Diamonds for Men
December 14, 23
Men buy diamonds, women wear them.
That's just the way it's been since De Beers started putting diamonds on women's fingers a century or so ago.
Bridal still drives the industry, but more and more men are buying and wearing diamonds.
Bling tells the world you've made it, especially in the world of entertainment.
One US rapper, Lil Uzi Vert, had a $24m pink diamond embedded in his forehead. Another, Post Malone, spent $1.6m on 12 carats worth of "diamond teeth".
But diamonds aren't just for the uber-wealthy.Diamonds for "ordinary" men are now a thing.
The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) is, for the first time, promoting diamonds on its website with a male cover star.
Actor Taylor Zakhar Perez is cast as the Diamond Cowboy for a video, photo shoot and interview.
The NDC has previously used actresses Lily James and Ana de Armas, as well as supermodel Karen Elson to target the more traditional "men buy diamonds, women wear them" market.
I asked Kristina Buckley Kayel, NDC's managing director, why they'd decided to have a man as the cover story on the naturaldiamonds.com consumer platform.
"We wanted to pay homage to how men are shaping the diamond jewelry space now," she said.
"While women's self-purchase continues to drive industry growth, men's self-purchase has exploded, as have the rules on men wearing and appreciating diamond jewelry.
"Men have been wearing diamonds for centuries. In the late 19th and early 20th century, affluent men wore diamond pinky rings, lapel pins and cufflinks.
"A true symbol of success and status, diamond jewelry was not showy but instead an extension of one's personal style as it remains today.
"Diamond jewelry for men was also huge in the 80s with hip hop artists sporting diamond accessories to show their style, and fame, in a way that only the glitz of natural diamonds can illustrate.
Perez, 31, "has all the makings of a Hollywood heartthrob," says the NDC in its cover story. "He has "a solid work ethic, an undeniably magnetic charm and a passing resemblance to a young Cary Grant (so says his grandmother)."
Diamonds are sexy, rugged, masculine, and a symbol of hard work and achievement. Perez left his seven siblings behind in Chicago to study, juggle four jobs and break into Hollywood.
NDC is using his story to help rewrite the diamond narrative.
"Over the past few years, the natural diamond industry has seen an increase in the number of self-purchasing consumers," says Buckley Kayel.
"Men have been buying for themselves like never before and we believe this will continue to drive the industry into 2024.
"It has opened up more versatile and complementary expressions for men who typically have confined themselves to a watch and maybe a chain or bracelet.
"Today, there are no rules to diamond jewelry other than diamonds are the ultimate statement of one's unique style and milestones and this evidently resonates with male and female market equally."
Buckley Kayel has spoken previously about self-purchase. Diamonds were once a symbol of eternal love. They're now increasingly a sign of personal success.
"Male celebrities are donning diamonds on the red carpet," she says.
"Male athletes are always adorned, the music scene is dripping with diamonds, tennis bracelets worn with athleisure in the tech space, and so on."
The pendulum is swinging, but there's still a way to go. Men used to buy diamonds for women - and spend a month's salary on them.
Now men and women are both buying diamonds for themselves. But where are the women buying diamonds for men?
Have a fabulous weekend.