Dearly beloved, before you panic and cancel your De Beers order, we’d like to caveat this article with the note that classic wedding jewelry—we’re talking the Cartiers, Van Cleefs, and Chopards of the accessories world—will never go out of style. There is a reason why Tiffany & Co.’s blue boxes still represent joy for some. But here, in fashion’s micro-sphere, jewelry trends occasionally bubble over into the bridal business and inspire couples to split from traditional diamonds and take up with (sometimes spiky) alternatives instead. From tablescape bijoux to thumb stacker surprises, here are the treasures to have and to hold in 2024.
Thorns versus hearts
Bespoke is still top of the agenda, as jewelers cast wedding bands to fit precisely around personalized engagement rings, but brides are increasingly thinking outside the box. The Simone Rocha-clad curator Lou Stoppard commissioned Alexander McQueen-favourite Shaun Leane to fashion her a little thorn that would snake around her vintage engagement ring—the perfect off-kilter antidote to the often saccharine wedding market that she found to be “a headache”. Similarly, there was no way a classic gold band would pass muster for Danish bride Pernille August Rosenkilde, who spent no fewer than 50 hours hand-sewing feathers onto her sheer wedding dress. “This is me in a ring,” the quirky, color-obsessed influencer thought when her partner, Jeppe August Soerensen Rosenkilde, presented her with a playful Nadia Shelbaya engagement ring. It was only right, then, that her band should marry the same Scandinavian minimalism and Middle Eastern jewel tones. Pernille ended up with a heart ring and a molten, artisanal gold band that shone against all those undulating plumes on her big day—something her toddler daughter Lizzi delighted in.
Soft diamonds
“We’re seeing a lot of interest in cushions, ovals, and pear shapes,” says Jessica McCormack of the shift to softer stone shapes. “We love setting them east or west with black gold, or on a tilt for clients who are looking for something classic with a twist.” While the celebrity contingent is certainly helping to drive the popularity of these unique stone formations (see: Hailey Bieber’s second Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring), this shift does not just apply to engagement rings. Couples are now choosing trinkets that could once have been mistaken for avant-garde cocktail rings as their wedding bands, and either stacking them or shifting their engagement ring to a different finger entirely. The message: why the hell not?