We haven’t even reached the middle of January, yet we have already seen 3 pretty high profile engagements be announced! Megan Fox with Machine Gun Kelly, Simon Cowell with Lauren Silverman, and Maya Jama with her new American beau Ben Simmons.
With new hope for life returning to some kind of normality after the pandemic (can you believe it’s already two years since it began!), could 2022 be the year that people take back control of their life, travel to the places they’ve dreamt about, and get engaged to the love of their life? We certainly think so!
But, as with any kind of fashion, what are the trends going to be for this year?
Now, we sell jewellery, we’re not psychics! But we’ve seen spending habits and styles change over the last year to the point we think we have a pretty good idea.
Before we go any further we just want to point out that trends are trends, they go out of fashion as quickly as they come in. Suddenly what used to be a craze is ‘so last year’. Engagement rings, on the other hand (specifically the left), are bought to last a lifetime.
Rather than going off what everyone else seems to be buying, there are a number of things to consider before you purchase. What are your partners likes and dislikes? What is their job? Do they perform brain surgery everyday or do they sit behind a desk all day? Do they love being outdoors in the sea and gardening or tucked up at home in front of the TV? Do they like to stand out from the crowd with quirky colourful outfits? These are all but a few factors that need to be considered before the investment is made.
Okay, let’s get into them!
Oval engagement rings will continue to rise in popularity. Whilst for some jewellers round cut diamonds are still the most requested shape, we’ve seen a real shift in the love for oval cut stones.
Engagement Ring Trends For 2022 | Ethica Diamonds | Cornwall UK
Bigger IS better. The interest for larger carat jewellery has gone through the roof. This could be down to the influences celebrities seem to hold over many of us or it could just be the fact that for some, being stuck in for the past 18 months or so has enabled them to save up more money.
Engagement Ring Trends For 2022 | Ethica Diamonds | Cornwall UK
Parlez Vous Francais? Yeah, us neither. Toi et Moi rings are making a comeback. With possibly the most romantic name for a ring style, Toi et Moi translates to ‘You and Me’ and dates back to the Edwardian and Belle Époque era. The style became particularly famous in 1796, when Napoleon Bonaparte proposed to Josephine de Beauharnais with one.
Whilst hers and many other traditional toi et moi rings featured two different stones cut in the same size and shape, nowadays many jewellery designers (and celebrities) are taking the style one step further by experimenting with different cuts, colours and sizes.
Just this week Machine Gun Kelly proposed to Megan Fox with a Toi et Moi ring designed by British jeweller, Stephen Webster.
The ring features an Emerald (her birthstone) and a Diamond (his birthstone) ‘set on two magnetic bands of thorns that draw together as two halves of the same soul’.
Engagement Ring Trends For 2022 | Ethica Diamonds | Cornwall UK
Lab-Grown Stones are beginning to make a name for themselves. It doesn’t matter what you are purchasing, whether it’s clothing or food, sustainability and having an earth conscious mindset seems to be at the forefront of everybody’s minds. According to Shelley Brown from The Knot, one in four engagement rings purchased in 2021 featured a man-made stone.
Man-made stones are laboratory grown gemstones or diamonds which are grown under strict conditions mimicking natural growing conditions. Luckily for you, if lab-grown stones are what you are after then you’ve arrived at the right place!
Here at Ethica, we specialise in two different stones. Our original stone, the Ethica Diamond, is a man-made gemstone (similar to Moissanite) but with a diamond carbon coating. This is a lot more budget friendly whilst retaining the brilliant sparkle that you would find with a normal diamond.
The other stones we offer are lab-grown diamonds. We have two suppliers of these, both creating the most beautiful looking diamonds but without the environmental and humanitarian damage that comes from mined diamonds. Diamond Foundry, one of our suppliers, has taken it one step further and is currently the only diamond grower in the world to offer carbon neutral lab-grown diamonds grown using 100% hydropower from Washington’s Columbia River.
Engagement Ring Trends For 2022 | Ethica Diamonds | Cornwall UK
The final trend that seems to be growing in popularity is coloured stones. Here at Ethica we’ve seen a real rise in the amount of requests for jewellery set with a variety of different coloured stones. Whilst Sapphire seems to have become the most popular, we have been lucky enough to see some beautiful fancy pink and ruby stones as well as a stunning fancy yellow stone which got set into a bespoke piece.
Engagement Ring Trends For 2022 | Ethica Diamonds | Cornwall UK
So there we go, that’s our trend predictions for 2022! As we said at the start, there’s a lot more to consider when purchasing an engagement ring than what’s on trend and the most important thing to consider is the ring that is going to be best for your partner. However, its always fun to see what’s going on in the engagement ring world and by looking through what’s trending, you might just find a style you hadn’t even considered!
