery design heritage. And rather than just launch a Prada high jewellery collection, with its Prada cut the house is signalling how the business is set to carve out a fine jewellery future all its own. At the time of writing, the range had been quietly launched in the US and there was no date yet for the European drop.
Eternal Gold snake ring in white gold and lab-grown diamonds by Prada
So, do we really need megabucks campaigns to tell us why lab grown diamonds are so brilliant? Yes, because it’s all in the name: the words “lab grown” have something of a “fake” connotation, possibly heightened by the cheaper prices. They are cheaper to produce since there’s no need for traditional heavy mining methods and so are generally about 30% less expensive than natural diamonds, with the prices getting lower as more players enter the frame.
The US Federal Trade Commission has clear rules about the terms applied to lab grown stones and forbids the use of “real”, “genuine”, “natural” and “precious” in connection to them. And while it has established that lab grown diamonds are actual diamonds, it stresses that if a stone is man-made that fact must be “clearly and conspicuously” stated.
While diamonds can be chemically replicated in a lab in just a few weeks, it takes millions of years for natural stones to push their way out of the earth. And this is where the differences begin to emerge. This “natural” growth over an unimaginable timespan bestows natural diamonds with an unknown quality, a mysticism even. Each one is different – some are rarer than others – and, like all extraordinary materials, that attracts glittering values too.
Earrings, necklace and rings by Hatton Labs
Guy Burton, a gem expert and managing director of the leading antique jewellery boutique Hancocks London, spends every day in the company of rare, precious stones and those who want to buy them. “Lab grown diamonds are technically the same as natural gems and they can be faceted in the same ways too,” he says. “But people are drawn to the charm of natural stones – they are millions of years old and so they always have stories to tell. A natural diamond has beauty, rarity, character, cut. It’s not purely chemical and I think all these qualities tilt a preference towards them.”
Yet, unlike many in the natural gem business, Burton understands the appeal of lab grown diamonds. “I had a client who asked me if I could source a large lab grown diamond because he had a certain amount of budget and he wanted to buy the largest diamond he could for the money. Why wouldn’t he? It’s a very logical decision – chemically it is a diamond and it’s hard to argue against that. Also, how you buy a diamond is personal – if it comes down to size, then why not?”
Well, lasting value is one reason. “Lab grown diamonds are much more affordable to a much larger portion of the global consumer demographic,” Zimnisky adds, offering more insight into the recent Pandora initiative. “Most LGDs are produced in China and India by major producers with large facilities that benefit from immense economies of scale and efficiency. It’s clearly becoming more and more difficult for producers in other parts of the world to compete with them.” In October, WD Lab Grown Diamonds, the second-largest producer of LGDs in the US, filed for bankruptcy; shortly before that, De Beers Group had announced it was halting its test rollout of lab grown diamond engagement rings under the Lightbox brand. That points to one thing: prices can only go down.
A rough diamond by Vrai Created Diamonds
Yet, from a high-fashion consumer perspective, this is unlikely to affect the desirability of the lab grown Prada- cut designs, which we will value in an entirely different way, as will the fashion resale market. And De Beers said that its Lightbox affiliate “will continue to focus on where it sees the most promising future opportunities in the sector” – fashion jewellery being one of them. LVMH has also entered the world of lab grown stones, with its French jewellery brand Fred now offering lab grown blue diamonds in the Fred Hero cut. The luxury conglomerate’s watch brand Tag Heuer also gained approval from watch insiders for its Carrera Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde design, which comes with lab grown diamonds – so reassuringly avant-garde it’s quite nuts.
So chapeau, then, to those independents who pavéd the way, such as the founders of Vrai, Vanessa Stofenmacher and Chelsea Nicholson, and Meg Strachan of Dorsey. Strachan, a fashion e-commerce marketing stalwart who previously worked for brands including Goop and Anine Bing, grasped the fashion design potential of lab grown stones early on. While it might not have luxury-house resources, Dorsey has shied away from the bland wedding-style LGD jewellery that is low-hanging fruit for most jewellers and focused on style classics such as tennis bracelets and 1980s heavy chains with pavé details. Bespoke cuts are also offered. Hailey and Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift are fans, and Strachan is also using lab grown white sapphires and emeralds to create sizeable 1950s-style cocktail jewellery at sharp price points.
Carrera Plasma Diamant d’Avant-Garde Chronograph Tourbillon by Tag Heuer
Today, Vrai has positioned itself between the fashion-and trad-jewellery landscape, offering designs with an everyday luxury appeal and a reassuring branded feel. It’s now the retail jewellery arm of Diamond Foundry, which was launched by the visionary San Francisco solar- tech experts who were able to operate LGD-production technology at scale in the 2010s. Diamond Foundry has highlighted the creative potential of lab grown diamonds with a series of showcase collaborations between Vrai and the likes of Marc Newson and Jony Ive (whose 2018 space-age ring was a triumph), as well as creative turns with Balmain, Givenchy and Dover Street Market.
Creative potential aside, lab grown diamond brands came to the market with a flurry of eco-credentials, a strategy that would also appeal to younger, more socially conscious buyers attracted by lower price points. There’s no doubt about brands’ good intentions and the general claim is that, while significant energy is required to produce lab-produced stones, renewables play a big part. The brands have also worked hard at carbon neutral solutions, so pollution is reduced too. However, as with many sustainability claims, the accumulative effect of production and distribution is harder to pinpoint.
Good on You, the ethical fashion body that measures fashion brands’ sustainability ratings, states: “It’s a fierce debate with very impassioned sides. Our approach at the moment is that neither natural or lab grown diamond production has adequately demonstrated that they are more sustainable, and the best option is vintage diamonds.”
So, while he might be gleaming with joy at that news, there’s not even a hint of schadenfreude from Burton at Hancocks London. “Fashion jewellery is a great place for lab grown diamonds,” he says. “If brands keep using them, it could even have a positive effect on the natural white diamond industry.” Funny that his lab grown diamond-curious client ended up buying a vintage brilliant white diamond after all.
