Brilliant Earth’s partnership with the House of Taylor shows how channeling Old Hollywood glamour, jewelry targeted to self-expression, and philanthropy can create a buzzy campaign and collection.
The 17-piece Brilliant Earth x Elizabeth Taylor collection—which debuted Sept. 24 online and in select Brilliant Earth showrooms—uses lab-grown diamonds in pieces including baguette lab diamond huggie earrings ($995), a 6-plus carat lab cocktail ring ($10,000), and a 17+ ct. lab diamond tennis necklace ($15,000).
Brilliant Earth worked with House of Taylor—the official estate-authorized brand supervising Taylor’s name and likeness—and Clyde Duneier, the licensed manufacturing partner for Elizabeth Taylor fine jewelry, to develop the collection. A portion of the revenue from the sale of official House of Taylor products is donated to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
Brilliant Earth CEO and cofounder Beth Gerstein says Taylor is the epitome of a jewelry connoisseur: She bought for sentimental reasons, but she also was knowledgeable about jewelry and passionate about what she wore publicly and privately.
“Elizabeth Taylor had a remarkable way of making jewelry feel personal. The pieces she wore were tied to people, places, celebrations, and memories, and that sense of meaning became an important part of how we approached this collection,” Gerstein tells JCK.
Each jewelry piece in the collection represents Taylor’s jewelry style throughout her life as well as Brilliant Earth’s design perspective, Gerstein says. For her bold red lip, Brilliant Earth chose rubies. To honor her love of big stones, a blue lab-grown sapphire hidden halo cocktail ring.
“Together with the Elizabeth Taylor Estate, we drew from her legacy to create pieces that honor the craft and thoughtfulness she valued. We hope they become part of our customers’ own stories, too,” she says.
Taylor rose from a child star in 1944 movie National Velvet and won two Best Actress Academy Awards for Butterfield 8 (1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). She was infamously married eight times to seven different men—twice to her famous costar in Cleopatra, Richard Burton.
The actress’ love of jewelry and, arguably, her best jewelry pieces came from her torrid love affair with Burton. Her most famous jewelry pieces include the 33.19 ct. Krupp diamond—now known as the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond—and the historic La Peregrina Pearl, which, according to lore, her dog tried to eat.
Her fame has continued to grow through documentaries and, most recently, singer Taylor Swift’s tributes on albums such as The Life of a Showgirl, where she has a track titled “Elizabeth Taylor” with lyrics that reference the venerable star.
To market the collection, Brilliant Earth has an apt motto: “Many facets. One Icon.” The company also used models bearing some of Taylor’s most noteworthy characteristics, including her wavy hairstyles during her early acting years and her dazzling purple-blue eye color. The models also wear jewel tones in their décolletage-baring clothing, a nod to Taylor’s dramatic sense of fashion.
To celebrate the collection’s debut, Brilliant Earth held a special event last week with Champagne, influencers dressed in white watching the actress’ movies, and hangouts in front of a classic Hollywood pool setting.
Top: Lab-grown rubies, which represent Elizabeth Taylor’s famous red lip color, and lab-grown diamonds are among the gemstones used in the new Brilliant Earth collection honoring Taylor. (Photos courtesy of Brilliant Earth)
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