For centuries, diamond briolettes and faceted diamond beads were used in some of the world's most famous jewelry. Some historians believe the briolette cut originated in India. The Crown Jewels of Iran include numerous briolettes. Briolettes were part of the tiara worn by the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia at her 1894 wedding to the Grand Duke Alexander Mihailovich of Russia. And a diamond briolette necklace given in 1811 by French Emperor Napoleon I to his second wife, Empress Marie Louise, is now in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Briolettes began to gain popularity in commercially available jewelry designs in the 1990s and remain a hot trend today. Laser-cutting and -drilling tools make it easier for jewelry designers to use them, and, with color on the frontline of fashion, designers are using not only white diamonds but also fancy color diamond briolett