Over the past year, quiet luxury has been a buzzy trend in fashion thanks to HBO’s “Succession,” popping up on the runways and influencing shoppers to adopt understated, minimalist styles that exude a subtle popularity.
This trend has touched many facets of the fashion industry, including the bridal market and, more specifically, engagement rings, causing a shift in customer preferences that’s led to a rise in demand for minimal, yet eye-catching styles.
Quiet luxury is the “dominant” style in 2023, said Kristina Buckley Kayel, managing director and chief marketing officer at the Natural Diamond Council. “What is signature to it is being a logo free, subtle, yet making a statement on your style and your status, and diamond jewelry in general is central to that kind of expression.”
“Diamond jewelry and natural diamonds themselves become a billion-year-old creation of nature and an increasingly rare one — that sort of preciousness and understanding of its value is something that’s quite central to the expression of quiet luxury,” Buckley Kayel said.
Quiet luxury’s impact on engagement rings has shown up in various ways among customer preferences. For one, the impact has put more emphasis on the ubiquitous “four Cs” method: cut, color, clarity and carat.
“There’s still reinforced attention on the quality of the diamond and its uniqueness,” Buckley Kayel continued. “There’s always the size question on engagement rings, but I think people are more into understanding what is unique to their style and how the engagement ring fits their finger versus the size.”
An emerald-cut diamond engagement ring from Brilliant Earth.
Courtesy of Brilliant Earth
This has led to more emphasis on the ring’s center stone. Rather than choosing rings with more ornamentation — like side stones, halos and other details — jewelers see customers gravitating toward solitaire diamond engagement rings, both in traditional cuts and more fanciful shapes.
On the more traditional side, many customers have leaned into an antique or vintage style. At New York City-based jeweler The Clear Cut, this means a rise in diamond shapes like emeralds, ovals and cushion cuts, as well as more unique styles like Asscher cuts.
“Obviously, everyone wants a nice size engagement ring for everyday wear, but a lot of the feedback we’ve been getting is, ‘I don’t want something too gaudy. I want something timeless — something that will have inherent value,’” said The Clear Cut founder Olivia Landau. “An engagement ring is something that a lot of times is an heirloom. Sometimes you buy it to pass down generation over generation.”
For fanciful diamond shapes, Buckely Kayel stated the toi et moi style is still growing in popularity, with many customers pairing an heirloom stone with a new diamond.
At Brilliant Earth, oval and emerald-cut diamonds are joined by marquis and pear-shaped as popular options. Subtle details, such as a hidden halo, are also becoming more popular to give classic styles some discreet sparkle. Yellow gold bands also reign over white metals, as yellow gold is typically the go-to metal when choosing a solitaire diamond ring.
An oval diamond engagement ring with a hidden halo from Brilliant Earth.
Courtesy of Brilliant Earth
“When it comes to engagement rings, it’s actually a fantastic place to think about something that has endurance and is a classic style that will remain elegant and relevant throughout one’s lifetime, even with changing trends and styles,” said Brilliant Earth senior vice president of merchandise and retail expansion Kathryn Money. “Something that’s timeless will continue to have appeal and when someone is buying their engagement ring, that’s often top of mind.”
While natural diamonds naturally fit into the quiet luxury trend, lab-grown diamonds can also offer customers options, according to jeweler Jean Dousset, as the stones have become more mainstream and adopted by customers and major brands.
“People have been focusing a little bit less on the overall sparkle of the ring and just focusing a little bit more on the center stone and I think that’s one of the reasons lab-grown [diamonds] may be really helpful with that,” he explained. “For most of us, purchase a diamond engagement ring before it gets expensive with natural diamonds. Natural diamonds force you to either reduce the size of your diamond or to make compromises on the quality. Nowadays with lab-grown diamonds, we see people are really able to have the carat weight that you want.”
Jewelers anticipate that interest in solitaire diamond rings will continue as an extension of the quiet luxury trend. They are also seeing a resurgence in white metals and thicker bands.
Whether natural or lab-grown diamonds, jewelers agree that the quiet luxury trend is about timelessness and playing into the wearer’s individuality.
“In a world of a lot of sameness, there’s an opportunity to have something that’s truly unique, individual and personal to you, but still holds incredible value in the long term,” Buckley Kayel said. “It’s a very emotional purchase. It’s an appreciation of beauty and it’s also one of financial value.”
