Only Natural Diamonds- Winter 2023/2024

WINTER 2023/2024

LUCY HALE

An exceptional set of brooches by Harwell Godfrey, set in platinum with 3.71 carats of natural diamonds available exclusively at

®

G A B R I E L N Y. C O M

CONTENTS

The Upside Down.

Sarah Shahi in Anita Ko, De Beers, and Marina B diamond jewelry.

Photographed by Milan Zrnic

DAVID KELLIE CEO KRISTINA BUCKLEY KAYEL Managing Director SAM BROEKEMA Editor-In-Chief SHANNON LYNCH Senior Features Editor GRANT MOBLEY Jewelry & Watch Editor JANE ASHER Social Media Manager HANNAH MILITANO Web Editor

Trends 16 SALON ART + DESIGN DIVES HEADFIRST INTO DIAMONDS With rare pieces from around the world.

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THE POLAR EXPRESS Add sparkle to the season with natural diamonds.

BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS Diamond gifts not just for your imagination.

27 DESIGNS WITHIN REACH When a little goes a long way.

31 LEVEL UP These jewels for men will elevate any look.

35 TIME FOR TAKEOFF Discover debut collections from emerging designers.

Sustainability 39 UNEARTHING PROSPERITY The remarkable tale of Canadian diamonds.

ANNA MCFILLIN Assistant Editor 45 A WING AND A PRAYER How diamond producing communities are protecting seabirds in Namibia.

Features 49 WHY VINTAGE FEELS SO NEW Rebecca Selva shows vintage diamonds in stylish ways.

53 LOREE RODKIN A diamond life.

59 GET INTO SHAPE The ultimate engagement ring flex.

63 SCANDALOUS DIAMONDS Tracking the world's most shocking diamond stories.

69 DELFINA DELETTREZ FENDI A look inside Fendi's high jewelry collection.

73 WHY ITS WORTH IT Master craftmanship and and imagination.

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LUCY IN THE SKY Lucy Hale's star is shining brighter than ever.

89 DIAMOND COWBOY Taylor Zakhar Perez talks sustainability.

101 SOME LIKE IT HAUTE Breathtaking high jewlery from Paris maisons.

107 FOR THE LOVE OF DIAMONDS Mateo reflects on his journey in Botswana.

111 A MOMENT OF CLARITY Sarah Shahi is going big or going home.

119 ITALIANS DO IT BETTER The Gismondi family's century long romance with natural diamonds.

NANCY GIAMBONA Marketing Lead SHELLEY BROWN Industry Partner Program Lead ELANA ZAJDMAN SOPHIE BULLINGER Public Relations GABRIELLE GRAZI GRACE ISLEY Retailer Partnerships SVEVA MARCANGELI JULIA KNOX Media Performance CONTRIBUTORS Raluca Anghel, Brian Anstey, Brandon Borror-Chappell, Leah Faye Cooper, Glynis Costin, Vincenzo Dimino, Tanya Dukes, Mina El Hadraoui, Marion Fasel, Anthony Federici, Lucy Fox, Jessica Iredale, Faran Krentcil, Lisa Levinson, Jill Newman, Lizzy Oppenheimer, Josh Peskowitz, Andrew Werner, Lynn Yaeger

127 FROM THE DESK OF Fernando Jorge, Lauren Harwell Godfrey, and Eva Fehren.

Scan for more natural diamond stories

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alling someone a rare bird may or may not be a compliment, but a rare gem? Now that is high praise. Did you know all the natural diamonds one carat and above found in one year would fill only one exercise ball? The jewels in this issue, our second in print, are the rarest of the rare –however that doesn’t mean they are destined to stay locked in a safe. This is jewelry that is sure to resonate with all.

Cover girl Lucy Hale is that exceptional combination of a knockout beauty whose charm and vulnerability make her approachable. She embodies modern Hollywood, wearing contemporary pieces from De Beers, Lizzie Mandler, and Anita Ko. Our first cover beau Taylor Zakhar Perez cements his

role as leading man, and along with his co-star and friend Sarah Shahi, they feature dazzling natural diamonds and the rarity of being comfortable in one’s own skin. Gismondi, a 7th generation jeweler, invited us in and opened their storied doors on the Italian seaside for some famous Italian hospitality and to discuss the remarkable story behind the Pope's favorite jeweler.

The diamonds found in the Northwest Territories create an inextricable link between the producers and the Indigenous people of Canada. Discover how this partnership crafts a model for sustainable and responsible collaboration. But back to those rare birds, a surreal take of high jewelry shot on exotic birds and plants as well as a deep dive into the actions De Beers is taking to protect seabirds. Enjoy our second issue as it takes flight.

SAM BROEKEMA Editor-In-Chief

Photographed by Vincenzo Dimino

C

Straight Pepper Diet.

Metamorphosis by De Beers Summer Choker Necklace.

Photographed by Benjamin Bouchet

On the cover Lucy Hale wears Single Stone, Lizzie Mandler, and Sylva & Cie rings, and Saint Laurent blouse. Photographed by Emman Montalvan.

Taylor Zakhar Perez wears Nikos Koulis pendant, Phipps top, Stetson hat from Boot Star LA. Photographed by Mark Lim. THE EDIT 2023

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CONTRIBUTORS BENJAMIN BOUCHET

Like many photographers, Benjamin Bouchet is obsessed with light. He looks for it everywhere, in the neo-realism of the Italian cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, which he loves, in the forest on the lookout for the reflection of a ray of sunlight in the undergrowth, and even at the chance of a meal with friends over a good wine. The use of shadows in his work is particularly popular in international magazines such as T Magazine, Financial Times, and D Repubblica.

EMMAN MONTALVAN

Emman Montalvan is an artist who draws inspiration from the complex beauty of everyday life and the human connection. The journey from a farm in Bukidnon, Philippines, to a life in the city of Los Angeles, allowed his passion for photography to capture life stories as he understood the power of the lens.

Emman is enriched by the diverse talents every project brings together.

The role of each and every creative is harmonized in one click of the lens and to capture all the hands and mind as one solid story is the magic he attains.

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MOLLY DICKSON

Molly Dickson got her start in the fashion industry working at Marie Claire. After learning the editorial space, Molly went on to work with celebrity stylist Leslie Fremar for six years. In 2018, Molly launched her own styling business and has quickly become the go-to stylist for many of Hollywood’s top young talents. She has also collaborated on campaigns for brands including Covergirl, Armani Beauty, Madewell, and more. In 2023, Molly was recognized by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the top twenty-five most powerful stylists.

JILL NEWMAN

A jewelry authority, editor and storyteller, Jill Newman has been immersed in the industry for more than 25 years. Her assignments have taken her to diamond mines across Africa, cutting workshops in India and Belgium, and jewelry ateliers around the world. Jill is the Natural Diamond Council’s Editor at Large and her work also appears in the New York Times, Town & Country, Elle Décor, and Robb Report.

MARION FASEL

Founder and Editorial Director of The Adventurine online jewelry magazine, Marion Fasel is an esteemed jewelry expert, author, curator and trend forecaster.

MARK LIM

Mark Lim is a photographer and director based in Brooklyn, New York. Having graduated from Parsons School of Design, his work often takes a conceptual approach, whether it be fashion, still life or his own personal projects. With his partner, he founded Nicotine Magazine, an internationally distributed fashion and art magazine, in which he is the Co-Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director.

JOSH PESKOWITZ

Josh Peskowitz’s opinion and perspective are sought after by businesses and designers across the fashion spectrum. With a primary focus on menswear, his experience spans both editorial and retail, including his own shop Magasin. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, GQ Style, Esquire’s Big Black Book, GQ Style Germany, and Fantastic Man, among others.

LYNN YAEGER

Lynn Yaeger has been writing about fashion, jewelry, and culture for over two decades. Yaeger, a contributing editor at Vogue and Vogue.com, began her career at the Village Voice as a senior editor.

She has written for the New York Times, WSG magazine, Architectural Digest, Travel & Leisure, Town & Country, Departures, and more.

In 2019 Yaeger won the coveted CFDA Media Award. In her off hours, she can be found haunting the flea markets of the world, searching for antique toys and vintage jewelry.

ST Y L E

SALON ART + DESIGN

DIVES HEADFIRST INTO DIAMONDS

Rare pieces from around the world come together in one of New York City's most iconic showrooms.

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Written by JANE ASHER

alon Art + Design has returned for its 12th year in New York City at the Park Avenue Armory with new galleries and unique displays of collectible design, including some serious natural diamond jewelry. Produced

by Sanford L. Smith + Associates, the fair features 50 exhibitors from around the world, presenting vintage, contemporary, modern and even 20th century art.

Each exhibitor curates a distinctively immersive space displaying their collectible designs and fine art, with many exhibitors displaying pieces of fine jewelry that fit within the theme of their space. “The exhibitors were encouraged to create spaces that the attendees would feel really at home in and that’s pretty much what we have done,” shares Executive Director of Salon Art + Design Jill Bokor in an exclusive interview with Only Natural Diamonds. “Every booth experience was like ‘I can imagine living this way.’”

Salon Art + Design is just now dipping their toes into the jewelry space, but it was a decision that felt natural to the curation of the fair. “We are highlighting our art and design through the conversation about jewelry and this is just the beginning for us,” Bokor explains.

“In the past, we have always treated jewelry as a sort of partnership to what we do on the floor of the Salon,” she says. “The more I thought about design, the more I thought this is a more inclusive time and it would be a good moment to step into the jewelry arena.” Bokor goes on to list the different themes to expect throughout the fair, from deco to mid-century, naturally evoking images of rare, antique-cut natural diamond rings and lavish brooches found at prolific auction houses around the world.

With jewelry exhibitors and partners like Rosior, DK Farnum, Yvel Jewelry, and Silvia

Furmanovich, this year’s jewelry offerings have become more of a focal point for the fair. “A few years ago, an exhibitor asked if she could put some jewelry on her stand and we said sure as long as it’s not more than twenty percent of the stand and it’s creatively displayed,” Bokor explains of the origin of jewels at the fair. “And she sold out, so that was food for some thought.”

From there, including jewelry became a no-brainer.

“I believe the same client collects fine art, decorative art and jewelry, and particularly the design jewelry correlation is a very strong one,” she says. And with the curation of designers at the fair, Bokor is hoping to present art that attendees have never seen before. “We are trying to create a mood of absolute delight and enchantment,” she smiles. “With a little bit of caprice and whimsey.”

This sense of rarity is important to Bokor and to the fair itself: “85 percent of what you are going to see in the fair is original,” she explains. “On the art side, you would hardly ever see a print, you would almost always see unique works.”

Showing only natural diamond jewelry follows the same logic; Bokor and her team want the original, the piece with inherent rarity and value.

“Every single piece of jewelry that’s in these booths is completely unique and that’s… really important,” she continues. “I think whenever important jewelers do fairs… if you buy that piece, you’re going to be the only person in the world who has it.” One-of-a-kind pieces for one-of-a-kind shoppers.

“This is a category I do plan to expand for next year and I will be very interested to hear the feedback,” Bokor says.

“And I have every reason to believe that our client is a high-end jewelry client as well.” For those looking for unique natural diamond jewelry that cannot be found on Fifth Avenue, High Street or Rodeo Drive, Salon Art + Design is the perfect destination.

Top to bottom: Silvia Furmanovich, Yvel Jewelry THE EDIT 2023

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THE POLAR EXPRESS Add sparkle to the season with natural diamonds Written by LYNN YAEGER Photographed by ANDREW WERNER

VAN CLEEF & ARPELS PLATINUM POLAR BEAR BROOCH What are you doing New Year’s Day? The Coney Island Polar Bear Club, founded a century ago and famous for their annual January first Atlantic Ocean plunges, is happy for you to join them in this intensely masochistic activity. The party starts on the boardwalk in the morning and thousands of people show up, but, in all honesty—why would this be fun?

Especially since winter weather offers so many other compensations—those famous roasting chestnuts on an open fire (Question: Has anyone ever eaten these?); those magical holiday windows (dwindling! Bring back department stores!); the excuse to swath yourself in piles of cashmere, and not least, an opportunity to appreciate our snowy polar bear friends, who, unlike us, are happy no matter how frigid it gets. Dazzling in their splendid animal glory, they are never as shimmery as this one, rendered in natural diamonds and platinum and lurking here.

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THE EDIT 2023

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VAN CLEEF & ARPELS “CERF” DEER CLIP

DE BEERS CLASSIC STAR PENDANT

Long before discussions of diversity and inclusion were central to the national debate, there was Rudolf. Reviled and mocked by his fellow reindeer—because he was different; because it glowed!—, he was elevated by Santa who saw his inner qualities and the special role he could play.

How old is this beleaguered fictional mammal? According to the Smithsonian: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in 1939 when Montgomery Ward department store asked one of its copywriters, 34-year-old Robert L. May, to create a Christmas story the store could give away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick…In the first year of publication, 2.4 million copies of Rudolph’s story were distributed by Montgomery Ward. May’s brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, decided to adapt the story of Rudolph into song. Marks’ musical version of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ was recorded by Gene Autry in 1949.”

In the ensuing decades, how many of us have felt ourselves excluded from reindeer games, only to triumph later in life? This exquisite and fiercely eccentric deer rises far above the common herd with its shower of stones, and if his nose isn’t red, it certainly glows, along with the rest of him, composed as it is of natural diamonds, black spinels and pearls.

I have never been skiing. When I was in college, I have a dim memory of spending the weekend in a lodge somewhere in the snowy north—Maine? Vermont? —wearing a puffy little velvet number and getting quietly sloshed and never leaving the lodge. This utter lack of athletic ability (I suck at summer sports too) has nevertheless not prevented me from being quite the aficionado of the Winter Olympics, not at all embarrassed to comment harshly on the form and function of prospective medalists from the snug lair of my sofa.

Would I perhaps be more inclined to tiptoe to a slope, or at least make a snow angel in Central Park, if I were wearing a DeBeers diamond flake around my neck?

(Ohh—cold and wet! So maybe not…) But a diamond snowflake—the flakes themselves, like natural diamonds: no two exactly alike—would certainly enhance whatever ski bunny gear one dons this winter.

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DAVID WEBB HERALDIC SNOWFLAKE BROOCH “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars,” my very good friend, the brilliant Oscar Wilde, observed in 1892. Poor Oscar, born so far before his time—what a star he was in his own short life, and what a star he would be if he were with us now, striding our same streets, trapped in the muck of our plebian lives but staring up at the heavens.

The dual meaning of Star is never more potent than in this winter season, bringing to mind the luminaries that we revere—not just entertainment stars but stars of kindness and wit and generosity! Those unsung stars who make our own lives rich and wonderful, along with the celestial bodies that gleam high above us in the winter sky. Could any blaze shine brighter than this homage to the galaxy, an almost ridiculously elaborate, breathtaking David Webb creation flaunting brilliant cut diamonds?

CHANEL COMÈTE EARRING AND RUBAN RING My parents wouldn’t take us to the Radio City Christmas Show. I don’t think it was only because we were Jewish, though of course that didn’t help, but my dad, a proud union stagehand, actually had a taste for higher forms of mass entertainment—a Sondheim show, say, rather than a circus. So it wasn’t until I was an adult and went to the Radio City show with Michael Musto and his aunt—a genuine nun!—that I saw the Rockettes, along with the abbreviated version of the Nutcracker, which is a part of that wonderful, unchanging New York institution.

And one thing is for sure—no matter how splendid this art deco architectural masterpiece (“They all laughed at Rockefeller Center, now they’re fighting to get in!” Ira Gershwin wrote in 1937, five years after it opened) we are positive that the Chanel jewels decorating this nutcracker would look far better shining on your pretty finger or dangling from your little ear lobe than bedecking this wooden fellow.

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THE GIFT GUIDE

Stephen Russell; stephenrussell.com

Pamela Love; pamelalove.com

Harwell Godfrey; harwellgodfrey.com

BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS These natural diamond gifts are not just for your imagination.

Eriness; eriness.com

Written by TANYA DUKES Some people will never be satisfied with a formulaic gift that doesn’t require imagination.

They’re not difficult—just discerning and acutely attuned to their specific habits and style.

Take your cues from the following natural diamond jewelry and watch finds. There’s something for every out-of-the-ordinary taste, no matter how quirky or chic.

Robinson Pelham; net-a-porter.com

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Cicada Jewelry; cicadajewelry.com

Lang Antiques; langantiques.com

BUGGED OUT

While some may recoil when insects come to mind, others are entranced by the tiny creatures that creep among us. Insects have been depicted in jewelry dating back to ancient Egypt.

In the Victorian Era, jewels featuring dragonflies, moths, bees, and more flourished in response to a newfound appreciation for nature. There’s no need to be a budding entomologist to appreciate their charms. Insects are often connected to powerful symbolic messages. Butterflies, with their origins as caterpillars, are said to signify transformation. Scarabs often represent protection and the life cycle, while bees are associated with diligence and cooperation. Whatever option ends up wrapped up in a bow—arachnid, bee or beetle—the gift of a diamond-laced insect jewel will generate, dare we say it, lots of buzz.

Sabbadini; net-a-porter.com

Marie Lichtenberg; marielichtenberg.com

Boucheron; boucheron.com

Lizzie Mandler; lizziemandler.com

Chanel; chanel.com

GRAPHIC MATERIAL Some jewels amp up the impact of a diamond’s glow, especially those with punchy, graphic lines. Think stripes, carefully laid out grids, or playfully pixelated patterns. With the pairing of bright, colorless diamonds and contrasting colors like sultry black or vivid red, these pieces have a modern, pop attitude, whether they’re century-old antiques or fresh finds from the latest high jewelry collections (just the thing for the creatively inclined), Boucheron made an impact with its recent launch of one-off jewels that look like 2D creations plucked from a Lichtenstein canvas. The standout jewel was an oversized bow—a brooch/hair accessory that was part debutante/ part Beatnik with alternating lines of diamonds and black stripes. An assemblage of rings from Lizzie Mandler in black and white diamonds shows off the stacking band concept in a whole new light and Chanel created a sharp black ceramic and white diamond watch with stark, futuristic beauty.

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STYL E

Tiffany & Co high jewelry; tiffany.com

Renna; renna.com

1st Dibs; 1stdibs.com

Seaman Schepps; seamanschepps.com

De Beers; debeers.com

Anita Ko; anitako.com

SHELL GAME

Jessica McCormack; jessicamccormack.com

Is there anything more nostalgic than childhood memories of gathering shells along the seashore? Inveterate beach bunnies can recapture that spirit whenever they please with a jewel featuring an unmistakable shell motif. Just like hunting for the perfect specimen along the beach, it may take some searching to find the right piece; there's a diverse array of options, like the spiraling nautilus, the rounded cowrie, or the frilly scallop shell. The latest high jewelry collection from Tiffany & Co. makes a departure from the heritage of one of its mainstay designers, Jean Schlumberger, who looked to the sea for inspiration. Some designers duplicate the shape of shells in precious metals, highlighting their forms with diamonds that dance along their surfaces like sea spray. Other jewelers incorporate genuine shells into their designs, bringing an authentic bit of the beach to even the most landlocked of jewelry collectors.

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GO WEST

Shakti Ellenwood; shaktiellenwood.com

Sydney Evan; sydneyevan.com

The sun belt is hot in more ways than one. Occupying a unique space in the American imagination, its frontier with an expansive, uncrowded landscape remains a major part of its attraction. Its recent uptick in popularity, with an influx of relocations to the sunny climate, has reawakened consciousness of its most iconic symbols—a mix derived from Indigenous cultures and cowboy life that comes with the territory. When interpreted in natural diamond jewelry, they can serve as talismans that project a distinct sense of place. A gold crescent moon pendant takes on the texture of the tooled leather found on a fine saddle, and a pair of diamond studs with the silhouette of leaping horses reinvents a jewelry staple with lots of local flavor.

Go over the top in a jumbo diamond horseshoe pendant or swingy fringe earrings that give Dolly Parton vibes.

Selim Mouzannar; selimmouzannar.com

Marlo Laz; marlolaz.com

Irene Neuwirth; ireneneuwirth.com

Established Jewelry; establishedjewelry.com

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HAPPY DAZE

Future Fortune; futurefortunejewelry.com

Jacquie Aiche; jacquieaiche.com

If someone on your gift list despairs at being born too late for Woodstock, always plays the Hair soundtrack and swears by bell bottoms as a style staple, then you know they covet diamond jewelry to match their Age of Aquarius outlook. There’s no shortage of current designs tapping into the hippiedom of the 1960s and ‘70s. A diamond daisy-embellished locket evokes the glory days of flower power.

A yin-yang pendant awash in tie-dye enamel is a reminder of the spirituality and DIY artistic impulses that were hallmarks of the time. Mushrooms and mood rings are making a comeback, but they reached their peak in public consciousness during psychedelic days gone by. Even the iconic smiley logo debuted during the same stretch of the 20th century. That optimistic face shines even brighter when paved in brilliant diamonds. Diamond-dappled peace sign earrings were unmistakably inspired by predecessors that came a half-century before, sending a message that transcends time and is just as relevant as ever.

Buddha Mama; buddhamama.com

Alison Lou; alisonlou.com

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Eéra; eera.com

David Alan; davidalanjewelry.com

Audemars Piguet; audemarspiguet.com

Bijules; bijules.me

Alex Moss; alexmossny.com

Retrouvai; retrouvai.com

Anita Ko; anitako.com

Jade Trau; jadetrau.com

Khiry; greenwichjewelers.com

HIP HOP HOORAY

It’s the 50th anniversary of the music that was born in the rec room of a Bronx apartment building and now tops charts everywhere. Hip-hop is more than a sound: It’s a culture with a distinctly extravagant, streetwise look, with artists often stacking up as many diamond jewels as a body can hold - grillz, heaps of chains, and too many rings to count. More than accessories, they’re a flex that conveys success and showmanship. It’s an art of adornment that’s full of bravado. Any hardcore hip-hop head will want to get in on the act. Think oversized hoops splashed with hundreds of diamonds, a nameplate necklace, or a jumbo link bracelet. And as most lyrics will tell you, an iced-out watch is necessary to stand out in a musical genre whose time has come.

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STYL E Gabriel & Co, $1,275; gabrielny.com

Birks, $1,250; birks.com

THE GIFT GUIDE

DESIGNS WITHIN REACH The holidays are here! During this blissful—yet sometimes stressful—time, we are here to help you check your list twice and inspire special gifts for your loved ones (or yourself, of course; we all deserve a treat). Ranging from $575 to $3,500, this curated gift guide meets all your natural diamond needs. No matter the occasion or budget, gifting jewelry to friends and family is always a no brainer. Natural diamonds, just like the wonderful people in our lives, are rare. If you’re going to give this holiday season, diamonds are the gift that keep on giving, and these special pieces are the place to start.

Written by ANNA MCFILLIN

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Brevani, $575; bellacosajewelers.com

Material Good, $980; materialgood.com

De Beers, $2,200; debeers.com

SIMPLY CHIC

There is nothing more classic than a diamond tennis necklace or bracelet – the little black dress of jewelry anyone would be thrilled to receive. The Clear Cut makes a perfect half-tennis necklace that adds just the right amount of sparkle to your everyday ensembles. De Beers’ Five Diamond Bracelet is both delicate and classic and a perfect starter piece for a collection. Perhaps you’re in the market for a pair of diamond earrings? Stephanie Gottlieb’s diamond studs and Birks Fine Jewelry huggies will add character to your ear party. Gabriel & Co’s bezel set solitaire is perfect on its own or built into a layered look. You can’t go wrong with diamond jewelry this classic, no matter who you’re shopping for.

Prounis, $3,480; prounisjewelry.com

The Antique Parlour, $2,800; theantiqueparlour.com

Image courtesy of Prounis.

Platt Boutique, $1,800; plattboutiquejewelry.com

The Clear Cut, $2,995; theclearcut.co

Grace Lee, $858; gacelee.com

Era Gem, $1,140; eragem.com

The Antique Parlour, $2,750; theantiqueparlour.com

Jewels By Grace, $1,250; jewelsbygrace.com

IN WITH THE OLD

All natural diamonds are billions of years old, but vintage jewelry evokes a different kind of nostalgia – whether it's an heirloom passed down from previous generations, a fabulous vintage find from the Victorian era, or a modern piece featuring old mine cut diamonds. These pieces come with a history and offer character and charm.

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Eriness, $3,195; eriness.com

Azlee, $2,800; azleejewelry.com

Brent Neale, $2,850; brentneale.com

Retrouvai, $930; retrouvai.com

Image courtesy of Renna Jewels.

Renna Jewels, $1,950; rennajewels.com

TOKENS OF LOVE

Jade Trau, $1,990; jadetrau.com

A symbolic piece of natural diamond jewelry can hold emotional value, whether it be an astrological design, a poignant pendant, or a literal initial, it immediately adds personal significance. Diamond zodiac charms from Jade Trau and rings from Azlee will not disappoint the star-sign lover in your life. Retrouvai’s Compass Pendant symbolizes a woman’s inner compass leading her through life. Nicole Rose, Brent Neale and Eriness each have a unique take on diamond initials to spell out your style or rep the ones you love.

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Nikos Koulis, $2,190; neimanmarcus.com Maria Tash, $895; mariatash.com

McKenzie Liautaud, $2,000; mckenzieliautaud.com

Image courtesy of Anita Ko.

Melissa Kaye, $3,350; melissakaye.com

Anita Ko, $2,950; anitako.com

THE BOLDER THE BETTER

For diamond jewelry lovers with daring style, go bold or go home. A cool solitaire pendant, like Nikos Koulis’ emerald cut diamond set in black enamel is sure to stand out. For something with a little edge, Maria Tash has the perfect spike hoop earring with a touch of sparkle. Searching for a powerful piece? There’s nothing more epic than Mckenzie Liautaud's rock crystal and diamond ring.

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STYL E Uniform Object; uniformobject.com

David Yurman; davidyurman.com David Yurman; davidyurman. com

THE GIFT GUIDE

LEVEL UP Symbolic and simply stylish jewels for men that are guaranteed to elevate any look.

Bernard James; bernardjames.com

Ole Lynggaard; olelynggaard.com

Written by JOSH PESKOWITZ Image courtesy of Bernard James.

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THE NATURAL

The human species has been around much longer than human civilization, and the impulse to decorate oneself goes all the way back to our hunting and gathering past.

Self-expression could be considered one of humanity's basic needs. The imperative to show one’s affiliations, prowess and beliefs through adornment is central to our lives as we do not have spots or feathers of our own. So, for better or worse, we have always borrowed from others in our natural world. And in 2023, of course, it’s vastly preferable to celebrate the natural world through symbolism. Natural materials (such as natural diamonds and precious metals) rendered in artisan techniques really [hand] hammer this point home. Whether inspired by flora or fauna, these treasures really take on the personality of their wearer, and vice versa. An introvert can show the world their inner bull with one of Uniform Object’s pendants; the most serious man shows his playful side with Bernard James’ fungi ring and the burliest guy can show his delicate sensibilities with Sethi Couture’s Laurel Diamond Ring. For millions of years, decorating yourself to mimic nature was the only option for Sapiens and our ancestors, but the modern man can choose (or have chosen for him) a symbol to celebrate and commemorate earth’s bounty.

Who knows: It might just motivate him to help save what’s left.

Image courtesy of Jacque Aiche.

David Yurman; davidyurman.com

PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT

Castro Smith; castrosmith.com

Military garb has informed much of what we wear peacefully today. You might not know that the neckties became part of military regalia as replacements for the Gorget, which was itself the vestigial ornament of full metal body armor. These days it can feel like the battlefield is all around us, and a little luck or added protection is welcome. The charm a man wears around his neck or wrist can—and should—be the most personal item his body bears; it’s likely that it will never come off. So how can one possibly pick? Religion or spiritual beliefs are usually the best place to start, but there are certainly guys out there who have hedged their bets by wearing protection symbols from multiple heritages. Receiving a herald or charm as a gift can imbue extra significance, as they are often given to commemorate big life events, and who gives can be as important as what is given. Giving a protection charm to another is a bond and a prayer that the receiver will stay on the right path, avoid trouble more often than escaping it and take moments to pause and reflect. It’s been said that luck is when preparation meets opportunity, and keeping a little (symbolic) armor near your heart will remind the wearer they are prepared.

Sethi Couture; sethicouture.com

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Tiffany & Co; tiffany.com

Top to bottom: Sydney Evan, sydneyevan.com; Jacob & Co, jacobandco.com

EVERY DAY IS PRECIOUS

What do you get for the guy who has everything?

Something he already has—but way more precious. Taking something mundane or commonplace and elevating it to an heirloom is not a new concept; it happens all the time in food, fashion, jewelry and accessories. These things can be practical—something that you’d carry every day anyway—so why not carry the best possible version? This logic applies to Good Art’s Model 22 Clip, which acts as foolproof carabiner-like key chain, or Mr. Leight’s sunglasses with superior lenses and platinum or gold hinges that rank them the last pair you’ll leave in a taxi.

Just as fun is a cheeky (and luxurious) take on something you see every day. The late Virgil Abloh’s first foray into jewelry (in conjunction with Jacob & Co) was bracelets and necklaces that looked like paper clips—the kind of thing Pharrell Williams, his friend and successor at Louis Vuitton, would get a kick out of. (Williams recently auctioned off many of his personal goods, including a solid gold BlackBerry.) Or try not to smile when you look at Sydney Evan’s multi-color jewel encrusted happy face bracelet. Besides, even those who have everything could use another smile.

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Top to bottom: David Yurman; davidyurman.com.

Uniform Object; uniformobject. com. Luis Morais; luismorais.com.

Icebox; icebox. com.

CHAIN GANG

For many guys, the first experience they have buying or receiving jewelry comes down to a simple chain. Whether it’s a Figaro link, a Cuban or a herringbone, and whether it was purchased at the mall, 47th Street or Canal, the experience was likely formative. It’s also true that for many guys, finding something that is one or two standard deviations better than those nostalgic pieces is all they ever dream about. Happily, we’ve entered a new era of links—one that combines timeless appeal with a new school flair. At this scale, seamlessly embedding natural diamonds seems like magic, imbuing the bracelets and necklaces with a magical shimmer that doesn’t overpower or feel ostentatious. Updating (and upgrading) such a staple of men’s adornment could be hazardous in less capable hands than David Yurman or Luis Morais (to name a few), but done right, it makes a classic shine with new light.

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Amina Sorel, Symoné Currie, Bernard James, Rosario Navia, Gwen Beloti, Jessenia Landrum.

TIME FOR TAKEOFF Discover the debut collections from the Emerging Designers Diamond Initiative class of 2023 Written by JANE ASHER Photographed by VINCENZO DIMINO 35 | T H E E D I T 2 0 2 3

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For new designers, presenting a debut collection can be both daunting and exciting.

And the mixed emotions certainly applied to the Emerging Designers Diamond Initiative class of 2023, who had the honor of debuting their first collection with the program at JCK/Luxury, one of the country’s biggest jewelry trade shows. “Part of it was surreal, being that it's all my designs—it's what I want to make; it’s what I like to see,” says Amina Sorel, whose background is in bespoke and custom jewelry.

“I knew it was going to be very intense,” Rosario Navia, another class member, recalls. “But the energy that you get when you're there is amazing and meeting other creatives and people in the industry was super beneficial. Getting feedback on our collections was amazing.”

The EDDI designers were all hand-selected to participate in the program, which provides BIPOC designers access to industry resources, a mentoring program with legendary designers like Lorraine Schwartz, a diamond credit and of course the op-

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portunity to present their collection at JCK/Luxury.

Leading up to the trade show, the designers—with support from their mentors and the Natural Diamond Council’s connections to diamond dealers—put in the hard work, time and dedication needed to create beautiful and cohesive collections.. “My mentor [Eva Fehren] has been instrumental in introducing me to someone that I started to work with,” says designer Bernard James. “Plus, it was amazing being able to work with some of the suppliers that I wouldn't have even known about if it wasn't for NDC.” While some of the designers have previously worked with natural diamonds, for othersthis was a career first. “Once you start working with [natural stones] you have a true appreciation for the industry,” muses Symoné Currie of Metal x Wire. “When you realize this diamond has been here before you and now you get to adorn it, it's a part of the storytelling.”

Gwen Beloti has a similar sentiment: “Natural is the definition of luxury because I feel like luxury is also synonymous with heirlooms,” she says. “It's something that you can pass down, something that really has a deep-rooted meaning beyond just the look of the product or the look of the diamond.”

Jessenia Landrum of Jevela is reminded of chemistry class when it comes to learning about natural diamonds. “I really have fallen in love with diamonds,” she says. Landrum, who hopes to take more courses to expand her knowledge to become the diamond expert she wants to be, continues, “The NDC has just… propelled me so forward. I feel like I took the escalator to something that would have taken me two sets of steps and a mountain.”

Even those who have worked with natural diamonds before, like gemologists Sorel and Navia, found a deeper appreciation for them through the program. “It actually allowed me to branch out of my comfort zone and produce something that that I've been wanting to do,” says Navia. “I've used a lot of precious stones and smaller diamonds, but with the help of NDC, I was able to make this connection very diamond forward.”

James too was able to design beyond his wildest dreams thanks to the program. A piece that had become one of his biggest labors of love was actually the one that sold first. “It was like seeing one of my babies leave,” he says with a laugh. “So it was very interesting, and definitely rewarding. I learned a lot.”

“I felt like I was exposed to things in a different way—in a new way—

Left to right: Bernard James and learning new processes,” rings; Gwen Beloti earring; adds James. This makes perfect Metal x Wire ring; Jevela earsense given his collection is called ring; Amina Sorel ring; Bernard James necklace; Rosario Process, and the sold ring feaNavia rings; Amina Sorel tured three diamonds: a rough, a bracelet; Jevela rings. semi-finished rough cut and a polished stone, reflecting the rough to polished process a natural diamond goes through.

The designers put their hearts into their collections, each one inspired by something personal and close to their hearts. “I read this quote that was like ‘our legacy is not what we leave behind, but what we send forward,’” says Landrum. With that in mind, she named pieces of her collection after her beloved family members, cementing that legacy in her collection.

Navia also looked to her ancestry to inspire her collection, naming it “Mara,” a nickname her grandfather used for her grandmother. “A lot of [my grandmother’s] jewelry inspired me,” she says. Her collection is “a more modern take with a lot of diamonds, but I grew up watching her with all her jewelry and we would always like to take it off her and put it on us and so that was a big inspiration for the collection.”

Currie, too, was inspired by her roots when designing her collection, specifically a set of bangles she wore every day of her childhood. “They were super thin and I was in college and I think I slapped it on the table and it broke in half,” she remembers with a laugh. “And I thought, well, I still liked the feeling of that bangle but how would I put my personality in it?” Enter Currie’s collection of substantial bangles, chokers and more. “I am not the daintiest person so it's a derivative of that experience.”

With these collections released into the world, the designers are excited for what’s next. “Prior to working with the NDC and creating this fine collection, I had a smaller collection that we call The Love Collection,” shares Beloti. “So, I'm currently working on one piece that's kind of like a part of our Love Collection, but it will be our first fine Love Collection piece.”

Sorel is excited to share more of her Morse and Aura collections, complete with codes and hidden meanings. “You can write anything you want in morse code,” within her pieces or custom make a piece with your Aura colors.

Creating with their customers in mind is of utmost importance to each of the designers, making pieces that will last a lifetime. With NDC’s unparalleled access to diamantaires, cutters, manufacturers, wholesalers and more, these designers are not only able to dream big but to execute those dreams as well. We cannot wait to see what the future holds for these talented creatives and the designs that are sure to become staples.

When you realize this diamond has been here before you and now you get to adorn it, it's a part of the storytelling.”

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UNEARTHING PROSPERITY

CANA The Remarkable Tale of Canadian Diamonds Written by GRANT MOBLEY

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SUSTA INA BIL IT Y

ADA Jonas Sangris remembers the time before diamonds were discovered in Canada.

He was the Chief of the Dene First Nation, an Indigenous group in Canada's Northwest Territories. He tells me about the early 1990s, when metals mining was the prevalent industry. This would soon disappear, leaving a substantial economic void in the community. Jonas recalls approaching the community elders at that time and expressing concern for the impending economic issues, to which the elders calmly replied, "Don't worry, something will come up." A year later, diamonds were discovered. This discovery would transform the Northwest Territories of Canada.

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Everyone wins when the community is invested in success and companies are invested in the community.”

"It was like the elders knew," remembers Jonas. The economy of the Northwest Territories of Canada has grown over 80% since 1999, thanks, in large part, to diamond mining.

In a rare trip to this region, I learned how the community leaders in the Northwest Territories wanted to ensure the recovery of diamonds would benefit everyone. In mining that came before, a wide-reaching benefit to the community was rare, but they would make sure it happened moving forward.

With mining companies, local and federal governments, and Indigenous groups working together, measures and agreements were implemented to guarantee this benefit to the people and the natural environment.

Many fear that any type of mining or industry can bring with it unwanted ecological issues, especially in ultra-remote areas like Canada's far north. However, in diamond recovery, mitigating these issues is a priority even before recovery begins. Several methods partially offset the carbon footprint of the mine, including wind farms, carbon offset tax and a recently announced solar farm at Rio Tinto's Diavik mine.

I saw firsthand how nature and wildlife are continuously monitored to ensure nothing is disturbed. Incredibly, thanks to mine closure agreements, within a few years after a mine is closed, the landscape is returned to its original condition as if it were never there. This process was well underway at the Snap Lake diamond mine in the Northwest Territories and will be completed by 2024.

One reason Canada's diamond mines have been so successful in mitigating environmental impact is an ecopartnership once thought impossible, between Indigenous knowledge and modern science. One such organization, the Ni Hadi Xa, comprising six Indigenous Nations, is responsible for monitoring the impact of the Gahcho Kue diamond mine, owned by De Beers and Mountain Province Diamonds.

Working hand in hand with the mining companies, their goal, according to their mission statement, is "to ensure that the mine's operation does not compromise the ability of the land

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to support those who rely on it." They utilize traditional wisdom alongside modern tools to monitor impact. Their work entails data collection on water quality, observing the mine's activities using traditional knowledge gathering and conducting technical reviews of the environmental management plans.

With Canada's NWT as a blueprint, a movement of ‘Indigenous Guardians’ like the Ni Hadi Xa can redefine conservation and set these areas up for success without compromising the environment.

Since 1996, diamond mines in the Northwest Territories of Canada have contributed over $26 billion to the economy.

More than $18 billion from this amount has gone toward businesses in the Northwest Territories and over $8 billion to companies specifically owned by Indigenous people. Of the total economic contribution, only 30% left the Northwest Territories. Diamond mining is also the largest private sector industry in the whole of the Northwest Territories, contributing 28% of the total GDP in 2022.

The economic contribution is impressive, but what if the mine becomes depleted? Mineral-rich regions have dealt with this problem extensively, yet the natural diamond industry actively addresses it. The Canadian Government's annual socio-economic report demonstrates their approach: They hire locally, retain financial benefits within the community and allocate funds to infrastructure, social programs and education. Substantial investments throughout the mine's operation leads to an economy that extends well beyond the mine's closure.

By purchasing goods and services from local residents, benefits flow into countless other local industries. In 2022 alone, over $754 million flowed through NWT business from the mines' local procurement of goods and services. In turn, the additional income of residents and local companies boosts the local retail economy, which then stimulates other parts of the economy and fosters entrepreneurship. Diamond mining revenue is also shared with the provincial and federal govern-

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Clockwise from top: Indigenous Canadians surveying land near the Gahcho Kué diamond mine, a buffalo near the Gahcho Kué diamond mine, a windmill at the Diavik diamond mine wind farm. Preceding page: winter landscape near the Gahcho Kué diamond mine. All photos courtesy of De Beers Canada and Rio Tinto.

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ments through royalties and taxes. The royalty rate alone can be up to 13% in addition to corporate taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes and a carbon tax based on the mines' fuel consumption that helps offset their carbon footprint. The government then shares these royalties with the local indigenous groups.

The mines also supply some of the rough diamonds discovered to local diamond cutters and polishers, which provides opportunities for residents to pursue employment and training in these fields. Tyrell Sangris, the grandson of Mr. Jonas Sangris, is a diamond-cutting apprentice in the Northwest Territories capital of Yellowknife. He shared how the discovery of diamonds expanded the opportunities for locals who may have otherwise needed to search for work elsewhere. "You can always tell who just started working in the diamond mines because they'll be driving a new F-150," he laughs.

Regardless of the NWT’s population of less than 45,000, mines prioritize hiring the local residents. The mines work with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and organizations like the Mine Training Society, Skills Canada and Aurora College to support the northern workforce. The training and education help the mines to be able to hire more locals but also prepare residents for jobs outside the mining industry, another way to sustain prosperity after the mines close.

After hearing from Melanie Sangris, unrelated to Jonas and Tyrell, I realized that Sangris must be a common surname in the NWT. Melanie was born and raised in Yellowknife and is a member of the Dene First Nation indigenous group. She has advanced her career to become Rio Tinto’s Diavik diamond mine's first female Tele-remote Scoop Operator. The path to her success was not always easy, "I was having a hard time navigating what to do once I was out of school," she says. But she soon found her calling when a friend introduced her to the Mine Training Society, and they enrolled in training programs together. She discovered she was interested in the training

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courses and had a good understanding of the concepts of the mining cycle.

"Heavy equipment was new to me; I felt proud of myself that I was able to catch on quickly," she recalls. "That encouraged me to learn all I can, practice and stick with it." Among her achievements, she is most proud of purchasing her first home and being a mother who works at a diamond mine. The Diavik diamond mine continues to support her growth as an individual and employee, sponsoring her training in the Northern Leadership Development Program offered through Aurora College.

The multiple training and education programs, apprenticeships, and scholarships from the diamond mining companies helped 1,338 students in the Northwest Territories receive financial assistance in 2022 alone.

Recovery of natural diamonds also supports dozens of community development projects beyond training and education.

One of the many projects I learned about is the Baby Bundle program, funded by the Gahcho Kué diamond mine. The first years of a child's life are pivotal to its development, so they have prioritized supporting early childhood initiatives across the NWT. The 'Baby Bundle' is an extensive care package given to every NWT family expecting a child. Stocked with everything from Vitamin D drops and digital ear thermometers to bibs and onesies, the Baby Bundle also includes a variety of resources for new parents. These resources include a safe environment guide, nutrition advice and tips for soothing a crying baby. This project is one of many examples of the support and care offered to the communities involved in diamond recovery.

Canada's diamond industry is an example of what is possible when companies put people, communities and the environment ahead of profit. Everyone wins when the community is invested in success and companies are invested in the community. *Data from the 2022 Government of the Northwest Territories Socio-economic Agreement report for mines operating in the NWT

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Top to bottom: Participants in the Gahcho Kué fish tasting ceremony; a selection of natural rough diamonds recovered from the Gahcho Kué diamond mine.

Opposite page: Water testing at Gahcho Kué diamond mine in Summer. All photos courtesy of De Beers Canada and Rio Tinto.

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SUSTA INABIL ITY

A WING

AND A PRAYER

Liezl handling an African Penguin chick courtesy of Namdeb. Next page: Cape Gannet courtesy of J Kemper.

In Namibia, the diamond producing communities are unexpectedly— and expertly—saving the African penguin.

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iamonds and penguins rarely overlap (there was a brief brooch craze in the 1980s that fashion collectors try to forget), but along the southwest coast of Namibia, the two are coming together in one extraordinary mission. As seabird conservation becomes a hallmark of ocean health, the natural diamond industry is stepping up to protect endangered populations of the rare African penguin.

The initiative comes from Namdeb, the ground-breaking mining partnership between De Beers and the Government of Namibia itself. In a first-of-its-kind project, they’ve invested money, time and people power into protecting and boosting native seabird populations along the coast of Namibia and South Africa.

If you’re lucky to see an African penguin in the wild, you might be surprised to note they’re smaller than the Antarctic breed you’ve likely seen at the local aquarium. Weighing between 5 and 7 pounds, African penguins are fierce and playful swimmers and look much like other penguins, except for the tiny pink dots between their eyes and beak. (Fun fact: In colder weather, the dots get brighter and pinker.) Though they once numbered in the millions, the penguins have been threatened by warming waters, overfishing, and a loss of habitat.

“African penguins are what we call indicators,” says Carolin Mutorwa, a technical advisor for the Namibian Association of Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). That’s because they sit at the center of a complex ecosystem that stretches from land to water, helping maintain a balance of algae that supports other shorebirds and marine life. Because they feast on fish like sardines, herring and anchovies, their feeding behavior also helps herd schools of fish “upwards” so other bird populations can stay nourished. And when the African penguin population fluctuates or falls, their habitat’s biodiversity—essentially, its natural balance of plants, animals and nutrients—can be thrown off balance.

In recent years, penguin health studies have inspired research and funding to repair issues of overfishing and atmospheric warming. Seabirds can also be possible barometers for things like avian flu, which means they can alert world health organizations, helping spark early prevention measures around the globe. Adds Nora Ndopu, the Executive Manager of the Debmarine-Namdeb Foundation that connects Debmarine Namibia and Namdeb with greater conservation movements, “The newly established NAMCOB (Namibian Foundation for the Conservation of Seabirds) will also have a strong focus on ocean literacy for communities living and working adjacent to the seabirds’ habitat.”

As Ndopu and her colleagues point out, it’s much easier for people to advocate for penguins once they know how the animals help protect and enhance their own hometowns—and since protecting local wildlife is part of Namibia’s constitu-

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tion, Namdeb’s seabird conservation efforts are, quite literally, a national point of pride. In the words of Angus Middleton, the Director of the Namibian Nature Foundation, it’s not just an environmental issue. It’s also a way of bringing the community together. “This helps drive the democratic process forward,” he explains. “We work on going to the street to try and get us up and running by connecting directly with people who live here.” Your environment is also, after all, your home.

Namdeb employees are trained to help seabirds with help from Nicky Stander, the Head of Conservation at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds, also called SANCCOB. The training takes about a week and focuses on how to assess, treat and release lost seabirds that might have become disoriented from uncommon weather patterns, strong storms, or simply natural curiosity. “We teach teams how to stabilize [a penguin] by giving all the fluids to hydrate it properly, plus grooming management” to help it stay clean while in recovery, says Stander. SANCCOB also provides basic oil spill training in case birds wash ashore during an unrelated emergency. In the words of Namdeb environmental officer Dene Kisting, “I’m proud to be doing this! The training has reinforced the importance of these species, and what they mean for the future of this ecosystem.”

At the end of a mine’s lifecycle, open spaces are left to naturally refill with water and plant life, providing added habitat, nesting sites, and watering holes for native seabirds. That means besides African penguins, future mining sites will wing it with terns, black-neck grebes and cape cormorants, an endangered glossy black bird that snacks on sand eels and looks like a very glamorous duck. “It’s quite phenomenal,” says Liezl Maritz of the program, noting that she spots wild flocks with increasing frequency in her area.

One big bonus? Studies show that observing birds in their natural settings can sharpen focus, lower stress and have longterm benefits for our mental health. So while Namibian mining communities help local flocks flourish, the birds themselves can enhance their helpers’ well-being for years to come, creating a “love loop '' where both people and animals can thrive through one goal.

But as the mission succeeds in bringing seabirds back into the daily lives of Namibians, conservationists and locals alike have a simple request: no selfies; the seemingly harmless snaps can disturb penguin habitats, create stress for the animals and even affect their health. Other tips to support these endangered penguins, whether you’re in Africa or America: Choose your fish as sustainably as possible and reduce single-use plastic like disposable coffee cups and straws, which can end up as microplastics in the ocean.

When such small steps combine with larger actions such as the ones of Namdeb, seabirds like the African penguin, can remain a jewel of the Namibian coast. This creates a ripple through other diamond producing communities and conservation groups that can serve as an environmental butterfly effect—or maybe it’s a “penguin effect” instead.

SUSTA INA BIL IT ST YYLE Clockwise from top: Swift Tern courtesy of J Kemper; Julien and Abisai tube feeding a Kelp Gull courtesy of Namdeb, African Penguin courtesy of J Kemper.

“It’s not just an environmental issue. It’s also a way of bringing the community together.”

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Rebecca Selva curating Fred Leighton's New York store windows.

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THE VINTAGE JEWELRY ON

EVERYONE’S WISH LIST Fred Leighton’s Rebecca Selva shows vintage diamonds in stylish and creative ways.

Written by JILL NEWMAN Photographed by VINCENZO DIMINO

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f Rebecca Selva wins the lottery, she already has her dream jewels selected: a vintage diamond riviere necklace and Suzanne Belperron’s triple row diamond bracelet. “They are so pure, so beautiful and effortlessly glamorous,” says Selva, Creative Director of the legendary Fred Leighton estate and contemporary jeweler in New York.

During her 30 years at Leighton, Selva has handled the most exceptional period pieces representing every era but, as she is quick to point out, “it’s not old jewelry.”

“Something this beautiful is timeless and chic,” she says.

Both celebrities and their stylists have Selva on speed dial: She’s the one they call when they want to shake things up on the red carpet and express a sense of individuality, or simply want stylishly beautiful jewels. She’s also showing younger people, including Billie Eilish and Emma Stone, that vintage jewelry can be cool and playful.

What’s more, Leighton does not pay celebrities to wear their jewels. While most of the big jewelry houses pay top dollar to get their pieces on the red carpet, celebrities turn to Selva for her artistic vision and curated selection—no charge.

Leighton’s carefully curated collection features a mix of the best brands, from Cartier to Bulgari, and unique unsigned pieces. It’s never about the price point or the biggest stone;

it’s always about the overall design: something with charm, character or a “wow” factor.

From Egyptian Revival pendants to elegant tiaras, Fred Leighton’s stores in New York and Las Vegas are a jewelry lover’s fantasy—a place to discover, a place to learn and to have fun. And usually, Selva is on hand to guide clients in finding the perfect piece that speaks to their style.

Here, Selva dishes on her favorite vintage diamond jewelry pieces, red carpet moments, and how to restyle your grandmother’s brooch.

Why are more and more young people interested in vintage diamond jewelry?

Rebecca Selva: We are in an age of recaptured individuality. People want to express their own style and create their own stories. Vintage diamond pieces are a great way to tell your story; they have tremendous character, and each is so unique. Sustainability is also important, and people like to know that these pieces had another life and will live on.

Most in-demand vintage diamond jewelry today?

RS: A beautiful 19th century riviere necklace is something that sells again and again. It’s an example of true timeless beauty. It’s effortlessly elegant.

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Best period for diamonds?

RS: I love late 18th century and early 19th century old mine cut diamonds. They are beautiful, sumptuous and have tremendous fire because they have these larger facets that reflect the light. The designs from that period were also beautiful and alluring, like the en tremblant diamond flowers and beautiful diamond fringe necklaces.

Your first jewelry love?

RS: My first love is Pierre Sterle (1905-1978). In 1992, when I walked into Fred Leighton for the first time, I saw a Sterle carved mother of pearl and sapphire brooch. I was struck by the artistry of the design.

What made you leave a career in banking and come to jewelry?

RS: I designed a piece of jewelry for myself, and it got noticed so I made more pieces with old colonial coins. That led me to rethink my career in private banking. I went back to school at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) to study jewelry design. After graduation, I met with Fred Leighton, and he hired me.

How does the red carpet influence younger people’s jewelry choices?

RS: When you have Billie Eilish at the Oscars walking the red carpet in a Gucci dress and our 19th century diamond star rings and earrings, it couldn’t look more cool, more relevant and more beautiful. And that opened people’s minds.

[For Eilish’s 2022 Oscars outfit, Selva took apart a diamond tiara and set the stars in rings and earrings that the singer wore.]

Favorite red carpet moment?

RS: We have so many memorable moments. The jewelry comes to life when it’s on people. One that stands out is when Taraji P. Henson was nominated for Hustle & Flow (2005) and walked the red carpet for her first major event wearing a Roberto Cavalli dress and a 19th century diamond

19th century star brooches; 20th century two stone platinum ring; Diamond and emerald ring by Lauren Adriana; Antique marquise brown diamond and ebony ring by Antonia Miletto; Art Deco marquise diamond ring.

flower necklace. Here was this beautiful young, new star who made the 19th century part of her story. And walked that red carpet like she owned it.

Also, when Kirsten Dunst was nominated for The Year of the Dog (2022), I couldn’t have been prouder, happier, or more honored to be with her when she left her house wearing our Pierre Sterle diamond earrings. There’s always a lot of pressure on what to wear, and it was her choice.

Fred Leighton’s best signature pieces?

When you have Billie Eilish at the Oscars walking the red carpet in a Gucci dress and our 19th century diamond star rings and earrings, it couldn’t look more cool.”

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Rebecca Selva, Creative Director of Fred Leighton; 19th Century diamond bib necklace set with antique enamel pansies.

RS: Our Fred Leighton earrings created with old diamonds that we set in classic antique silver and gold collets are still bestsellers. We were one of the first to remake this style because we would find these beautiful diamond riviere necklaces but didn’t have the earrings to match, so we made them with old cushion cuts and old mine cuts.

Advice on reimagining jewelry?

RS: Jewelry has always been reimagined and remade into new pieces. Even many of the French Crown jewels were made with stones from earlier pieces. It’s part of the natural journey of a piece of jewelry. If you love your mother’s brooch but don’t wear it, you can attach it to a velvet choker, put it on a simple cord and wrap it around your wrist or pin it on your waist. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

How has jewelry styling changed?

RS: Our lifestyle today is about wearing jewelry effortlessly and with ease. When Greg [Greg Kwiat, CEO of Kwiat, which

owns Fred Leighton] and I look for jewelry, we always think about how someone will wear it. That’s why great classics, like a retro gold link bracelet or a diamond riviere, are in demand. Find your power bracelet, your power ring, something you love, something that makes you feel good and that you want to wear all the time.

What should people look for in vintage diamonds?

RS: The perfection lies in the imperfectly hand-cut stones.

Maybe not perfect by today’s standards, but certainly beautiful. When you see the intricate workmanship of early 19th century pieces, you see the dedication to creating something beautiful. Look at the overall design of the piece, and the sparkle of the stone, and buy what speaks to you.

Where do you find the vintage jewelry for the store?

RS: We travel to Europe, shows, visit clients and many private clients come to us. Some old clients’ lifestyles have changed so they aren’t wearing their pieces, and we are happy to see jewelry come back and find another home.

What’s the best part of working with vintage jewelry?

RS: Vintage jewelry invites creative play. There are so many design movements, from Etruscan and Egyptian Revival to Georgian, Victorian and Art Nouveau. You have this incredible universe of designs; it’s not one thing. That invites you to play, to mix it up, to discover your own style.

After 30 years, how do you stay excited about vintage jewelry?

RS: There is always something new to discover, something amazingly beautiful. Also, I have amazing clients who I have worked with for 25 to 30 years, and they still have a desire to keep discovering and buying jewelry. They keep me excited. A lover of jewelry is a lover of jewelry. And that never goes away.

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LOREE RODKIN: ROCK AND ROLL’S QUEEN OF DIAMONDS A wide-eyed interview with an ECC (Extremely Cool Chick) Written by BRANDON BORROR CHAPPELL

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eptember of 2021, my wife Laura and I attended a fancy dinner honoring Carmen Busquets, an entrepreneur/philanthropist/ all around awesome lady from Venezuela. I always get a little mix of nerves and excitement before these things because I never know who I’m going to be sitting next to.

I seem to always get lucky with my table neighbors—maybe this is because I am great and fun. But that’s not for me to say.

This time, to my right sat a very cool looking dark-haired lady whose place setting identified her as Loree Rodkin. “Hi Loree, I’m Brandon.”

“Nice to meet you, Brandon.”

See how smooth I am?

Before I could try to think of my next ice-breaking question, I looked down and noticed her hands. Surrounding one of her fingers was some sort of hypnotic badass gauntlet. “Whoa, I love your…um, ring? It looks like medieval armor. Who made that?”

“Well…I did,” Loree replied. In fact, she had made all the jewelry she was wearing.

After a short spell of admiring the various pieces I deployed yet another shrewd observation: “It looks very rock and roll, like something the Aerosmith guys would wear.”

“They do wear it! Steve Tyler is a dear friend of mine.”

Now here is where it got really fun: My grandparents used to live in Marshfield, Massachusetts and their next door neighbor

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was Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. I shared this with Loree and we decided to text good ol’ Stevie T. I forget what I said exactly but it was something along the lines of: “Hi Steve, this is Brandon, I’m the grandson of your old neighbors Linda and Jack. I’ve just met your friend Loree and I just want to say thank you for all the music and for being a good friendly neighbor and citizen of Marshfield.”

His reply, which I have screenshotted for all eternity, read: “Please tell Brandon to tell Linda I said hello…what great memories of jogging that two mile run around my house and stopping at her place and yakking as good neighbors should…Love ST” Two years later, I knew that I liked Loree and that she made cool jewelry—and that was about it. I thought it would be cool to interview her about her diamond jewelry journey, and boy was I right. The following interview is heavily edited, mostly because I kept saying, “What?” and, “Really?” and “No way!” Now that I’ve cleaned up my end, I am thrilled to share our chat with you: Loree Rodkin: Good morning. Or, good afternoon—where are you calling me from?

Brandon Borror-Chappell: Our apartment in New York - we live near the Dakota.

LR: I lived in the Dakota for about a year. It was weird.

BBC: Isn’t it haunted?

LR: It feels haunted. My unit was half of the ground floor, which originally was one apartment and the people who lived there were hoarders. The estranged brother lived in one half, the sisters in the other. The brother died and they didn’t know until like, years later, because nobody talked to him. Surrounded by

John “Jellybean” Benitez, Loree Rodkin, Cher, and Esai Morales, January 1987

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STYL E piles of newspapers and junk. When the sisters died, they split it up, that was the one Gilda Radner lived in, and I lived in the other. An ex-boyfriend of mine was a writer on Saturday Night Live and all those guys—Belushi, Chevy Chase—would hang out at our place.

BBC: RIP. LR: I know. Lots of RIPs down that road.

BBC: You know, when you texted Steve and shared his reply with me, that was really a nice thing. I shared that with my family, my grandmother was absolutely tickled pink. Thank you for facilitating that.

LR: Aw, that is so cute. You know, Steven is really just a very nice, normal family guy under the whole rockstar thing.

BBC: Imagine a curious alien visits Earth and wants to learn about our civilization. They ask you how you contribute to the great symphony of human existence. How do you answer?

LR: I decorate people and make them feel good.

BBC: They’d probably hear that and abduct you.

LR: Do I get to go in the spaceship?

BBC: Yes, but you’ll need to wear a special suit to survive the hyperspace jump.

LR: Cool, I love dressing up.

BBC: Do you remember a moment that you fell in love with jewelry?

LR: Yeah, there was a come-to-Jesus moment. I was about 10, and my mother let me wear one of her engagement rings. She had two, both from my father. And I was like, “AAHHH DIAMONDS!” I was hooked. And a couple years later she started taking me to our family jeweler on my birthday and let me design my own ring. I’d pick out the stone and the mold and go from there. So that’s how my obsession with diamonds and jewelry started. But I never thought it’d be a career.

BBC: Do you remember the first ring you ever made?

LR: The first thing I ever made was a pearl and amethyst ring for my 13th birthday. Amethyst is my birthstone. In hindsight it was kinda dorky, but…anyway, then I started making jewelry for myself. I made a bunch of tiny earrings that went up my ear. I was a rock chick, and I could never find anything I thought was cool, so I started designing for myself.

BBC: My sense is that you just make the stuff that you like, and if someone else likes it then great, and if they don’t, they can go somewhere else. Is that accurate?

LR: Yes, 100% correct. I design for myself and luckily, other people like my taste too.

BBC: Do you know how your taste formed?

LR: Churches. I loved churches; I spent a lot of time in England where there are some amazing Gothic buildings and churches, and I used to collect Gothic furniture. That’s how my aesthetic started to form. And I liked Romeo and Juliet; I loved the Shakespearean unrequited, tortured

love themes—that’s where my jewelry went. Deeply romantic and twisted.

BBC: Very sexy. I remember when I first met you I thought your articulated ring looked like medieval armor.

LR: That’s actually where that came from. As part of my Gothic furniture collection, I had this suit of armor in my doorway.

When I’d clean it, I’d play with the hands, and that’s when I thought, “I want to make myself a ring like this.” Then when I started wearing it people kept asking me if I had broken my finger. I was like, uh-huh, yeah, I broke my finger and decided to make this diamond encrusted cast.

BBC: What did you do before you professionally designed jewelry?

LR: I’ve done a bunch of things. I’ve had an interesting life by accident.

BBC: Go on.

LR: My adult life was at 19, I was at a Beatles party after some movie came out, I don’t remember what it was. And I was having a lovely time with this guy Geoffrey and he said, “Listen, I know this is crazy, but we’ve been flirting all night; I’m going to Europe tomorrow, would you like to come with me?”

And I said, “Okay, as long as I can stay in my own room.”

He said, “Sure, of course.” So I went, and we wound up at this gigantic estate in Surrey that belonged to Robert Stigwood (he produced Saturday Night Fever, he managed the Bee Gees—Uri Geller was there, all these people, I didn’t know anything; I was in way

I design for myself and luckily, other people like my taste too..”

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Left to right: Miley Cyrus, Jeff Goldblum, Rihanna, and Elton John in Loree Rodkin jewelry, Lenny Kravitz and Loree Rodkin, Salvador Dalí.

over my head. We had a fun time at the party and then when it was time for bed, what do you know, we only had one room for the two of us. Geoffrey said, “Don’t worry, I’m a perfect gentleman.”

Then the next day he asked if I wanted to go to Paris to meet his friend Salvador Dalí. I knew he was some painter and I hadn’t been to Paris so I said sure, why not?

BBC: Did you have a nice time with Salvador Dalí? Was he a weird guy?

LR: I had an eye-opening time, that’s for certain. He took us to La Tour D’Argent, and to my right was Amanda Lear who told me all about transitioning into a woman, and to my left was a Russian countess who kept reaching for me under the table. I thought she was looking for her napkin. And then my clearly new boyfriend Geoffrey—and Dalí. Then we went to dinner, then to a drag bar, then to Dalí’s room at the Ritz. He had a bathtub full of naked young men and he was pouring cream on them and taking photographs. I turned to ask Geoffrey “uh what’s going on?” and he was making out with a boy!

I said, “Um, why are you kissing a boy?”

He said, “What do you mean? Loree, I’m gay!”

I was like, “Well then what the hell am I doing here?”

He said, “I thought you were adorable and that we’d have a good time.” I was like, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. Dalí hosted us for a week in Paris, then we went to Rome where my boyfriend-not-boyfriend’s actual boyfriend was playing young Fellini in Amarcord. We were there for about a week and then I thought, ya know what, I think I need to go home.

BBC: Because you needed to launch your jewelry career.

LR: No, not yet. I fell into interior design because I was with this musician and I wanted our home to look nice. His friends

liked it so then I did their homes as well: Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart, Sean Cassidy, David Cassidy, Bernie Taupin. But that wasn’t interesting for very long.

[Being the keen-nosed investigative journalist that I am, I executed a quick “Loree Rodkin musician boyfriend” Google search while she was finishing that last sentence] BBC: Was this when you were with Don Henley?

LR: Yeah.

[As I scanned the blurbs under my search I learned that parts of the Hotel California album, in particular "Wasted Time", were written about their relationship and breakup. WTF] BBC: You’re like…part of the all time lexicon.

LR: But I don’t get royalties. You know, when you’re with a writer or musician, they write what they know, so snippets of your life end up in these songs.

BBC: And [I just learned] you were engaged to Bernie Taupin [the man who wrote/co-wrote the majority of Elton John’s discography].

LR: I was. We’re still friends.

BBC: You have a type.

LR: I like wordsmiths. Wordsmiths with good voices.

BBC: Have you ever been married?

LR: No. I like the idea of being with someone forever, and I am a serial monogamist, or a serial romantic—but the idea of a contract, to then have it go south and fight over who gets to keep the good chairs: that’s never been romantic to me. My father was married to my mother twice, and to my stepmother twice, and I lived with musicians who sometimes maybe weren’t so good to their wives. So my point of view on marriage was always framed by instability.

BBC: But then you found stability designing jewelry.

LR: Then I fell into managing. I had a brief affair with a Russian

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STYL E ballet dancer named Alexander. I broke it off but I think he was worried about being able to stay in the United States, so he begged me to manage his career. I didn’t have any credentials but I figured, why not? I launched Brad Pitt, Robert Downey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Judd Nelson, Billy Zane—a lot of ‘em.

BBC: What the hell! We as a society owe you a tremendous debt. How’d you find Brad Pitt?

LR: An agent sent him to me, they couldn’t get him hired. I thought, he’s cute, I can find something for him. I sent him in for Thelma and Louise a hundred times. They said, “Loree do not send this kid in again. He is cute, but he doesn’t know how to act.” But after a while they still hadn’t found their guy, so we sent him in one more time and he finally got it.

BBC: So you launched that jewel out into the world and then thought, hm, I should do more of this.

LR: I was always making things for myself. But other people liked them. The first thing I ever sold was one of the little earrings I was wearing. One of the Gettys bought it out of my ear and gave it to Elizabeth Taylor. And that’s what really launched my jewelry career.

BBC: You launched Brad Pitt and Elizabeth Taylor launched you.

LR: She called me and said, [here Loree breaks out a wonderful Lizzie T impression] “Honey, it’s Elizabeth. Can I come over?”

I said, “You…want to come…to my house?”

She said, “I’m in my pajamas, I hope you don’t mind. But I’d love to get some more of that cute jewelry.”

I said, “Oh...kay, sure, you can come over.”

She said, “I have my dog with me - but don’t worry, she’s housebroken.” Well she came over and the dog immediately pooped all over my carpet. And Elizabeth said, “Ohh sugar.”

And I cleaned it up. And then I lifted up my sofa where I was hiding all my jewelry I had made and we sat on the floor and she picked out what she liked. And then she’d call every week and say something like, “Honey, can you come over? I don’t have my face on, I hope that’s okay.

Let’s do blue things today.” So she was client one, and Barbra Streisand was client two and that’s how I got my start. But I was still managing at this time; jewelry was a hobby. I didn’t think it would go anywhere.

[POV: You’re Elizabeth Taylor, you’re in your pajamas, and you’ve just lifted up Loree’s sofa.]

BBC: How did you transition from hobby to full blown career?

Was it a natural progression?

LR: Kind of. Neiman Marcus found me, then Japan, then Russia. These big markets were into

it, I kept getting these bumps up.

I have a collaboration now with Rick Owen’s wife Michele Lamy. I made a line for stores around the world, but I was doing celebrities privately. When Madonna saw my articulated bondage ring she was like, “Uh, I need that.” So she had one and she wore my stuff on billboards, magazine covers…Steven Tyler was doing an interview on TV and said he didn’t feel cool until he put on my stuff…I walked by Rihanna when she was giving an interview at Paris fashion week and she grabbed me and said, “This is the lady who made my jewelry!” I’ve had a lot of loving support from people, and that’s helped. A lot of word of mouth.

BBC: Can you flex on me? I want a brief but proud list of who you’ve worked with.

LR: It’d be easier to list who I haven’t.

BBC: Ooh that’s a good flex.

LR: Hahaha. I’ve made things for Bruce Springsteen, Cher, Puffy, Madonna, Mel Gibson, Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez, a ton of stuff for Elton, a lot for Miley starting when she was doing Hannah Montana. Musicians, actors, heads of state…

BBC: When you do a piece for someone - how do you know what to make for them? What’s that process? Or is it just them picking out something you already made?

LR: Well for Steven Tyler, he said he wanted a diamond belt. He wanted things hanging off of it, something different. So I made a mesh belt that draped down over his leg with all these diamond charms hanging off it. Cher wanted earrings but they had to be “bigger.

Longer.” So they’ll give me a parameter and then I run with it.

BBC: What part of the process makes you feel like, “Oh baby, I was born for this”?

LR: Buying stones. That’s what makes my heart beat. I find a beautiful diamond or some other stone, and then the design comes to me.

I’m stone up.

BBC: Natural diamonds only?

LR: I want something that a dinosaur could have worn as an earring.

BBC: Have you ever sold something that broke your heart to part with?

LR: I used to have a little grouping of unique stones I’d collected. I’d found some unusually large vintage

I find a beautiful diamond… and then the design comes to me.

I’m stone up.”

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From left: Brad Pitt, October 1989; Michelle Obama wearing Loree Rodkin jewelry at the 2009 Inaugural Ball; Loree Rodkin Articulated Bondage Ring.

cut diamonds—I love rose cut, old mine cut, the old European cut—and then of course those were the ones that certain clients just had to have. Some clients would only try to buy things off my hand or ear, so I’ve had to watch what I wear around them. But yes, I did part with some of those and in hindsight, it does break my heart a little. The designs I can duplicate, but the stones, no.

Olivia Harrison, George Harrison’s widow, bought this amazing turquoise ring that I loved and every time I see her wearing it I’m like…Grrrr!

BBC: Like Gollum and Frodo.

LR: What?

BBC: You haven’t seen or read Lord of the Rings?

LR: I haven’t. I know, sacrilege. Maybe I made something—I don’t remember what movies I’ve made things for, but I don’t think I made anything for Lord

of the Rings.

BBC: There’s a lot of jewelry in the series, talismans and such with magical properties. I’m googling “Loree Rodkin Lord of the Rings.”

LR: Ooh that’s a cute name for me.

BBC: It is. You owe me. Obviously I didn’t do a ton of research before this, but I did see that you worked with Michelle Obama. What happened there?

LR: I thought I was being punk’d. I got a call from ‘the White House,’ they asked me, “Would you like to do Mrs. Obama’s jewelry for the inaugural ball?”

I said, “Ha ha who is this?” After a couple of tries I believed them. I called Cher and told her I was designing eight suites of jewelry for Michelle Obama, and if she ended up choosing one to wear, it would end up in the Smithsonian. But she couldn’t tell anybody. And of course she told everyone.

BBC: Dammit, Cher. She can never keep her mouth shut.

LR: She really can’t. She’s very enthusiastic. She said it’s my fault for sharing secrets with her, that I should know that about her. Fair enough.

BBC: Two questions: what is a suite, and how did Michelle Obama come to request you as her inauguration jeweler?

LR: A suite is an ensemble, like earrings, necklace, bracelet, ring. And yeah, when they called me I said, “Are you sure you know who you’re asking?” They said yes, and they were hoping I’d do something a little less rock and roll, but Mrs. Obama had a pair of earrings that Oprah had given to her a while back and she liked them, and liked that I was from Chicago. The whole thing was very hard to process. I designed eight suites for her and she wore them all over the period leading up to the inauguration, and she saved the best for last—for the Inaugural Ball.

BBC: Yeah, that’s like…world history. And you’re a part of it.

What was it like to see something you made on that stage?

LR: My first thought was, “what the hell, someone copied my jewelry!” and then I lost my breath for a moment and realized that no, that was mine. It was so exciting. Probably the most exciting thing that’s happened to me so far.

BBC: If there’s a museum a thousand years from now with a Loree Rodkin exhibit, what do you hope is on display?

LR: Well, having the jewelry I designed for Mrs. Obama in the Smithsonian: I don’t know how to top that. I hope that they have one of my articulated bondage rings. Giving someone the finger.

BBC: I’ll put a word in. I don’t have any more questions written down. Is there anything else you’d like to say to the world?

LR: That I don’t take myself too seriously.

BBC: I’m going to write the opposite: that you’re an uptight scumbag.

LR: A narcissistic bitch.

BBC: Now we’re getting somewhere!

LR: “I hated her!” That’d be a great way to start the article.

BBC: Or a great way to end it.

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GET INTO

SHAPE

Choosing a diamond shape that matches your personal style is the ultimate engagement ring flex Written by MARION FASEL

“S

quare-cut or pear-shape these rocks don’t lose their shape,” was one of the playful lyrics Marilyn Monroe belted out in her legendary rendition of “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend.”

The line was, obviously, in jest. Diamonds don’t lose their shape. The details of a diamond’s shape, however, can get lost in the discussion of the 4Cs—color, cut, clarity and carat weight—surrounding engagement rings.

So, what is shape? It’s a physical description. Most diamond shapes clearly describe the silhouette of the girdle (or center line) of a gem such as round, oval and pear. Other shapes are named after the people who designed them. The term Asscher comes from Joseph Asscher who conceived the shape in 1902.

There are also idiosyncratic examples like the emerald cut that was designed in the 1920s and named after the most popular shape for emeralds.

You see why a comedic song like “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” fits the spirit of this story, right? The subject of shape can be quirky, but it’s so important.

A diamond’s shape sets the mood of an engagement ring more than any other element of the design.

There are a countless number of diamond shapes to choose from. On these pages we have selected some of the hottest and eternally popular shapes set in an array of classic and cool engagement rings. Hopefully SCAN TO VIRTUALLY you will find a new best friend among them.

TRY ON

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Sophie Bill Brahe

Lizzie Mandler

ROUND BRILLIANT The round brilliant, also referred to as a round brilliant cut, is the icon of diamond shapes. It has been far and away the most popular diamond shape for engagement rings since it was conceived by Marcel Tolkowsky in 1919. The Belgian lapidary redesigned round diamonds into round brilliants giving them 58 impeccably placed facets. An ideal blend of art and science, the arrangement of facets makes light bounce up through the top of the diamond.

The bright light of the shape is one big reason it’s been the queen of the category for so long. The other is its versatility. Round brilliants give a classic touch to just about any type of design.

Greenwich St Jewelers

Hailey Bieber wearing Ana Khouri earring and pear shaped engagement ring by Jack Solow.

Rings top to bottom: Jade Ruzzo, Marlo Laz, KatKim.

OVAL The “It Girl” of diamond shapes today is the oval. Blake Lively, Hailey Bieber and Kourtney Kardashian are a few who sport one on the third finger of their left hand. Marlo Laz designer Jesse Marlo Lazowski credits the success of ovals to the “elegant and sophisticated” look of the shape.

Ovals shine almost as brightly as round brilliants. They also give the illusion of elongating a hand.

While Blake, Hailey and Kourtney wear their oval diamonds set relatively simply in prong settings on slender bands, there are lots of bold and artistic alternative ways to wear the shape.

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Grace Kelly wearing emerald cut engagement ring.

Fred Leighton

PORTRAIT Super subtle portrait shape diamonds resemble a piece of glass, but they do have a shine that’s decidedly diamond-y. The flat shape featuring facets on the border got its name from the way it was originally used in jewelry.

Dating as far back as the 17th century in India, portrait shape diamonds were set on top of miniature portraits like the glass in a picture frame.

Today, several imaginative designers have included the stylish shape as the center stone of an engagement ring.

Actress Rooney Mara is one of the first high profile stars to wear a portrait cut diamond engagement ring and the jewel fits her understated style to perfection.

Rings top to bottom: David Yurman, Retrouvai, Single Stone.

EMERALD AND ASSCHER Clockwise from left: Rooney Mara wearing portrait cut engagement ring; Eva Fehren ring; Shihara ring.

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Two glamorous Hollywood legends popularized the sister shapes, emerald and Asscher, decades ago.

The 10.48-carat emerald cut diamond engagement ring Grace Kelly received in 1956 is still one of the most beloved engagement rings in the world. And the 33.19-carat Asscher cut diamond ring Richard Burton bought for Elizabeth Taylor in 1968 is simply one of the most well-known diamonds ever worn by anyone.

Emerald cuts are rectangular and Asschers are square.

Both have angled cut corners. Their brilliance is understated. As designer David Yurman eloquently explained, “The emerald cut is a refined and elevated shape, emphasizing a diamond’s clarity, whiteness and luster, rather than its brilliance and fire.”

Jade Trau, Grace Lee, Kwiat.

PEAR There once was a time not so very long ago when pear shape diamonds were almost always set in engagement rings with the point up and the rump down. While the classic setting is still available, more often you will find designers have taken the pear and turned it on its side. Some set it at an angle in a style we call akimbo. Others put it in a diagonal line, a setting named east-west referring to the points on a compass.

“Just changing the orientation of a pear shape changes its essence,” explains designer Jade Trau. And it’s true. These new perspectives have given pears, which can be found in jewelry dating back hundreds of years, a vibrant new look.

MARQUISE Similar to the vibe shift of pear shape diamond engagement rings, the marquise has also been turned on its side in akimbo and east-west settings. The new direction of the ship shape adds a dynamism to engagement rings. It transforms the historic marquise into something quite contemporary. It’s an astonishing feat considering the gem’s long history.

Invented during the 18th century reign of Louis XV, one origin story of the marquise shape is that it was named in honor of the French king’s mistress, the Marquise de Pompadour. Another version of the story ties the marquise to the shape of rings worn by courtiers at Versailles to flaunt their rank. In modern parlance you would call this a flex.

Jessica McCormack ring; Jemma Wynne ring; Model wearing Reza ring; Reza ring.

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TRACKING THE WORLD’S MOST SHOCKING AND SCANDALOUS NATURAL DIAMOND STORIES

been coveted, mysteriously disappeared and reappeared, fought over in court and even swallowed to save from thieves. Because what else packs this much power, prestige and wealth in something so small and portable?

Hundreds of years later, we’re still talking about these diamonds.

Written by JILL NEWMAN

A

ncient Romans believed natural diamonds were splinters from fallen stars or tears from the gods, and early Europeans thought they protected men in battle and warded off the plague. Imbued with magic and mystery, it’s no wonder that man has been chasing down these inherently sparkling stones for centuries.

The world’s most rare and exceptional diamonds are as legendary for their beauty as for their enthralling history.

After hundreds of years, we are still talking about these eight epic stones—and the trail of intrigue, chaos and mystery that they left behind. These magnificent natural diamonds have

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From an FBI Chase to Red Carpet Royalty: The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond When thieves forced their way into German actress Vera Krupp’s ranch outside Las Vegas in 1959, they knew what they were looking for when they ripped the diamond ring off her finger. Then they tied her up with a lamp’s cord and fled with the diamond and $700,000 in cash (an unusual amount of petty cash, but that’s another story). It wasn’t just any diamond: They absconded with a rare 33.19 carat D color, type IIa Asscher cut blue-white diamond.

The thieves led the FBI on a six-week chase across the country through New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Illinois and Florida before ending in Newark, New Jersey, where they were tipped off that a grocer was trying to sell a large diamond. The assailants were caught, brought to trial, and the diamond returned to Krupp. After she died in 1967, the Krupp Diamond was sold for the then-record auction price of $307,000 to Richard Burton, who bought it as a surprise for his jewelry-loving wife Elizabeth Taylor.

The diamond ring was among Taylor’s most treasured pieces, and after she died in 2011 it was sold by Christie’s, which christened it the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, for $8.8 million.

Elizabeth Taylor wearing the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond.

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Beware of Sea-Faring Ships: The Moon of Baroda Marilyn Monroe famously wore the 24 carat Moon of Baroda yellow diamond on a simple black cord choker while singing ‘Diamonds are Girl’s Best Friend’ to promote the release of her film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953. But after the movie was released, her career wavered. Was it because of the socalled cursed diamond?

For centuries people have shared a rumor, saying “If the gem ever crosses a sea or ocean, it will bring bad luck to its owner.” And many say that the diamond’s history proves the curse to be true. Discovered in India’s Golconda mines near the city of Hyderabad between the 15th and 17th centuries, the Marilyn Monroe wearing diamond was owned by the Moon of Baroda. the Gaekwads of Baroda, an Indian dynasty of Maharajas who ruled much of the western part of the country.

After it crossed the ocean during the 18th century and was given to Empress Marie Thérèse of Austria, she died at age 63. And the life of her daughter, Marie Antoinette, didn’t end well either. The diamond was later returned to the Gaekwads, who mounted it in a pendant, where it remained for decades. In 1953, the stone ended up in the hands of Meyer Rosenbaum of Meyer Jewelry Company in Detroit, who had the brilliant idea to get Marilyn Monroe to wear it to promote the diamond-heavy film. But it is an idea that Marilyn may have regretted.

In 1990, Christie’s sold the stone for $297,000—nearly tripling its low estimate, and in 2018 it was sold again by 65 | T H E E D I T 2 0 2 3

Christie’s in Hong Kong for $1.3 million. Let’s hope the present owners don’t cross any oceans with it.

The Legendary Curse of the Hope Diamond When Harry Winston donated the priceless Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. in 1958, he mailed it via the United States Postal Service for $2.44. Was he trying to quickly rid himself of the cursed stone or just being thrifty?

Left to right: The Hope Diamond; Lady Astor wearing the Astor tiara that holds the Sancy diamond.

One of the world’s most famous diamonds, the exceptionally rare 45.52 carat blue diamond, is also known as a notoriously cursed stone. Even if you’re not superstitious, the Hope’s history will make you think twice. It was doomed from the start: Legend goes that it was stolen from a statue of the Hindu goddess Sita and would bring misfortune to all who owned it. The stone’s history can be traced back to 1666 when it was purchased by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who sold it to King Louis XIV, and it remained part of the French Crown Jewels until the French Revolution in 1792. During the turmoil, the stone went missing (and we know the fate of the King and Queen and their cohorts). The blue diamond was later recut and under a new identity passed through the hands of a succession of wealthy and noble owners, including the London banker Henry T. Hope, where it gets its name.

Over the decades it left a trail of sadness in its wake ending with Evalyn Walsh McLean, the socialite who purchased the stone in 1911, whose husband died in a mental institution, her son was killed in a car accident and her daughter overdosed on sleeping pills. After Mrs. McLean’s death in 1947, a fearless Harry Winston purchased the stone. Today the diamond is one of the most visited attractions in Washington D.C. as much for its beauty as for its lurid reputation.

Swindled, Swallowed and Sumptuous: The Sancy Diamond The Sancy, a 55.23 carat pale yellow pear shaped diamond, dates to Charles the Bold, belonged to countless kings and queens, was stolen more than once, and a loyal servant swallowed the diamond rather than forfeit it to thieves. It was later removed from his cadaver. Be it true or exaggerated, the Sancy’s lurid legacy has been passed down and documented for centuries.

After Charles the Bold died in 1495, he left the Sancy to his cousin, King Manuel I of Portugal, who needed the cash and sold it to the diplomat Nicolas de Harly, seigneur de Sancy, for which the stone was named. De Sancy lent the yellow diamond to several monarchs, including King Henry IV, who used the stone as collateral to finance his lavish lifestyle.

After facing his own financial demise de Sancy sold the stone to King James I, and on the journey from France to England, de Sancy’s servant swallowed the diamond but was killed anyway. In this case, loyalty didn’t pay off. The stone ended up back in France as part of the French Crown Jewels, went missing during the French Revolution and reappeared in the hands of a Russian Prince. If only these diamonds could talk!

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Left to right: The Black Orlov; Portrait of King Charles X of France and the Régent Diamond set in Fleur-de-lis at the top of the crown; Dresden White from Dresden State Art Collections.

In 1906, William Waldorf Astor bought the diamond as a wedding gift for his wife Lady Astor, who wore it in a tiara.

Her heirs sold it to the Louvre Museum where it’s a great source of French pride today.

Tempting Fate: The Black Orlov Also known as the Eye of Brahma, legend has it that the striking 67.49 carat black diamond (originally 195 carats) was stolen from a statue of the Hindu god Brahma during the early 19th century by a monk. Don’t mess with Brahma: It is believed that a curse was put upon the stone when it was stolen, and its subsequent owners endured a succession of tragedies. The diamond dealer J.W. Paris, who brought the diamond to the United States, ended up committing suicide by jumping from a Fifth Avenue skyscraper. Years later, Russian princesses Leonila Galitsine-Bariatinsky and Nadia Vygin-Orlov, who once owned the diamond, jumped to their deaths. In an attempt to break the curse, New York gem dealer Charles F. Winson purchased the black diamond in the 1950s and had it recut. It last surfaced at a Christie’s auction in 2006 where it sold for $350,000, a relatively low price for a diamond of this size and rarity; perhaps the curse deterred some buyers.

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The World’s Most Lavish Hat Décor: The Régent Diamond Weighing in at a whopping 141 carats, the legend goes that the Régent diamond was discovered by an enslaved man in India in the 18th century who smuggled it out. The poor slave was eventually murdered for the diamond, and it was sold to the merchant Jamchand, who in turn sold it to Thomas Pitt, the Governor of Fort St. George near Chennai.

The huge diamond was named for the French Regent, Philippe II, the Duke of Orléans, who purchased it in 1717, and it remained in the French Crown Jewels, set on a crown belonging to Louis XVI, and later a hat belonging to Marie Antoinette. In the 1792 siege of the royal palace, it was stolen along with a number of other diamonds and jewels. A year later, it was discovered hidden in the beams of an attic of an old house and returned to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. In a show of power and wealth, he set the stone in the guard of his sword. His fate didn’t end well either: After he lost the Battle of Waterloo, he was exiled on an island in the South Atlantic where he died at age 51. Today, the Régent is part of the Louvre Museum’s collection, set in a Greek diadem that was designed for Empress Eugenie.

ST Y L E Several months later, German police apprehended the thieves and located most of the stolen jewels, but to this day the Saxon White remains missing. What seems odd, the assailants, ages 24 to 29, were sentenced to only between four years to six years in prison, so perhaps when they are released there will be clues to the missing diamond. This story isn’t over.

Family Feud: The Princie Diamond When a $40 million pink diamond was sold at Christie’s in New York in 2013, an Italian family immediately recognized it as the stone that went missing from their home in 2009. How could they be so sure?

The diamond in question, a 35 carat fancy intense pink cushion cut diamond, is so rare and exceptional that there isn’t another like it.

Known as the Princie, the diamond had been owned by Maria Girani Angiolillo, the second wife of Italian businessman Renato Angiolillo, who died in 1973. Following her death in 2009, her son, Marco Oreste Bianchi Milella, reported the diamond and some of her jewels missing from her home.

Renato Angiolillo’s children from his first The Princie Diamond marriage, who by Italian law were the set in Van Cleef heirs to the Angiolillo estate, filed a police & Arpels 1960 Le report. The case went cold until the family Diamant Rose. recognized the stone at Christie’s, but not before it was sold to the Qatari royal family for a record breaking $39.3 million.

An investigation revealed that the Princie had been consigned to the auction house by Swiss gem dealer David Gol, who purchased it for $20 million from none other than Milella himself. The case was settled before it became a public family feud in court.

The Princie’s story began 300 years ago when it was unIn one of the most brazen heists in Germany’s modern covered in the ancient Golconda mines. It was first recorded history, thieves stole $119 million worth of jewels from the in the 1700s as part of the Indian monarch Nizam of HyderGreen Vault, a museum in Dresden, Germany in 2019. Among abad’s collection of jewels and treasures. Over a century latthe precious stolen jewels was the Dresden White, a 49 carat er, in 1960, Sotheby’s sold the stone on behalf of the Indian diamond (worth an estimated $12 million). More than the family to Pierre Arpels of Van Cleef & Arpels for $46,000 monetary value, the diamond represents Saxony cultural (around one million British pounds today). Arpels christened history: It dates to 1728, when it was purchased by Frederthe diamond the Princie in honor of the 14-year-old Prince ick Augustus I, King of Saxony. The diamond first went on of Baroda, whose mother was a client of the house, and who public view during the 18th century, when the Green Vault attended the diamond’s coming out party in London. The was opened to display Saxony’s royal family’s vast jewelry same year, Renato Angiolillo purchased the diamond from collection. It remained there for centuries, only leaving for Mr. Arpels. Nobody knows who owns it today, but a diamond short stints during World War I and World War II, until the this magnificent and memorable can’t stay a secret for long. robbery in 2019.

The Hunt for the Dresden White, Still Today

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STYL E

Delfina Delettrez Fendi photographed

by Alessio Bolzoni.

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DELFINA DELETTREZ FENDI The newly appointed executive shares her learnings from a multi-hyphenate and multi-faceted career

D

Written by JESSICA IREDALE

elfina Delettrez Fendi has always been surrounded by jewelry. Her first piece was a birthday gift, an aquamarine stone, from her grandmother, on the day she was born in 1987. “Maybe it was a premonition for a little girl named Delfina,” says Delettrez Fendi, noting that Delfina translates to “dolphin” in English. The power of gems and jewelry has stayed with her, fueling her creativity and career through Delettrez Fendi’s own jewelry collection, which launched in 2007 when she was just 20 years old, to her appointment as Fendi’s first Artistic Director of High Jewelry last year.

Delettrez Fendi’s first haute joaillerie design for Fendi was teased last year: Fendi Flavus, a parure divided into three pieces including a cascading necklace, earrings and a cocktail ring set with four natural fancy vivid yellow diamonds imbued with deep meaning. “They were all coming from the same alluvial source with a very special, intense and bright yellow color saturation,” Delettrez Fendi says. “They were a tribute to our family and to the fourth generation that I represent.”

The yellow diamonds exuded the warm, golden hue of Fendi’s signature shade of yellow, as well as the sunsets of Rome, where the house is based. The tease was a great success; the entire parure was sold at the first appointment to an undisclosed client, whetting the appetite for Delettrez Fendi’s first full high jewelry collection, which finally debuted in July during the Paris Haute Couture collections.

Fendi Triptych is a spectacular 30 piece collection divided into three chapters—Roma Rosa, Gioiello Giallo and Bianco Brillante. Delettrez Fendi considers three to be a magic number for Fendi. “The rule of division in three parts,” she says.

It’s a guiding principle for writing, speaking, mathematics, imagery, photography and a multitude of creative and philosophical disciplines wherein the logic lies that three is the smallest number required to make a pattern. Dividing things into three makes them more digestible, understandable and pleasing to the human mind and eye. The concept can also be interpreted and applied to the creative triumvirate now in place at Fendi between Delettrez Fendi and her mother Silvia Venturini Fendi, who has overseen accessories design for years, and Kim Jones, who was named Creative Director of Ready-to-Wear and Couture in 2020.

Delettrez Fendi had contributed designs to the Fendi oeuvre in the past—accessories in 2014, men’s fine watches in 2016 and the Fendi O’Lock collection, which has become a key logo signifier for the house in 2021. It was Jones’ idea to formalize her role as Artistic Director of High Jewelry, which brought her full circle after 15 years of running her own jewelry collection known for its playfully witty surrealist codes, such as bejeweled eyes and lips, ear cuffs and single statement earrings (she was an early proponent of the trend).

“It is an honor for me,” says Delettrez Fendi of her new role at her family house. “I decided to explore the category of jewelry that was almost unknown to Fendi, maybe unconsciously to find my own path. Now, to be here at Fendi as artistic director of jewelry gives me the opportunity to bring in all my know-how learned in many years of founding my own brand and launch new adventures, adding new pictures to the family album.”

When asked how the rule of thirds applies to the design process between three such creative individuals, each with his or her own point of view, Delettrez Fendi says it’s both collaborative and independent. “We talk a lot,” she says. “In this sense, Kim is very Italian. He likes to have long conversations and know everything about the Fendi family and maison heritage. We make our worlds fuse together. You can

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ST Y L E say my mother is the talking archive and I am the walking archive as I love to wear vintage Fendi pieces and dive in the Fendi archives.” The visions of Jones, Venturini Fendi and Delettrez Fendi converged in July during the Paris Haute Couture shows. Jones’ collection was inspired by high jewelry, the colors taken from flesh tones as well as stones—black diamonds, rubies and sapphires. The bags were like jewelry boxes, clutched close to the heart “as when you hold something very precious to you,” says Delettrez Fendi. The minimalist silhouettes of the clothes and bags made a divine backdrop for her high jewelry debut to shine; the collection’s earrings, cocktail rings, elaborate necklace and brooches providing jaw-dropping accents on the runway.

Triptych is centered around brilliant natural white diamonds complemented and contrasted with stones that reflect the iconic Fendi yellow and rose, a color that has become increasingly linked to the house and its halo of powerful, feminine energy. Fendi was founded by Adele and Edoardo Fendi in Rome in 1925, where they expanded from a small boutique into a fur and handbag business and eventually a full fashion and couture house that was acquired by LVMH in 2000. The couple had five daughters, including Delettrez Fendi’s grandmother Anna, who worked at the house along with her sisters for decades.

Venturini Fendi and Delettrez Fendi represent the third and fourth generation of Fendi’s steering the creative helm of the house.

Triptych’s pieces are loaded with exquisitely rendered references to the house iconography. For example,

the FF logo, considered a family crest by Delettrez Fendi, is hidden in plain sight, constructed in combinations of baguette cut stones that nod to the famous Fendi Baguette handbag designed by her mother in 1997. The FF motif appears and disappears on necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings expressed in homage to the cursive Karligraphy motif created in 1981 by Karl Lagerfeld, who held the position of Creative Director of the house for 54 years until his death in 2019. “It is like a crescendo of F that becomes an illusion, or the F wraps around the neck, sometimes very futuristic,” says Delettrez Fendi. On a meta level, the surprise meanings and messages built into the pieces wink at another famous Fendi design, the Peekaboo bag.

“You have to detect the logo unveiled as almost a treasure hunt, a secret code,” she says.

Speaking of treasure, one of the Triptych’s most exceptional pieces is from the Roma Rosa Model wearing FENDI Triptych High Jewelry collection. The Undarum FFluctus Necklace. parure, an articulated portrait necklace done in a reversed FF cage construction that floats upon the décolleté in a helix of oval cut spinels with an emerald cut spinel centerpiece, features a historic acquisition of rose poudré pink spinels. “They were so special not only because of their incredible beauty and color but also because about 40 years were necessary to collect and pair them,” says Delettrez Fendi. “Such a large collection of spinels in this color palette can no longer be found.

There is something fascinating and primordial in holding stones that took so many years to arrive to the surface. It is like selecting stars.”

My mother is the talking archive and I am the walking archive.”

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FENDI Triptych High Jewelry.

Photos courtesy of FENDI.

STYL E

Why It's Worth It Master craftsmanship and imagination make these diamond jewels extra special Written by MARION FASEL Just one look at the diamond jewels on these pages and it’s easy to see they are luxurious. Another way of saying it is expensive. After all they are dripping in diamonds and shining in gold.

Of course, there is much more behind the jewels by Beth Hutchens of Foundrae, Marie Lichtenberg and Jessica McCormack than you can see at first glance. We spoke with all of them to find out everything behind these jewels and learn all the details that make them so worth it.

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FOUNDRAE

STRONG HEART BANGLE WITH A HEART BEAT STORY Foundrae isn’t just a jewelry collection. It’s a language of signs, symbols and tenets rendered in gold and diamonds that founder and designer Beth Hutchens conceived as a way for clients to tell their story. Precious little Foundrae autobiographies have been written by countless people including Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Connelly. This year Beth opened a new chapter to the narrative with the Strong Heart Bangle and the Heart Beat charms.

The development of the designs began in 2019 when Beth was working over some Play-Doh with her young daughter Ayla. “I took the Play-Doh and made it a straw shape with hearts on the tips,” remembers Beth. “And I realized we should develop this.”

The years-long process evolved into the Strong Heart Bangle. Unlike most bangles that slide over the hand, a hinge and oval shape provides a slimmer fit to the design. The piece clicks together with a hidden clasp and opens with a cohesive push-button. An arm on the bangle features the original heart shape Beth made in Play-Doh. So clients could personalize the Strong Heart Bangle, Beth created around 2,000 (yes, 2,000!) circular charms named Heart Beats. The challenge was figuring out how they were going to fit on the Strong Heart Bangle.

“I didn’t like the sound of the Heart Beats sliding around loose,” explains Beth. “I wanted them to be stationary and intentionally placed on the bracelet.” Working hand and glove with her master craftsmen, who are situated in the Foundrae Tribeca New York boutique, the concept of a silicon strip hidden within the interior of the bangle came up and solved the issue.

“It was important to figure out the Heart Beats for the Strong Heart Bangle,” says Beth. “A jewel has to be a personal narrative to be Foundrae.” Among all the Heart Beats, the most popular is the Baguette Diamond. “People like lighting up their tenets with diamonds,” says Beth. That’s what we call a sparkling prose.

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ST YL E

JESSICA MCCORMACK

RAINBOW DIAMOND EARRINGS London based designer Jessica McCormack looked at a rainbow, that colorful symbol of love and hope that appears after a storm, and reimagined it as a pair of glorious diamond earrings.

A lot of different diamond shapes make up the jewels. Each one includes round brilliants, baguettes, pears, heart-shapes, ovals and a cushion cut. All the gems add up to a whopping 28.30 carats. It takes anywhere from 80 to 100 hours and about eight craftsmen in the Jessica McCormack workshop located within the designer’s six-story boutique Townhouse in the heart of the Mayfair neighborhood to set all the diamonds in the earrings.

“The earrings combine our signature techniques like the cut-down setting and the blackened gold, as well as mixing styles from different eras, which is something I have always done,” explains Jessica.

“When worn the diamonds move and swing—all stones sit in a collet and each one is attached to a neighboring collet via a small hinge.” In short, the design provides the type of joy you see when you spot a rainbow.

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MARIE LICHTENBERG

MAGIC EIGHT BALL As a child growing up in Paris, Marie Lichtenberg’s parents often brought her fun gifts they bought during business trips in America.

“They gave me Nike Air Jordans, some Barbies and a Magic 8 Ball,” remembers Marie.

Flash forward to 2022, the designer was in her studio located in the Saint Germain des Prés thinking about how she would top the success of winning the Best Debuting prize at the Las Vegas Couture trade show, the premiere event for independent jewelry designers. When she looked at her old Magic 8 Ball, she thought that’s it. Literally that’s it.

“The Magic 8 Ball is crazy and cool and none of my friends had it in France, so it was special,” explains Marie. “Over the years, everyone in my family has asked it questions and flipped it over to see the answers.” The designer called her production manager in Italy and they quickly turned around a rough sample. Once Marie realized it could be done, she knew she needed permission from Mattel who owned the property.

“I didn't know anyone at Mattel so I sent maybe 500 emails on LinkedIn,” remembers Marie. After almost five months she finally heard from someone at the company. “When a smiling woman popped onto the Zoom and told me ‘I am so happy you found us’ and anything you ask of us is a ‘yes,’ I cried.”

Even though Mattel was working overtime launching the Barbie movie, they made sure Marie’s Magic 8 Ball got done by her deadline. Mattel created a micro cylinder filled with the proprietary blue liquid that makes the die float to the surface and a miniaturized die with seven possible answers to “yes” or “no” questions. They also rushed to get Marie the rights to use the property which they finalized at two o’clock in the morning the day the Couture show opened.

For her part Marie pulled together multiple master craftsmen to finish the piece with the American invention on the interior. The gold ball features the designer’s signature brush coco Florentine finish.

White enamel surrounds the diamond-set eight. And the chain is knitted gold wire.

If Marie asked her Magic 8 Ball, “Will I win the Best in Innovative award at the Couture show this year?” The answer must have said ‘For Sure,’ because she did.

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From left to right: Melissa Kaye ring and necklace, Sylva & Cie ring, Lizzie Mandler ring. Rotate top and skirt.

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u Ly c in the sky Lucy Hale’s star is shining brighter than ever

Written by LEAH FAYE COOPER Photographed by EMMAN MONTALVAN

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Anita Ko earrings, Hamilton Jewelers bracelets, Sylva & Cie ring, Vintage Chanel top, Hello Beautiful briefs.

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Left to right: Sylva & Cie rings, Lizzie Mandler ring, Single Stone ring.

Saint Laurent blouse, Leg Avenue briefs.

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Sylva & Cie earring, Maria Tash earring, Anita Ko earring, Hamilton Jewelers earring, Hale's own tragus earring, Anne Sisteron ring, Oscar de la Renta dress.

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Bernard James rings, Vintage Celine dress.

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De Beers Assana necklace, Hale's own tragus earring.

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It’s late in the morning on a sunny Friday, and Lucy Hale is comfortably seated in her white-walled Los Angeles home. The picture of coziness in an oversized navy sweatshirt, her hair is pulled back and she’s fidgeting with the necklaces hanging from her neck. “This is for my dogs, Elvis and Ethel,” she says, gently pulling on a gold nameplate with two cursive E’s while she leans forward to give me a better look through Zoom. She drops it, then points to a dangling pendant. “It’s called lapis lazuli. It's a crystal for your throat chakra. I love jewelry with a bigger meaning than just being pretty.”

I clock a solitaire diamond ring on her left hand just before she takes it off and holds it close to the screen. “This is the most important thing I own,” she says of the bauble, which is set in an intricately carved gold band. “It was my grandmother’s. Before that, it was my great-grandmother’s, and before that, it was my great-great-grandmother's, so it’s been in the family for a really long time.” Hale and her grandmother were incredibly close, and the ring is a constant reminder of their bond. “She died the year I moved to LA when I was 15, and I got this ring. It's always on me or near me. I do believe she’s my guardian angel in a way."

Hale’s angel is likely beaming at all the 34-year-old has accomplished. Born and raised in Memphis, the self-described introvert grew up frequenting Mississippi after her parents divorced and her father moved there. She was drawn to the arts and performance early. “I felt in my element when I was being creative, or when I was singing or when I was acting or when I was writing down these stories,” she says. “I felt joyful.” So joyful that when most kids her age were trying out for sports teams or getting ready for school dances, Hale was setting her sights on Hollywood. After winning the American Idol spinoff, American Juniors, at 14, she asked her mother if she could move to LA for a few months to try her hand at acting. “My parents are amazing and both of them fully supported my dreams,” she says. “Not only did we try it out for a couple of months, but I've been here ever since. I literally never went back to Tennessee.”

After landing the lead role of Aria Montgomery in the hit Freeform series Pretty Little Liars, Hale quickly ascended to stardom, and a level of independence rare for a teenager. “By the time I was 17, I was pretty much supporting myself and

had a steady job and steady income, which I fully recognize is not really normal,” she says. Though she loved the “chaos of it all,” her decision to not finish high school was something that she grappled with, and she pursued her career. “I think somewhere along the way that did something to my self-confidence,” she says. As did her foray into the public eye. “That's the one part of my career and life that I am constantly trying to find balance with,” she admits. “Ultimately, I love the work, [but] I think there will always be a part of me that feels really disoriented by being a public figure and knowing that people are watching what I'm doing.”

And people are certainly watching. Google “Lucy Hale” and an endless scroll appears. There’s the Wikipedia page with her full given name (Karen Lucille Hale); countless photos of her signature bob and red carpet outfits; an IMDB page listing her extensive film and TV credits (Truth or Dare, Fantasy Island, Katy Keene) and interviews with Elle, Allure, Teen Vogue and more. Though the attention is something she doesn’t ever think she’ll get used to, the work that attracts it “is my lifeline,” she says. “It's still how I cope in the world.

It's how I show up in the world. I don't know any other way [and] I wouldn't want any other way. I'm an artist.”

While Hollywood tends to be overly critical of women as they age, Hale’s thirties have proven to be liberating from insecurities and societal pressures. “I think now at 34, I feel more comfortable because it's not just about the way I look,” she says. “In my twenties, I thought I had to look a certain way and do certain things, and I didn't really have an identity.

Now that I do have an identity, I'm like, oh, I actually do feel like I have a strong point of view, and I feel like my stories do matter and I feel like people are interested in what I have to say about certain things. When you feel that, you get some wind in your stride.”

The self-assurance has inspired Hale to revisit her early love of music. Shania Twain, Britney Spears and Martina McBride were among her childhood idols she still admires, and Hale once dreamed of a life on the road as a touring musician. She got a taste of it after recording an album in 2014 and performing on stage, but the timing was off. “All of that actually proved to be really scary for me,” she says. “I have so much respect for people who can do that because it really

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Anita Ko earrings, Hamilton Jewelers earring, Hale's own tragus earring, Vintage Chanel top.

Photographer, Emman Montalvan; Stylist, Molly Dickson; Creative Director, Lizzy Oppenheimer; Hair, Renato Campora; Makeup, Jenna Kristina; Manicurist, Zola Ganzorigt; Bookings Editor, Glynis Costin; Creative Production, Petty Cash Production; Photo Assistants, Patrick Molina, Justin Brooks; Digital Tech, Maria Noble; Fashion Assistant, Clarke Johnson.

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Bernard James rings, Vintage Celine dress.

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is a challenging career path. It's so vulnerable; it's so exposing. I don’t think emotionally it was the right choice for me at the time.” Today, however, she is ready to give it another go. “Now I’m back at the point in my life where I’m like, I want to do music again. I feel like it’ll probably be through a movie role or maybe theater. I don’t know if I’d necessarily record an album again, but I also don’t like setting rules for myself, so we’ll see.”

Recently, Hale’s name has been making the media rounds not just for her film and television career, but also for her sobriety, which she began to open up about earlier this year. “It's always so hard to summarize that topic because it has been a big part of my life for a while, I just hadn't been public about it,” she says. “The very long story short is that I wasn't coping with certain things in my life.” Childhood struggles and early success were among the issues that overwhelmed her. “I developed really unhealthy coping mechanisms that helped me deal for a long time, and then they didn’t work.” Hale sought various avenues for help and ultimately decided to stop drinking. January will mark two years of the actress being sober. “Something really clicked,” she says. “For the first time in my life, I feel like who I'm supposed to be. I feel so in alignment. It doesn't mean life is great all the time. Getting sober is deeply uncomfortable and very painful because you have to acknowledge some really ugly parts about yourself that you might not like. But it's hands down the best thing I've ever done for myself because when I'm taking care of myself in that way, life is just better.”

That clarity was palpable during Hale’s Only Natural Diamonds shoot, as she was bedecked in pieces by De Beers, Single Stone and Anita Ko. Looks by Oscar de la Renta and Saint Laurent highlighted the jewels. “I do like to believe that I'm pretty daring when it comes to fashion, but my day-to-day is timeless and classic,” she says, adding that she culls lots of style inspiration from being on set and dressing in character. Hale is constantly changing her “ear story” with an assortment of studs and hoops secured in her many piercings, and a classic tennis necklace and matching bracelet are among the pieces she’s bought herself to commemorate career highs and personal triumphs. She celebrated her 33rd birthday with a gold, diamond-encrusted Rolex. “It was a very big investment piece, but 33 was my favorite year of life,” she says. “I was really proud of some choices I made, and I was like, you know what? We're going to do it—we're going to get the watch.” For a moment, Hale backtracks— “It's maybe a little too flashy,” she says—but the sentiment is fleeting.

“No, it's perfect. I made the right choice.”

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Sylva & Cie fancy colored diamond rings, Marciano

by Guess faux fur coat, Fleur Du Mal bra.

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ow C DIAMOND

o y B Taylor Zakhar Perez shines a light on the sustainable side of diamonds.

Written by TODD PLUMMER Photographed by MARK LIM

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Dezso by Sara Beltran necklace, Boucheron ring, David Yurman ring, Ami coat, Phipps top, Levi's jeans, Stetson hat from Boot Star LA, Belt from Boot Star LA. THE EDIT 2023

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Eva Fehren necklace, Fred Leighton diamond brooch pin, Dries Van Noten coat, Phipps top, Stetson hat from Boot Star LA. 91 | T H E E D I T 2 0 2 3

Left to right: David Yurman ring, London Jewelers necklace, Boucheron rings, Cartier ring. Phipps coat and top, Levi's jeans, Stetson hat from Boot Star LA, Belt from Boot Star LA, Boot Star by Old Gringo boots.

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HOWL necklace and rings, Vintage Wrangler shirt from Boot Star LA, Phipps jeans, Belt from Boot Star LA, Boot Star by Old Gringo boots.

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“FAILURE WASN’T AN OPTION,” says actor Taylor Zakhar Perez of his decade-plus-long journey through Hollywood. The actor, 31, moved away from his seven siblings in the Midwest to attend UCLA—in part so he could moonlight as an assistant at creative agency Art Department, where his uncle worked at the time. That was in addition to a few other gigs and, of course, attending class.

“I was working three or four jobs at one time: school, Art Department, production assisting, acting classes, and I was also a cater waiter,” says Perez. “I didn’t move here to not do what I wanted to do.”

Perez has all the makings of a Hollywood heartthrob: a solid work ethic, an undeniably magnetic charm and a passing resemblance to a young Cary Grant (so says his grandmother). And if that isn’t enough to get you swooning, he’s also a man of character who cares deeply about social and environmental issues. Don’t expect this bright star to gravitate towards fame for fame’s sake (he’s worked too hard for that). Perez knows full well the power of the platform onto which he’s about to step. The only question is: what will he do next?

You recently visited a diamond mine in Botswana. What did you learn there?

Taylor Zakhar Perez: I visited the Karowe Diamond Mine in Botswana. It’s female-led and 99% of its employees are from Botswana. But the really cool thing is the mine works to provide lasting and sustainable benefits in the communities.

Not only does the mine support the people who are working in the mine, but it supports the communities around the mine in terms of education, roads and infrastructure. Using the minerals they own to develop their country is incredible—and they’re taking a large amount of these profits and investing them into the country and the people. Revenue from diamond mining contributes to a school system providing free primary education to every child in Botswana.

That must have been such a great lesson in sustainability.

TZP: Yes, sustainability—but real sustainability. Not a company using the color green to make it seem like they’re sustainable. There is so much greenwashing out there. Sustainability starts with social sustainability. With the people.

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Nikos Koulis necklace, David Yurman ring, Vintage Alan Michael jacket, Vintage Helmut Lang top from Artifact NY, Calani pants, Stetson hat from Boot Star LA, Luchesse boots.

HOWL necklace and ring, Nikos Koulis bracelets, Vintage Wrangler shirt from Boot Star LA, Phipps pants, Belt from Boot Star LA, Boot Star by Old Gringo boots. Opposite page: Graziela diamond bolo necklace, Vintage Phipps coat, Stetston hat from Boot Star LA, Steston gloves.

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Nikos Koulis diamond and enamel pendant, Phipps top, Stetson hat from Boot Star LA. Photographer, Mark Lim; Stylist, Sean Knight; Creative Director, Lizzy Oppenheimer; Groomer, Jamie Taylor; Bookings Editor, Glynis Costin; Creative Production, Petty Cash Production; Lighting Director, Christian Koepenick; Photo Assistants, Dom Ellis, Jodie Turner; Digital Tech, Kim Tran; Fashion Assistant, Cameron Greene.

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I love projects that are emotionally connected and that will maybe change the way people look at something for the rest of their life.”

What did you learn from that trip?

TZP: Do your own research, and don’t believe everything you see on TikTok. Start asking “why,” again. We’re in a position where a lot of information has become democratized and open-sourced; it’s for everyone. It’s up to us to want to know more.

Tell us about where you grew up.

TZP: It’s the duality of growing up in Chicago but also growing up in Northwest Indiana. We grew up on the Southside of Chicago, a very urban, multicultural, dangerous place, but that’s where my mom and dad’s families grew up. Then we moved to Northwest Indiana which had horses, cows and cornfields. So, I had this duality of city life grounded in country life.

Did you come from a creative family?

TZP: I have seven siblings, but oddly enough, I didn’t. The only creative in my family was my grandmother on my dad’s side. She loved Hollywood, old films and she always said I reminded her of Cary Grant. As a kid I was like, “I don’t know who that is,” and now as an adult I’m like, “Oh, a great actor, thank you!” My dad was enamored by Hollywood but never had the luxury of exploring the arts because he had his first kid at 17 and took over my grandfather’s auto body shop. My parents always brought the arts and theater around us because they didn’t have it as kids. My dad always had a sparkle in his eye when it came to shows. He would become the consummate coach in anything. I chose sports that he didn’t play because I didn’t want his notes. That’s why I chose swimming in school—my dad doesn’t know how to swim to this day. I did musical theater, and he has no idea about musical theater. That’s my relationship with my dad. You kind of want to do stuff yourself.

Do you accept your dad’s notes now?

TZP: When it comes to business things, nobody knows business better than my dad. He’s a self-made entrepreneur.

When he stops making deals, that’s when he’ll die because that’s what keeps him going. He lit my fire when it came to being your own business person and advocating for yourself… Nobody is going to fight harder for you than you.

Has your family dynamic shifted now that you’re in the public eye?

TZP: It hasn’t changed. I have a really big family. We recently lost my oldest sister, so I’m at a place in my life where the importance of everything has shifted. Family is most important to me. Yesterday, I was on the phone with my sister, and then my little brother called, so I brought him in, and my [oth-

er] sister was also at my place, so all four of us were on the phone strategizing for family trips: Thanksgiving, birthdays.

My sister said, “You kind of went MIA for ten years and now you’re talking to everybody!”

What do you think was the most valuable thing you did during that period?

TZP: For me, when people ask me how I “did it,” or what the journey was like, I say: get a group of friends you trust, get into class and work your butt off and be crazy honest with each other. There are no other options. Failure is not an option. You have to make your own opportunities.

What about acting fulfills you?

TZP: Being able to tell stories that move people and change people’s perceptions. I travel around the world for work, and wherever I am, people come up to me and tell me how my characters have influenced them and made them feel. I go to Mexico and kids are like, “I see myself in you and you’re my favorite character.” I think that’s the most fulfilling thing. I love projects that are emotionally connected and that will maybe change the way people look at something for the rest of their life.

What is your most treasured possession?

TZP: Anything sentimental. Anything that when I glance down it reminds me of my family. I have this diamond bracelet that I got for my 30th birthday, and I have this stainless steel ring that used to be my mom’s that I wear on my middle finger.

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SOME LIKE IT HAUTE

TH E B I RDS

Boucheron Do Not Iron Brooch from the Carte Blanche, More is More High Jewelry collection set with pavé diamonds, decorated with lacquer, in white gold and silver. boucheron.com

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Pomellato Duomo Necklace from the Ode to Milan High Jewelry collection features 67 fancy cut diamonds set in 18K rose gold. pomellato.com.

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Buccellati One of a Kind Botoletta Cocktail Ring features a 19.02 carat fancy yellow diamond surrounded by 252 round brilliant diamonds. buccellati.com.

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Van Cleef & Arpels Étoile des Glaciers clip from the Le Grand Tour collection features sapphires, yellow diamonds, and white diamonds set in 18K white gold. vancleefandarpels.com.

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Messika Paris Ultimate Party Necklace from the Midnight Sun High Jewelry collection features 37.34 carats of natural diamonds including an 18.05 carat yellow diamond solitaire. messika.com.

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Graff Sunrise Yellow Diamond Ring from the Sunrise High Jewelry collection features an Emerald cut yellow diamond center and white diamonds totaling 18.63 carats. graff.com.

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Matthew Harris of Mateo New York on safari in Botswana.

Next page: Matthew Harris photographed

by Gregory Vaughan .

FOR THE LOVE OF DIAMONDS Mateo's journey to Botswana reminds him why designing is so meaningful Written by SAM BROEKEMA 107 | T H E E D I T 2 0 2 3

Clockwise from left: Mateo wearing Mateo rings and bracelets; Mateo on safari in Botswana; sketch of Mateo's new collection.

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M

inimalism can be the hardest design ethos to maintain; there’s nowhere to hide. Fortunately Jamaican born jewelry designer Matthew Harris of Mateo New York isn’t interested in hiding behind anything.

Every piece in his fine jewelry collection is intentionally crafted and serves a specific purpose in the wearer’s repertoire. This refined vision makes a new launch a real cause for celebration. Here, in an Only Natural Diamonds exclusive, the designer reveals his inspiration and powerful backstory.

What does luxury mean to you?

Matthew Harris: It's not always a material. I think luxury depends upon the individual. For me, I'm so simple. I don't need much [laughs]. Just a little diamond on an anklet and a diamond tennis necklace. But I'm simple in [wearing] unexpected diamonds. Diamonds: you should just have them hanging off your feet because it's about treating luxury as an everyday item. They shouldn't be revered or just pulled out of a jewelry box once a year.

What is your first memory of a diamond?

MH: I was probably eight years old. I got a diamond cross. In my family, everyone gets a cross or a tennis bracelet. That’s my first memory of ever having a real piece of jewelry. I was very, very young. In Jamaica, we say, always have good jewelry, so if something goes wrong, you can take it to the pawn shop. That was [in] my family's DNA. We have always had jewelry for when something goes wrong [laughs]. It's so good, I love it.

You were recently in Botswana?

MH: Botswana was amazing. Amazing. It was my first time really going to Africa. I'd been to Morocco before, but it's not the same. I felt as if I had gone to the Motherland. The moment you land there, you feel this being Black. It felt magical and mystical to me just to be there. And then to see how diamonds have transformed a country in its entirety was insane. You see how De Beers and Botswana as a country have a really beautiful partnership. The infrastructure is amazing.

You see the cultural development; you see a beautiful airport.

I mean, just incredible. It was mind-blowing.

The jewelry is from the source there. Going to see the mine was, again, mind-blowing, because I've been making jewelry for about 12 or 13 years now. And yes, we use a lot of diamonds, but to see it coming from the earth… It was priceless,

this experience, to see the process. And to see them modernizing the whole process and making it sustainable was incredible. So I had a blast. And of course, why would you not bring looks?

I don't take myself too seriously, honestly. That's the beauty of what I do as well. Jewelry should be fun. The jewelry world should be fun.

I feel my mood changes anytime I put on a piece of jewelry. If I'm feeling down, I need something to lift my spirits. I go to my little trinket box because I have quite a few pieces, and put on a tennis necklace with a T-shirt. And then I feel better. That's the beauty of jewelry. It has the power to change the mood. I've seen a woman put on an earring and she immediately just transforms—even the way she moves her head. You know, that's the power of jewelry.

What inspired the latest collection?

MH: Botswana was the core inspiration, combined with our aesthetic of simplicity and wearability. During my visit to this most beautiful country, inspiration was truly all around.

From the people to the landscape and my God, the cornucopia of natural diamonds. Visiting the DeBeers mine was just breathtaking. I saw the most incredible creatures at the watering hole during my safari excursion. How could one not truly be inspired?

This season in particular, we wanted to really go back to our roots, which is just making great personal fine jewelry. We love to make pieces that people can wear all the time, every day, the piece almost becomes a part of them. This was the goal. And I think we have done that.

Any parting words?

MH: Hmm. I just love making jewelry. I couldn't do anything else. It's really, truly my life.

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A MOMENT OF

CLARITY When it comes to her career ambitions and natural diamonds, Sarah Shahi is going big or going home Written by MARSHALL HEYMAN Photographed by MILAN ZRNIC

De Beers earrings, Anita Ko rings, Marina B bracelet, Re/Done top, Fiorucci pants.

10.15 carat heart-shaped portrait cut diamond, mother of pearl, ceramic and 18K rose gold pendant on a rubber cord.

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Norman Silverman necklace, bracelet and ring featuring fancy yellow and white diamonds. Vintage Christian Dior top, Agolde jeans, Reformation boots.

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Left to right: David Webb ring, David Webb necklace, Zoe Chicco necklace, Lizzie Mandler ring, Zoe Chicco rings.

YSL pants, Shahi's own suspenders.

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Piaget necklace worn as a belt, Norman Silverman ring, Naked Cashmere briefs, Vintage hat.

I

t seems par for the course that Iranian American actress Sarah Shahi is having one of the biggest moments of her career during an actor’s strike, a time when she can’t promote her film and television projects.

When Shahi got a leading role in the Netflix series Sex/Life, she had been out of work for two years.

On the show, based on the novel 44 Chapters About 4 Men by BB Easton, she played Billie Connelly, a suburban mom of two who suffers a midlife crisis and starts lusting after an ex-boyfriend despite her supposedly perfect marriage.

It may be just Shahi’s luck that the show ended up paralleling her real life. Off-screen, Shahi is a mom of three who, during filming of Sex/Life, split from her husband and ended up dating her sexy Australian co-star Adam Demos.

Now Shahi stars in the Amazon Prime hit Red, White & Royal Blue, based on the bestselling novel by Casey McQuinston, about what happens when Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of the American President Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman), falls for the dashing Prince Henry of England (Nicholas Galitzine).

Shahi plays Zahra Bankston, the President’s right-hand and Deputy Chief of Staff. She has to keep tabs on Alex Claremont-Diaz’s dalliances with one of Britain’s finest to make sure they don’t torpedo his mother’s reelection campaign.

Shahi steals every scene she’s in, including one featuring Zakhar Perez’s bare backside. That should give you a sense of how valuable Shahi is to the film’s success. At the screening I attended, the person sitting next to me audibly swooned at every one of Shahi’s comebacks from start to finish.

But Shahi can’t talk about Red, White & Royal Blue, Sex/Life, or how those projects have impacted her life or not. Instead, she sits at a living room desk at her Los Angeles home, clad in a baseball cap and Nirvana T-shirt, right in front of a piano keyboard. She hasn’t used it yet, but she’s planning to take piano lessons along with her three children. Yes, they plan to take them together.

Shahi has a full house; three kids—William Wolf is 14, twins Knox Blue and Violet Moon are eight and their three dogs: Star, the eldest canine, and puppies Hershey and Cranberry she got for the kids last Christmas. “It was the Christmas I momentarily went insane,” Shahi recalls. “I was the Oprah of dogs. ‘And you get a dog!

And you get a dog!’ But the smiles on their faces were worth it.”

From the sounds of it, they’re a deeply knit crew. Violet already shares her mother’s love of jewelry. “Oh my goodness, she’s already called dibs on so many things,” Shahi says of her wide collection. “She already wears some of my pieces. I have a massive jewelry collection.”

There are also plenty of pieces her kids have given her. “Those are definitely my favorites,” she explains. Shahi lifts her wrist and shows off a rope bracelet to the Zoom camera. “This is something that my daughter made me,” she says, excitedly. Then there’s the silver cuff her kids got her from Target. She wore it “on every single press line until it fell apart.”

Handmade bracelets and $20 cuffs are not necessarily oozing

the sex appeal that exudes from the photo shoot that accompanies this story, but Shahi certainly exhibits the frank outspokenness she has become known for. This is why she has spent much of the strike working on a memoir, currently titled Life is Lifey.

It’s an expression that Shahi has used regularly in conversation over the years. “I’ve been married and divorced and a single mom of three,” she explains. “People would ask me how I was doing. There were times I couldn’t lie and say, ‘things are great.’ So, I’d say, ‘life is lifey,’ and leave it at that.”

Shahi says the book, which she hopes will be published next year, has been a tough project. Even working out has gone to the wayside.

“I go from my desk to the kitchen as quickly as I can,” she jokes of her current training regimen.

It’s this brand of self-reflection and humor one imagines Shahi infuses into her writing. The book, she explains, is about “how I’ve gotten through my dark night of the soul moments. You’re living an absolutely perfect life, and you’ve had everything you wanted—why would you want more?”

Shahi says the book will also be about how she’s truly found her voice over the last several years. “I learned at a really young age to suppress that,” she says. “Sometimes I describe myself as a recovering people-pleaser. I was okay as long as everyone else was okay. I’ve stayed in relationships longer than I should have, both personal and professional.”

For a start, growing up was complicated. “At eight years old, I had to deliver the news to my mom that my dad wanted a divorce,” Shahi recalls. “My parents divorced on my 10th birthday.”

How did that happen, I wonder aloud. “I don’t know, you should ask them,” Shahi responds.

“My childhood was not an idyllic one,” Shahi continues. Besides being one of the only Middle Easterners in Euless, Texas, her father was an addict. She and her mother spent time living in a women’s shelter. Dad wasn’t supportive of his daughter’s dreams. “His philosophy was, ‘well you’re not going to make it, so why do it?’”

Her mother, thankfully, was more encouraging. “She believed in celebrating femininity and accepting all of yourself,” Shahi says.

“The good, the bad, the sensual, the not so sensual. She wanted to celebrate me.”

That included entering her daughter in beauty pageants. So, by the time Shahi got to Southern Methodist University, she wanted a career as an actress, but she knew that wouldn’t be easy. “In fact, skating on the moon seemed more feasible.” At the time the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders had recently appeared on Saturday Night Live, “So I thought, that’s my way in,” Shahi recalls.

There was, however, a problem: “I had never been a cheerleader,” she says. “But I’d always had a secret envy that the cheerleaders got the popular guys. It was surprising that I made it. To this day it was one of the most rigorous audition processes I’d ever had. Hollywood looks like children playing in the sandbox in comparison. We’d have rehearsals six hours a day, Monday through Friday, and then I’d go back to the dorms and study.”

During her time on the team, the cheerleaders filmed scenes as extras in Robert Altman’s Dr. T & The Women. (In the movie, Kate Hudson plays an SMU student who is also an alternate for the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.)

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“I had no idea who [Altman] was. I was 19 at the time,” says Shahi of the legendary filmmaker behind such classics as McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Player and Nashville. “If a movie didn’t have Julia Roberts or Richard Gere in it, I didn’t know what it was.”

Shahi recalls charming Altman on set. “It was just me trying to be nice and friendly,” she says. “I just wanted [everyone] to feel comfortable, so I introduced myself and said, ‘welcome to the ranch.’”

That led, she explains, to two weeks of conversations. “We talked about everything other than the business. We talked about school and youth and kids and my generation,” Shahi remembers. “He asked me what I wanted to do.

I said I wanted to be an actress. He said, ‘I think you have what it takes. I think you should move to Los Angeles.’”

“I think of him as my acting catalyst,” she says.

Almost immediately—well, after looking up Altman’s resume of credits—Shahi quit SMU and the Dallas Cowboys, packed up her pickup truck and moved to Los Angeles with Altman’s office number and cell phone in tow. (They played phone tag for a while, she says.)

“I was so green, but I couldn’t look back.

There was no Plan B,” Shahi explains. “Every audition I would go into, they’d say, ‘How long have you been studying acting?’ and I would say, ‘Since Tuesday.’ I’d say, ‘Have you heard of Robert Altman?’ I’d tell the story, and they’d look at me like I was a one-eyed unicorn.”

“Little by little, I started getting an education [on Altman and show business] and by the time [Altman] called, I was too intimidated to call back,” Shahi recalls.

Of course, all of this led to an ongoing career of over two decades with roles on Alias, The L Word, Fairly Legal, Person of Interest, City on a Hill and last year’s DC superhero movie Black Adam, opposite the Rock.

Now having three children of her own, Shahi can’t believe that her mother would let her head into the lion’s den at 19. But, as

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if you couldn’t tell, Shahi has always beat to her own drum. For instance, all three of her kids are a product of home birth.

“It’s not for everybody,” Shahi says. When her twins were born, her son was almost six. “He was kind of my birthing coach. I showed him videos of animals being born and I talked him through what it would be like, so he wouldn’t be frightened if I was making moaning sounds. It was a beautiful experience. I don’t know how many brothers can say they watched the birth of their siblings.”

Eccentricity also extends to Shahi’s personal style, including her jewelry. “It’s all over the place,” she says. “I’m a very mercurial person when it comes to my jewelry and what I wear is very dependent on my mood. It can be anything from big, gigantic David Yurman rings to tear drop diamond earrings that go all the way down to my Left to right: collarbone to the thinnest Walters & Hogsett ring, De Beers turquoise necklace I got Ring, Bulgari at a 76 Gas Station in necklace, Bulgari ring, Walters & New Mexico. It all truly Hogsett ring. Re/ takes on many personaliDone jacket, Fleur ties. Kind of like me.” du Mal bra, Naked Cashmere briefs.

Favorite diamond designers include Jacqui Aiche, David Yurman and Bulgari. “I like a lot of wearable little things.

I don’t wear diamonds every day, but I love a diamond tennis bracelet or a very thin necklace.

I like paring it down and just being a mom and not having anything glamorous about me,” Shahi notes. “But if I want to turn it up, I’ll take those rocks as big as they get.”

Getting to dress up in gems for the accompanying photo shoot was “pretty specular,” Shahi says. “Holy shit! It was so huge and special.

I mean, those yellow diamonds must have been tens of millions of dollars. It’s like never in my life. I can’t believe that Elizabeth Taylor would get diamonds as gifts all the time” Being “expressive and artistic” is Shahi’s mantra these days.

“Beauty and confidence come from within,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if someone else believes it goes with your outfit or not. If you feel good about wearing it, that’s all that matters.”

That kind of self-assurance is something she continues to work on herself. “I’m definitely learning that growth is a process, and we’re never done growing,” Shahi says, smiling. “If anything, I can only aspire to be wiser than I was the year before.”

Left to right: The Clear Cut bracelet, Jacquie Aiche ring, Walters & Hogsett ring, De Beers ring, The Clear Cut necklace, Anita Ko necklace, Lizzie Mandler ring. Jean Paul Gaultier top, Fleur Du Mal bra, Vintage Levi's jeans from Denim by Orlee, Larroudé shoes.

Photographer, Milan Zrnic; Stylist, Molly Dickson; Creative Director, Lizzy Oppenheimer; Hair, Sylvia Wheeler; Makeup, Karo Kangas; Manicurist, Natalie Minerva; Bookings Editor, Glynis Costin; Creative Production, Petty Cash Production; Photo Assistants, Derec Patrick, Kurt Lavastida; Digital Tech, Dom Ellis; Fashion Assistants, Clarke Johnson, Jordan Gross.

10.15 carat heart-shaped portrait cut diamond, mother of pearl, ceramic and 18K rose gold pendant on a rubber cord.

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ITALIANS DO IT

BETTER

The Gismondi family’s century long romance with natural diamonds.

Written by LAURA RYSMAN Photographed by BILLY BALLARD

Massimo and Stefania Gismondi at their family home in Genoa, Italy with their dogs. Opposite page: Gismondi rings featuring natural white and fancy yellow diamonds.

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The Gismondis are nice people. Among many faithful clients, including Angela Bassett, a visit to the Italian brand’s jewelry boutique in Portofino for their diamond-studded extravaganzas includes a meal with Massimo and Stefania Gismondi. The experience of seafood and conversation shared at a port-side restaurant table is only enriched by this kind-eyed and warmhearted couple’s radiant passion for the long heritage in jewelry that they’re bolstering—something I would see more of later that day.

“I grew up at the counter of my family’s jewelry store,” says Massimo. “At ten years old, when I was asked what I wanted to do with my life, I already had my answer.” Astronaut? Fireman? Nope. “I said I wanted to grow my family’s business.” And grown it has.

Massimo, neat and office-ready in an ecru herringbone blazer, is seated in Gismondi headquarters, the 1550 Palazzo Centurione in Genoa, a formal noble residence whose delicate Renaissance-era grottesco frescoes are still largely intact on the ceiling. The headquarters’ windows overlook the street of the family’s longtime shop. In 2011, Massimo, who trained as a gemologist, left that neighborhood business to his aunt

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and uncle and opened a Gismondi outpost in Portofino, then another shop in the swank ski destination of Saint Moritz. There’s now a boutique in Prague, lucrative wholesale accounts in the U.S. and the Middle East and a Gismondi collaboration with the Baglioni group of five-star hotels as house jeweler. From its beginnings as a modest multi-brand store with petite pieces of jewelry, plus bridal registry porcelain and silverware for Genoa clientele, Massimo transformed Gismondi into an internationally renowned jewelry house with fans among the Hollywood and superstar set.

The Ligurian city of Genoa is a bit unvarnished today, but for centuries it was a maritime powerhouse whose sailing dominance brought riches to local nobles and traders, fostering commerce for artisans and luxury merchants. Gismondi traces its roots to this period of prosperity. Massimo is the seventh generation of the family in the business. The first, Giovan Battista Gismondi, was born in 1754 hence the brand’s complete, history-redolent moniker of Gismondi 1754—and apprenticed in a jewelry workshop by the age of nine.) In his own workshop, he chiseled out fine silver tableware for the ruling Pamphili family, as well as, records seem

Massimo and Stefania Gismondi with their son Matteo in Portofino, Italy.

Opposite page: family portraits in the Gismondi home.

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to indicate, Pope Pius VI. In 1880, Giuseppe Gismondi moved the family establishment to Via Galata, where it remains, and where Massimo himself waited on customers until he launched an international chapter for the Gismondi name, with resort town boutiques and high jewelry masterpieces adorned with gemstones by the handful: his own visions of expansion, and his diamond-stacked designs.

The Raggio di Sole necklace, a sumptuous pendant of diamonds on a chain composed of more diamonds, depicts the sun with a whopping 5 carat fancy yellow pear shaped diamond, rays bursting out from it in slightly flexible spokes of yellow and white diamonds; its nearly 44 carats in all, and the fruit of over 600 hours of fabrication. The design, Massimo says, is a celebration of life he came up with after the loss of his mother; the sunbeams are a sign of the earth’s continuous rebirth.

The family of Stefania, Massimo’s wife, maintained a clothing store just blocks away from the Gismondi shop. Like many neighborhood denizens, they were longtime patrons there. “I always loved jewelry,” Stefania tells me, her green eyes glinting. She heads up Gismondi’s marketing these days.

“It’s even more fun now because Massimo showed me how to understand jewelry as more than a client: to see all the steps in how it’s created, which makes me appreciate it even more.” There’s a Gismondi Vela bracelet of diamond and gold links sliding around her wrist. “And I get to wear a lot of it.”

Just outside of the palazzo, Massimo picks up some local specialties—a pile of fresh focaccia from the bakery, a few vegetable tarts typical of Liguria—and we head for lunch at the Gismondi residence in Genoa’s hills. At the gates, we’re greeted by a menagerie of pets: four cats and four dogs, including a lame-legged yet unforgettably sweet-faced mutt, all adopted rescues. “We’re animal lovers,” Massimo tells me with a smile and a shrug.

Inside, hanging above the mantle are antique molds that were once used for casting the silver tableware of the Gismondi store, bookshelves hold centuries-old silver frame mirrors from the store’s collection and other chiseled frames display family photos of the couple and their son Matteo, now sixteen years old and studying film. (He has yet to show a precocious interest like Massimo’s in carrying on the family business.).

With a view over all of Genoa below and the bright cyan blue of the bay, we sit in the shade of giant oak trees. The lunch table is laid with flowered porcelain and Massimo’s Genovese delicacies while Stefania brings over a bowl of tomatoes freshly picked from their garden. The pool next to us glints in the sun, as does the diamond festooned Raggio di Sole ring, big as a cookie, that Stefania has slipped on.

Stefano Rocca joins us at the table — he’s an alumnus of Bulgari from its decades of growth as a family business in Rome to its international juggernaut status, who as Chief Operating Officer is helping Massimo expand Gismondi.

Stefano tells me that over long meals (lots of pasta al tonno and spaghetti all’amatriciana, prepared by him), they began

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to define the values of the brand—values that came directly from Massimo’s time growing up in the shop, with its family ideals and neighborhood sense of service and a humanity uncommon in businesses looking to go big-time. They cite “happiness’ and “humility” among their core values.

“It’s not a question of how much we earn,” says Stefano, “but rather if we do this work well, and if we can continue to do it with the same attention, the same passion and the same excitement.” He bites into a slice of the Gismondi’s homegrown tomatoes, nodding in satisfaction.

Yet since 2019, Gismondi has been a publicly traded company on Milan’s stock exchange, and last year its growing international presence helped sales grow by nearly half over the previous year. Stefano assures me that Gismondi is destined to become one of the great jewelry maisons on the world stage.

“It’s been a rapid transformation from just a jewelry store to this leap forward in quality, in size, in organization,” says Massimo, a square of focaccia in hand. And yet, “the lifeblood that the whole business is founded on comes from there, from the store, from having very close contact with customers.

We wanted absolutely to keep this model of the neighborhood shop and expand its scale.” A client might come in and spend half a million dollars—a not uncommon price tag among Gismondi’s most spectacular creations—or just $2,000 for one of the smaller items or a custom setting. “They’re not just buying a beautiful piece of jewelry,” Massimo says. “They’re buying service and dedicated attention, and I couldn’t bear to lose that aspect; it’s what’s most satisfying to me, and it’s what clients today are looking for, especially clients tired of the big brand experience.”

Massimo changes into an all white outfit and we drive an hour down the coast from Genoa to Portofino and the Gismondi boutique there. A picture postcard town that was once a fishing village, Portofino’s cluster of bright pastel row houses along the shore are today buffeted by the tony shops of Louis Vuitton, Dior,

Left to right: Massimo Gismondi, CEO Gismondi 1754; Gismondi VITA necklace featuring a 56.37 carat Tanzanite wrapped and supported by 59.21 carats of diamonds and a 4 carat pear shaped diamond.

Ferragamo and other heavy hitters in the luxury universe, with a harbor filled with yachts and sailboat cruisers. People-watching here is a designer duds parade, and when we arrive, one local has pulled out binoculars to take in the visitors’ show from her stairway landing—the kind of visitors that patronize a high jewelry boutique like Gismondi.

New construction is prohibited in Portofino, which is part of a natural park reserve stretching from Rapallo to Camogli on either side of it. The waters are turquoise and

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pristine, the restaurants are old-timey, and the Gismondi boutique occupies one of the small port-side storehouses where fishermen once stashed their nets and equipment, with the rough natural rock of the walls showing through.

Suspended on the walls are floating glass cases, the illuminated treasure chests where Gismondi’s jewels gleam and beguile, with wide-eyed passersby drawn like moths to the diamonds casting prisms of light in all directions.

Plucking the Genesi earrings from their vitrine, Massimo places them in my hand — large nautilus swirls drawn with a line of small round diamonds, bespangled with larger pear shaped diamonds that swell in size with the swoosh of the curve: a shape derived from Fibonacci’s formula describing nature’s golden ratio rate of growth, and by a family visit to Genoa’s natural history museum.

Family life inspires many of his designs.

After Stefania has Massimo and Stefania pressed a flute of Gismondi. bubbly into my hand for aperitivo, Massimo pulls out his most complicated piece yet: the Vita necklace composed of a ribbon of diamonds that circles the neck before gently embracing a 56 carat tanzanite which seems to hover—free of prongs or a supportive basket setting—, between a twirl of diamonds, an innovation that took six months to perfect.

Surprisingly light in my hands thanks to Gismondi’s meticulously minimized metal gemstone settings, I try it on, and even with my basic linen button-down, the collar splayed to expose the swath of diamonds cascading down from my neck, I feel suddenly like Elizabeth Taylor.

The Vita necklace honors Matteo and the couple’s desire to support their son while granting him complete freedom in life (at 16, he’s already moved away to study in Florence), as they explain to me with moist eyes. Massimo, quite unusually both the business’s CEO and Creative Director, tells me that Gismondi clients “are buying this as well: not just a beautiful jewel, but also its meaning — a piece of my heart.” People spend a fortune on artworks, he points out, “because they’ve

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found something of enormous emotional resonance to them.

The same is true with jewelry.”

The cultural metaphor guides his choice of natural diamonds as well. He feels that current energy production is not green enough to justify the quantity needed for lab-created diamonds, but also remains devoted to responsibly sourced, Kimberley Process-certified natural diamonds because the lab version “is the antithesis of luxury. Just as with art, if you buy a Van Gogh, if you can buy an authentic one, you don’t want to buy a mere copy.”

Gismondi’s creations are fabricated in Valenza, Italy’s capital of high jewelry craftsmanship, where Bulgari, Cartier, Gucci, Van Cleef & Arpels, and other top brands produce their jewels. And while some have experimented with lower-cost production in countries to the east, Gismondi recently purchased an artisan factory in Valenza from LVMH, guaranteeing its access to skilled makers and fulfilling its “social responsibility,” as Massimo calls it, to support the Italian know-how and culture that nourished his vision. “If today Italy is eminent in design, art, cuisine, and fashion, all this creativity is the fruit of our 2000 years of history,” he says.

Matteo joins us at the shop (same green eyes as Stefania; same white linen shirt as Massimo), and it’s time for dinner. As we share a plate of fried squid, Stefania tells tales of heroic last-minute feats of customization and rushed in-person deliveries to some of their celebrity fans: Beyoncé, Cardi B, Salma Hayek, Venus Williams, Alicia Keys, Gwyneth Paltrow and many more who often require jewelry to be specially configured for their complicated event outfits.

While some of the larger maisons pay huge sums to such stars so they’ll wear their jewels, Stefania says instead of sponsoring them with cash, Gismondi’s mission is “to make them happy. The big brands won’t remake a piece for them.

But whatever they want, we can do it.” Stefania and Massimo beam in unison. “Then they understand there’s a family behind this brand— there’s value.”

Gismondi Raggio di Sole necklace featuring 27.83 carats of pear shaped white diamonds and 16.04 carats of fancy yellow diamonds.

FROM THE iPad “I design in an app called Sketchbook on the iPad. It’s the same app the famous Nike sneaker designer Tinker Hatfield uses. Any pen or pencil style works in the app which gives me a lot of flexibility.”

On the jewelry tray “When I am sketching, I look at a lot of different things like loose stones and jewels I have made in the past.”

The vase “Noz sourced the vase

by Los Angeles based ceramic artist Leena Similu who is West African. The design has the spirit of a West African Mask and echoes the masks on my wall.”

Chairs “A lot of the furniture in the studio I pilfered from my home including the mid-century safari chairs

by Arne Norell.”

Rugs “The rug came from a trip to Morocco. I bought so many things they had to be shipped back in a big crate.”

LAUREN HARWELL GODFREY

In just five years, Lauren Harwell Godfrey has become a luminary in the jewelry world with her joyful creations.

Any number of bold-faced names have sported her singular designs including Vice President Kamala Harris, Blake Lively and artist Ashley Longshore. Unlike most well-known designers Lauren doesn't work in a big city. Her studio-showroom is located just about 20-minutes north of San Francisco in the idyllic town of Corte Madera.

“My studio used to be my friend’s brow shop,” explains Lauren. “When she moved out, I moved in.” Lauren worked with interior designer Noz Nozawa to create a décor reflecting her interest in the African Diaspora that plays such a central source of inspiration in her work. One thing missing from the space is a conventional desk. Lauren admitted, “I’m not a desk person.”

Instead, she floats around from the couch to a counter top with a bar stool as she works out her jewelry collections.

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DESK OF The table

“I work on a big black and white Carrera marble table. I don’t call it a desk because a desk feels executive to me. I think of my office as a studio and my desk as a table where I can think out loud.”

Round stone containers “I like to have diamonds around me so, I can sketch up ideas if inspiration hits. The round little stone holders have a piece of fabric in them that keeps the diamonds in place. I have a fetishy attachment about how they are lined up.”

Fernando Jorge, Lauren Harwell Godfrey and Eva Fehren took us behind the scenes to see their personal workspaces where the diamond jewelry design magic happens

by MARION FASEL

Tweezers “I use the tweezers to hold up stones and study their shapes. You can’t do that with your hands because these gems are too small weighing about a half a carat.”

White jewelry box with rings “I was working on creating engagement rings so one of my jewelry boxes with engagement rings is sitting next to the stones.”

Black box “I am a little bit of a stone hoarder. I buy things that inspire me when I see them, like a super long baguette, not knowing what I am going to do with it. Other stones I purchase to fit into pre-existing designs in the collection.”

EVA FEHREN

From day one when she established her label 12-years ago, Eva Fehren has had a very precise and disciplined approach to the way she creates her collection. It’s inspired by the lines and geometries of her native New York City where she still lives and works. The approach not only covers the silhouette of her jewels, but also the shapes of many of the diamonds in her singular engagement ring collection.

Eva’s palette includes lots of classic Gotham blackened gold as well as yellow and rose gold. “The only use of color in my collection is neon,” explains Eva. “Maybe that comes from growing up in the 1980s otherwise pretty much everything is black and white even my office supplies and jewelry tools.”

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Jewels on display The white paper FJ is sketching on

The desk “I bought my vintage mid 20th century Brazilian rosewood desk when I had my first big office space in London. I’ve learned when you invest in a quality piece it keeps giving back and this desk is an example of that.”

“I use very simple white paper to sketch on. I feel anything fancy would inhibit me from working freely.”

The white organically shaped object “I always have inspirational little objects floating around my desk like this small Gogotte which is a white mineral from France.”

Pencils “My grandparents used to give me Caran d’Ache pencils when I was a child and I still get my pencils from the company. The white and yellow pencils are always the shortest now because I use them for diamonds and gold which is in everything I sketch.”

“The jewels on my desk are a reference so I can riff on things I have done. They are displayed on blocks of solid oak in a honey gold tone with green suede designed for me by André Mellone. We use them in the showroom and stores.”

Green notebook “The green notebook by Métier was a gift from the designer and founder Melissa Morris. We are in the process of a collaboration.”

Terracotta pencil tray

Pencil case “The traveling pencil case goes with me everywhere.”

Ipad “I scan my sketches and edit my collection on the Ipad.”

“The terracotta pencil tray is by Tino Seubert who designed the travelling cases we used at NOMAD St. Moritz and Capri. It is one of the objects of affection I like to have surrounding me.”

FERNANDO JORGE

Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Florence Pugh are just a few of the countless women of style who have worn statement diamond jewels by Fernando Jorge since he established his label 11 years ago. Recently in a move that signaled his rise to the top, the designer relocated his studio-showroom from East London to the Mayfair neighborhood. While the Brazilian-born designer is now situated in the posh jewelry center of the city, the soulful approach he has infused into his collection from the beginning has remained the same. It’s an artistry and individuality that can be seen in the objects on his desk.

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RETAIL PARTNERS

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For more information, visit www.naturaldiamonds.com/official-retail-partner-locations

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