The prevalence of diamond jewelry is problematic. I’m not talking about engagement rings or stud earrings or even the occasional pavéed sparkler. I am talking about the prevalence of disposable diamond jewelry. As I understand it, the jewelry trade saw a similar rise in disposable jewelry in seventies – then it was for the cheap gold jewelry we still see in stores today (think spinning towers of jewelry pinned to cards marked 14k). In those years yellow gold was the style. Yellow however is not a benefit to diamonds.
White has since taken the place of yellow in the forms of white gold, platinum, and silver. White metal seems boring on it’s own. Silver is often the vehicle for jewelry set with opaque lapis lazuli and turquoise often associated with the American Southwest. This type of jewelry tends to have smooth designs that do not tarnish (as they polish out on one’s clothing) or look great with some tarnishing.
In the American mass-market, however, white metals are rarely seen without diamonds. And the prevalence of this combination makes it difficult to imagine the rarity of something seemingly overly available.
Diamonds have three selling points:
Visually, it’s beauty: Nothing sparkles like a diamond. A well cut diamond houses an infinite world of light flashes and color. In fact, from The Moonstone via Last Empire: De Beers, Diamonds, and the World:
“This jewel that you could hold between your finger and thumb seemed unfathomable as the heavens themselves. We set it in the sun, and then shut the light out of the room, and it shown awfully out of the depths of it’s brightness.”
That passage continues to haunt me with its truth!
Physically, it’s hardness: The legacy of the diamond that it was forged in the belly of the earth, a few billion years ago when the earth was new. Diamonds make perfect engagement rings because they have a reputation of indestructibility. They are the hardest material known to man.
But most importantly, it’s rarity: I once heard that 20 tons of earth in diamond-rich country will yield one 1 carat gem-quality diamond. Like snowflakes and finger prints, no two are the same. This is why men buy diamonds: to say quite literally, ‘you’re the one.’
Disposable diamond jewelry undermines a diamonds value. If the rarest, hardest, most beautiful substance on earth can be bought in tarnish-ready silver settings and designs which are insecure and trend-driven, there is a major problem for diamonds. The legacy of a diamond as heirloom and investment is in jeopardy if the jewelry industry continues to push them in get-rich-quick schemes of rhodium plated silver inside-out hoop earrings and poorly cast line bracelets.
Furthermore, lack of standardized in-house grading makes consumer understanding of pavé jewelry impossible. When one store will gladly tell a client that their cloud-white pavé is F/VS, they erode the trust of the consumer.
This cannot be the reputation of our industry! Crap pave, tarnished to hell and sitting in a drawer – diamonds are worth more than that! They carry the natural history of our earth and the sweat of men. We have a responsibility to sell honest jewelry. It’s one thing to be an honest salesperson, designs can lie better than any talking can do. We must strive for nobility in design and manufacturing. This is a mandate from the material itself.
