11 New Designs for When Only Diamonds and Gold Will Do

By Victoria Gomelsky | June 06, 2024

Gold is the priciest it has ever been, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue for the industry’s high-end designers. In fact, the yellow metal’s reputation as a safe haven in uncertain times may well be the reason we’ve seen so many new gold-and-diamond collections this year, including scores of lines that made a splash during Las Vegas Jewelry Week this spring.

We came into the shows expecting a wave of white gold designs, as that’s where the jewelry trend winds seemed to be blowing. Instead, we got a ripple that merely underscored the fact that yellow-gold-and-diamond combinations are still the fine jewelry industry’s bread and butter.

We saw the colorless gems set in yellow gold collars, peppered across yellow gold bangle bracelets, sprinkled on cigar bands, tucked into yellow gold bezels, and dotted on yellow gold charms. Overall, designers emphasized the wearability of the precious metal, and the warmth it brought to their iciest stones.

Even though almost no one complained about gold’s cost at the Vegas shows, 14k styles seemed more abundant than in years past, suggesting designers were at least considering the price quotient of their pieces.

“You don’t want to alienate clients,” Demetra Lalaounis of the Greek jewelry brand Lalaounis tells JCK, adding that she’s recently begun offering her traditionally 22k gold jewels in 18k gold with a 22k finish. “That’s how we’re keeping our DNA, and not departing from it.”