It was around this time last winter that Eva Zuckerman, the designer behind cool-girl fine jewelry brand (and JCK editor favorite) Eva Fehren, got engaged to photographer and creative director Dimitri Scheblanov. The couple had just moved into a new apartment in New York City’s West Village. And after returning home from a birthday party for Scheblanov at a nearby restaurant, he got down on both knees and proposed with the key ring holding his set of keys.
The actual engagement ring would come later—Scheblanov knew that choosing a ring for his bride would be impossible and that she’d want to design it herself.
After much deliberation on stone size, pink versus gray diamonds and even consideration of a locked bracelet in lieu of a ring, Zuckerman was ultimately inspired to have a diamond custom cut to her dream specifications: an unusual portrait-cut/step-cut hybrid stone.
“One would think that because I work with diamonds every day I would’ve already known exactly what I wanted, but I had to rediscover what felt right to me, and explore every option…again,” says Zuckerman. “I loved the experience of hunting for the perfect cut and picking out my stone. I did end up landing exactly where I thought I would with something understated, geometric, and, because I work with my hands so much, low-profile and effortless to wear.”
The wedding was held last summer on Harbour Island in the Bahamas— famous for its pink-sand beaches—and Zuckerman wore a blush-pink tulle dress by Brandon Maxwell to match (see photos, mainly of her wedding day jewelry—emphasis on the engagement ring, of course—at top).
Having so recently gone through the engagement ring selection process herself, will her experience influence the way she approaches White, her collection of engagement rings and wedding bands?
“It gave me a lot of insight to the immense emotional gravity of deciding on an engagement ring,” says Zuckerman. “It is so important that the piece feels like part of you and reflects your personal style, but is still classic enough to work for many, many years to come. I knew this intellectually, but it really resonated for me personally after trying to find a stone and a ring that felt like ‘me’ and reflective of ‘us’. ”
A few of the newest White styles are shared below and definitely feel like sisters to the ring Zuckerman designed for herself.
“I used a compass setting rather than the classic corner prongs for my ring,” says Zuckerman. “The north-south-east-west configuration of the prongs truly creates the appearance that the stone is floating on the band. I absolutely love it and have since begun to use this setting more frequently throughout my collection. But I think the beauty of my ring is that it feels so closely tied to my work, and there isn’t a huge difference between what I wanted and what my customers want.”
Top: Snaps from Eva Zuckerman’s summer 2019 wedding that highlight her portrait-cut hexagon engagement ring and the accessories and jewelry she wore. Shown are a Gigi Burris veil sprinkled with rose-cut diamonds and favorite pieces from her own collection, including layered geometric diamond studs, one long graduated hexagonal diamond drop earring, and blackened white diamond line bracelets. Her groom, Dimitri Scheblanov, of Herring & Herring, wore custom Eva Fehren pieces, including a diamond lapel pin (a wedding gift from Zuckerman) and several necklace samples from her upcoming collection (photos via: @herringandherring).
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