Claudia Mae’s Nouveau Romantic Bridal Collection Stacks Up

By Karen Dybis | March 25, 2026

Of all the compliments you could pay designer Claudia Kronfeld, one would definitely be that she is a hopeless romantic—someone who’s in love with love and the way her clients express it through their jewelry.

Kronfeld has brought that spirit to her brand Claudia Mae’s inaugural bridal collection, Nouveau Romantic. The first pieces just arrived, and Kronfeld says she plans to add more to the initial collection in the months to come.

Nouveau Romantic’s fresh three-stone and solitaire designs can be worn solo or stacked, in keeping with Kronfeld’s penchant for jewelry that can mixed and mingled to the max. It includes rings that are wider than most traditional engagement or wedding bands—a nod to Claudia Mae’s signature Nomad bands.

“The name Nouveau Romantic is both nostalgic and forward-looking,” says Kronfeld. “It captures the sentiment of my exact mission with this new bridal system, which is for our bridal stacks to mark a moment, a chapter, a decision, rather than placing the entire weight of a story on one single ring.

Claudia Mae bridal stack — *The Pavé Super Skinny Nomad Ring ($3,900), from Claudia Mae’s new Nouveau Romantic collection, is second from the bottom on this ring stack.*

“I think there’s something really romantic in that idea, that your rings grow with you and start to feel like a reflection of your own history,” she adds. “Our Nouveau Romantics are completely customizable and can feature any cut or color of diamond. As someone who cannot live without color, I am especially excited to share several colored stone versions of these rings that are in the works.”

Kronfeld says her affection for burnished-set rings—popular during the 19th and early 20th centuries—inspired the bridal capsule, as they had the Nomad collection. She feels her new bridal pieces are partly Victorian, partly art deco, yet still modern and aimed at today’s more discerning brides.

“There is something that speaks to me in each era, but Victorian is probably my favorite because of my deep love of gypsy rings and burnish-set stones,” the designer says. “I think burnish setting is the most beautiful setting style, and also one of the hardest to execute. I have such admiration for my setters who have mastered this technique, especially with colored stones, which are much softer and more difficult to work with.”

Burnished Elongated Cushion CM — *Claudia Mae Nouveau Romantic Statement Ring ($8,640) in 14k gold with an elongated cushion diamond and scattered burnished-set diamonds on its bezel*

The silhouettes of Nouveau Romantic fit right into Claudia Mae’s jewelry story. “They say every good idea starts with a need—which, okay, need is a loose term here—but I needed the perfect gold band and couldn’t find one anywhere, so I made it myself,” Kronfeld says. “As the Nomad collection grew and customers began building their own stacks, it became clear that many wanted to use their Nomads as wedding bands, but they didn’t fit with their engagement rings.”

Having realized there was a real gap in the bridal market—for chunky, stackable, thoughtfully designed rings that could integrate seamlessly with the rest of a woman’s jewelry—Kronfeld explains, “Bridal felt like a natural evolution of the brand, and I knew any design had to complement Nomad, not compete with it, while giving women a new way to express themselves through layers and stacking.”

A wedding set offers a client one of the best opportunities for personalized jewelry—it’s a storytelling vehicle, just like a charm bracelet.

“In many ways, charm bracelets were the original social media,” Kronfeld says. “They gave women a way to express themselves, display what they felt was beautiful and share whatever symbols they identified with. My hope is that our bridal stacks become a similar canvas for women to mark their many chapters and milestones.”

Top: Claudia Mae recently introduced its first bridal collection, Nouveau Romantic, whose rings can be mixed and stacked with other jewelry from the brand. (Photos courtesy of Claudia Mae)