A natural diamond is an achievement: miraculously formed, a singular status symbol, an elegant yet extreme moment of sparkle on anyone who wears one.
That is the message found throughout Diamonds: Diamond Stories, a coffee-table book made by the Natural Diamond Council (NDC) in partnership with publisher Assouline. The book, which hit stores this month, places natural diamonds in the context of history, culture, and fashion. It also comes at the perfect time, given the high interest and sales of natural diamonds in terms of post-pandemic engagements, push presents, and everyday gifts.
Its pages are filled with new as well as heritage jewelry, celebrities and everyday people, simple designs and over-the-top spectacles. The layouts and familiar faces on the pages within Diamonds keep you turning: There’s a smiling Trevor Noah or a playful Jeff Goldblum, a diamond brooch shining on their gentlemanly lapels. There’s the stunning Serena Williams with a delicate natural-diamond “Queen” pendant hanging around her neck.
And then there’s the always awe-inspiring liquid violet eyes of Elizabeth Taylor—perhaps the world’s best ambassador for natural diamonds as an everyday accessory—with an eternal beauty that only a diamond can compete with…maybe.
The book also highlights where natural diamonds play with modernity—how today’s designers, celebrities, and tastemakers continue to wear natural diamonds in innovative styles and in creative expressions that are not only beautiful but visually enchanting. In other words, you cannot take your eyes off the sparkling stars of the book.
“While it is these pop culture diamond moments that are forever etched in our collective memories, out of the spotlight, all around the world, people are having their own diamond moments,” David Kellie, CEO of the NDC, said in a statement.
Diamonds also gives collectors and admirers alike an education, introducing the reader to traditional as well as new jewelry houses including Sabyasachi, Messika, Anita Ko, Boucheron, and Fernando Jorge. These jewelers play with natural diamonds, bringing in fresh colors, new cuts, and interesting ways to wear them.
The book brings history alive, whether it is Taylor’s fabulousness to stories of the Hope Diamond to the legend of the Beau Sancy diamond, so grand it became the ultimate symbol of power. Stories from Anders Christian Madsen, the book’s author and British Vogue’s fashion critic, are the heart of the book; a foreword is provided by British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful.
“In today’s world, diamonds are as entrenched in luxury, glamour, and aspiration as they have been through history, but as the representations of those ideals are changing, so is the diamond,” Enninful wrote in his foreword. “I am excited by a fashion landscape where the diamond has become approachable to anyone who dares to dream; where modern women wear their grandmothers’ diamonds with jeans and a T-shirt as part of their everyday styling; where young men are as dazzled by diamonds as their girlfriends; and where bold creatives, trailblazing hip-hop artists, and the tone-setting streetwear community inspire us to use diamonds in new and progressive ways.”
The mission of the Natural Diamond Council is to advance the integrity of the modern diamond jewelry industry “by inspiring and educating consumers around the world,” it said in a statement. With this collaboration with Assouline, the organization has created a book that is not only visually arresting but tells the tale of natural diamonds in a mesmerizing way.
Top: The Beau Sancy diamond is one of the many gems highlighted in Diamonds, a new book made by the Natural Diamond Council and Assouline. (Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images. All photos courtesy of the Natural Diamond Council.)
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