Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but how they’re mounted on rings is still up for discussion. We’ve spoken to some experts about emerging and consistent trends in the engagement ring industry.
“We’re probably seeing more and more rose gold,” said Leslie Schwab, manager at Aras Jewelers in Rockville. Kayda Araki, manager at Secrete Fine Jewelry in Bethesda, agreed and said that rose gold, along with white gold and platinum are the most popular metals. Araki said, “We’re seeing an increase in the number of people that want rose gold rings.”
Susan Koehn, of Susan Koehn Designs in Potomac, added that mixed metals are becoming more popular in rings while “yellow gold is back.”
“The cuts that are in are round, always, and square. Emerald, princess, and cushion cut [are] very big too,” Koehn said.
Schwab added that “round is most traditional. Pears have made a slight comeback, but not as much as they were” in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.
Cushions, in case you’re wondering, are similar to square or princess cuts, but instead of having 90-degree angles at each corner, the corners are soft and rounded. For designs, Araki thinks that vintage-inspired designs are the “most interesting trend right now.”
“We’ve definitely experienced people taking designs from art deco or vintage rings. That’s something we’ve noticed more lately. It ends up looking very nice and you can get a really unique ring that’s really
sentimental and personal,” Araki said.
Other non-traditional engagement rings are in as well, Araki said. There are “people who no longer want that center stone in a classic setting, but who want a ring that might to an outsider not even look like an engagement ring, but it is and it holds the same sentimental value for them.”
Araki also noticed that three-stone rings are coming back. In a three-stone ring, one bigger gem is nestled on each side by a smaller gem. “For a long time, solitaires or haloes were very popular and people are reverting back to the three-stone style,” she said.
Schwab noticed something similar, but added that haloes are still largely in style. “Sometimes they’re doing a multiple halo or a triple halo,” she said. Haloes are rings of smaller stones surrounding a larger stone as accents.
In terms of gemstones, Araki said that some people are using other gem stones including sapphire and
emerald instead of diamonds. Schwab has noticed a similar trend toward sapphire or other hard gems, but says, “We’re still selling mainly diamonds.” She said they usually caution against using soft gems because they scratch and degrade much faster.
