A Cool Spin on Colored Diamonds

Rough diamonds have been used in their natural state by a few daring designers—Frieden AG of Thun, Switzerland, is probably the best known for the look with its Diamas collection, creating and showing exquisite rough-diamond pieces long before Nicole Kidman made news with Bvlgari’s rough diamond necklace.  (I was looking at Frieden’s pieces back when I was JCK’s fashion editor—that gives you an idea of how long ago that was…)

But L.A.-based Rahaminov is doing a really cool new thing with them: they’re using rough colored diamonds. And they’re not exactly rough. Well, they are, but they aren’t. Check out these new Rahaminov pieces, whose diamonds that can only be described as rough-but-polished. Oxymoronic? Maybe. But distinctive? Definitely. (And at the very least, something I’ve never seen before.)

The rough-cut diamonds in Rahaminov’s new collection are opaque and translucent fancy colors. They’re rough in back, but with fronts polished in ways that break the rules: variable angles, multiple facets not in the usual arrangement, and a variety of finished shapes ranging from rose cuts to beads to diamond slices (!), a look usually reserved for either semiconductors or watermelon tourmaline. The colors are set off by sparkling white melee and set in 18k gold.

These pieces have a raw organic beauty that may well resonate with consumers looking for something special but not flashy. Now that frugality is in fashion and bling feels OTT, the understated roughness of these pieces can fit the bill for someone who still wants something quietly unique.

Pendant has 18.12 ct. pear-shape green opaque, 1.38 ct. round red opaque, 1.27 ct. round orange opaque, and two .86 ct. t.w. rose-cut polished rough diamonds set in 18k yellow gold. $36,000. Earrings have 9.70 cts. t.w. natural translucent polished rough diamonds, and 2.43 ct. t.w. cushion cut white translucent diamonds. .75 ct. melee in 18k gold. $28,000