How to Get a Hollywood-Inspired Ring
When celebrities get engaged, their rings become stars in their own right. And while those jewels are off the market—and priced beyond the typical consumer’s reach—customers can get similar looks on a budget. Here are five ways to make fantasy rings a reality:
1. Make a look book of celebrity engagement rings to help shoppers realize the styles they like.
Getting a similar look isn’t necessarily about mimicking the size of stones; it’s more about approximating their color and shape. “People are very visual,” says David Goldstein of Goldstein Diamonds in Scottsdale, Ariz. “And they want to be like the stars.” If you have “Hollywood boards” in your store—think framed pictures of stars à la the walls of the Palm restaurant, or binders of magazine tear sheets picturing recently engaged celebs—your clients will know that you understand their ideas, and they can cherry-pick different ring aesthetics to build their own.
2. Rely on tricks of the trade to build bigger-looking rings.
Halo and double halo styles amplify the appearance of small center stones; so does pavé, which can create a big look with a mass of melee. “Visually, halos are a great way to add 1 to 2 carats,” says Peter Meksian, CEO and designer at Michael M. in Los Angeles.
3. Compare and contrast center stone shapes.
Some diamonds command a premium due to proprietary cuts, while other nonbranded stones can be good values because of market availability. Once shape is determined, jewelers can help clients find a diamond within a specific price range, then build “the look of the ring around the center stone,” says Danielle Ingwer Cohen, vice president of IT development and marketing at Leo Ingwer in New York City.
4. Choose a metal that speaks to the bride’s lifestyle and design sensibility.
Karat gold is the most popular choice for engagement rings, according to research from TheKnot.com, but don’t overlook platinum (the rarest metal of them all!) and alternative materials such as titanium.
5. Offer alternatives to fancy color diamond center stones that cost (much) less.
You can get a similar look with colored gemstones, colored diamond pavé (instead of one large single stone), HPHT gems, or natural colored diamonds with secondary colors. According to John Kabbani, co-owner of Global Diamond Group in New York City, “orangey pink and brownish pink diamonds cost less—as much as 70 percent less—than fancy pinks because of modifier colors.”
Jacqui Ainsley’s double halo-style diamond ring by Neil Lane
The Ring Cycle
The recent celebrity engagement hit parade:
• Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux chose what is speculated to be a radiant- or modified emerald- or cushion-cut stone. (At press time, official ring details had not been revealed.)
• Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds told People.com their ring—a light pink oval-cut center stone in rose gold with pavé accents—was from Lorraine Schwartz of New York City.
• For Jersey Shore’s Jennifer “JWoww” Farley and Roger Mathews, it was a colorless cushion-cut center with colorless and pink diamond accents in 18k white gold from Layna and Alan Friedman of Alan Friedman in Beverly Hills, Calif.
• Jacqui Ainsley and Guy Ritchie selected a platinum 5 ct. double halo-style ring, which Hollywood jeweler Neil Lane described as “feminine and vintage.”