Vrai Goes High-End With Amanda Hearst Rønning Collab
When you think of the lab-grown diamond market, your mind likely wanders to “daily” jewelry styles such as simple studs, stacking rings, and solitaire pendants. It’s less likely that your brain connects the category with formal, large-scale jewelry—the kind of major pieces affluent jewelry lovers would wear to a gala or on their wedding day.
But the nascent market is diversifying as it matures, and one of its major players, Diamond Foundry–owned fine jewelry brand Vrai, has debuted just such a collection.
The Vrai x Amanda Hearst Rønning collection—created in collaboration with environmental advocate Amanda Hearst Rønning, great-granddaughter of media mogul William Randolph Hearst—is composed of dazzling, voluminous, capital-J jewelry inspired in part by the 1930s heyday of Hearst Castle–era glamour. The five-piece collection took its design cues directly from the vintage jewelry Rønning wore on her wedding day.
Rønning tells JCK that when she was planning for her big day, she “wanted to make everything as sustainable as possible. So the food, decor—and even my dress!—were sustainably made. But I just couldn’t find a jewelry brand that was truly ethical. A few months later, I discovered Vrai and reached out to learn more about their company.” She adds, “I really believe that cultured or created diamonds and stones are the future of the jewelry industry.”
The collaboration also has a charitable component: 10% percent of proceeds from sales will benefit Well Beings, a nonprofit environmental conservation organization.
Rønning says her goal was to create pieces “that are classic, elegant, and timeless.” And in fact, the suite of jewels, which range from $1,550 to $67,000 and use recycled 14k white gold, would be quite at home at a dazzling Hearst Castle soiree. Naturally, she says, “the Hearst Castle and Grace Kelly were on my mood board!”
