During the last 12 months, quiet luxury has been a buzzy trend in fashion due to HBO’s “Succession,” popping up on the runways and influencing shoppers to adopt understated, minimalist styles that exude a subtle opulence.

This trend has touched many facets of the style industry, including the bridal market and, more specifically, engagement rings, causing a shift in customer preferences that’s led to an increase in demand for minimal, yet eye-catching styles.

Quiet luxury is the “dominant” style in 2023, said Kristina Buckley Kayel, managing director and chief marketing officer on the Natural Diamond Council. “What’s signature to it’s being logo free, subtle, yet making an announcement in your style and your status, and diamond jewelry typically is central to that form of expression.”

“Diamond jewelry and natural diamonds themselves being a billion-year-old creation of nature and an increasingly rare one — that form of preciousness and understanding of its value is something that’s quite central to the expression of quiet luxury,” Buckley Kayel said. 

Quiet luxury’s impact on engagement rings has shown up in various ways amongst customer preferences. For one, the impact has put more emphasis on the ever-present “4 Cs” method: cut, color, clarity and carat. 

“There’s still reinforced attention on the standard of the diamond and its uniqueness,” Buckley Kayel continued. “There’s all the time the scale query on engagement rings, but I feel individuals are more into understanding what is exclusive to their style and the way the engagement ring matches their finger versus the scale.”

This has led to more emphasis on the ring’s center stone. Relatively than selecting rings with more ornamentation — like side stones, halos and other details — jewelers see customers gravitating toward solitaire diamond engagement rings, each in traditional cuts and more fanciful shapes.

On the more traditional side, many purchasers have leaned into an antique or vintage style. At Recent York City-based jeweler The Clear Cut, this implies an increase in diamond shapes like emeralds, ovals and cushion cuts, in addition to more unique styles like Asscher cuts. 

“Obviously, everyone wants a pleasant size engagement ring for on a regular basis wear, but plenty of feedback we’ve been getting is, ‘I don’t want something too gaudy. I need something timeless — something that may have inherent value,’” said The Clear Cut founder Olivia Landau. “An engagement ring is something that plenty of times is an heirloom. Sometimes you purchase it to pass down generation over generation.” 

For fanciful diamond shapes, Buckely Kayel stated the toi et moi style remains to be growing in popularity, with many purchasers pairing an heirloom stone with a latest diamond.

At Good Earth, oval and emerald-cut diamonds are joined by marquis and pear-shaped as popular options. Subtle details, comparable to a hidden halo, are also rising in popularity to offer classic styles some discreet sparkle. Yellow gold bands also reign over white metals, as yellow gold is usually the go-to metal when selecting a solitaire diamond ring. 

“In terms of engagement rings, it’s actually a unbelievable place to take into consideration something that has endurance and is a classic style that can remain elegant and relevant throughout one’s lifetime, even with changing trends and styles,” said Good Earth senior vice chairman of merchandise and retail expansion Kathryn Money. “Something that’s timeless will proceed to have appeal and when someone is buying their engagement ring, that’s often top of mind.” 

While natural diamonds inherently fit into the quiet luxury trend, lab-grown diamonds may also offer customers options, in keeping with jeweler Jean Dousset, because the stones have turn into more mainstream and adopted by customers and major brands. 

“People have been focusing just a little bit less on the general sparkle of the ring and just focusing just a little bit more on the middle stone and I feel that’s one among the explanations lab-grown [diamonds] could also be really helpful with that,” he explained. “For many of us, purchasing a diamond engagement ring before was expensive with natural diamonds. Natural diamonds forced you to either reduce the scale of your diamond or to make compromises on the standard. Nowadays with lab-grown diamonds, we see individuals are really capable of have the carat weight that you simply want.” 

Jewelers anticipate that interest in solitaire diamond rings will proceed as an extension of the quiet luxury trend. Also they are seeing a resurgence in white metals and thicker bands.

Whether natural or lab-grown diamond, the jewelers agree that the quiet luxury trend is about timelessness and playing into the wearer’s individuality.  

“In a world of plenty of sameness, there’s a chance to have something that’s really extraordinary, individual and private to you, but still holds incredible value in the long run,” Buckley Kayel said. “It’s a really emotional purchase. It’s an appreciation of beauty and it’s also one among financial value.”