At the Bezos-Sánchez nuptials, Kim Kardashian — poured into a body-skimming, sparkling brown négligée-style gown — dazzled under the Venetian sun in more than 340 carats of diamonds from London-based jeweler Moussaieff. The pieces commanded attention not only for their size, but also for their color, ranging from icy white stones to the warmer shades of champagne, cognac and chocolate.
Kardashian’s choice captures a shift that has been building over the past five years, as both designers and consumers embrace diamond colors that were once rarely set. Perhaps, unwittingly, Kardashian also provided the perfect prelude to De Beers’s new Desert Diamonds campaign, first announced by CEO Al Cook in June in Las Vegas and launched publicly at Frieze in London in October.
This campaign matters, not only for De Beers Group, which controls a third of the global diamond output, but for the industry as a whole. It is De Beers’s largest global activation since A Diamond Is Forever in 1947, and marks a striking departure from previous messages. After decades spent educating consumers on the four Cs — carat, clarity, color and cut — the company is now inviting them to look beyond perfection and appreciate nature’s variations.
The campaign arrives at a critical moment, as the industry faces both a decline in output — diamonds are a finite resource after all, and mines are depleting — as well as mounting pressure from laboratory-grown diamonds, whose proliferation threatens not only pricing but the desirability of natural stones.
“We have seen a clear trend emerging for consumer interest in — and desire for — greater uniqueness; diamonds in different hues and colors,” says De Beers general manager Lynn Serfaty, suggesting the campaign amplifies this consumer interest. “Diamond colors — from whites to champagne through to deeper honey and amber tones — are already capturing cultural imagination, including via celebrity engagement rings and red carpet moments. Taylor Swift’s engagement ring is a warm white, very much a desert diamond.” The hope is to “reawaken consumers’ curiosity and galvanise the trade, allowing them to tell incredible new stories through jewelry design”, Serfaty adds.
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Interest in unusual diamond hues is not limited to A-list stars. London-based Brazilian jeweler Fernando Jorge notes that experiments with wood and textured metals, which pair naturally with warm-toned diamonds, have helped consumers embrace them.
“We’ve seen real excitement from consumers around naturally colored diamonds, especially the warm champagne and brown tones, which evoke the spectrum of colors in a desert landscape. People love the uniqueness,” says head of UK at the Natural Diamond Council (NDC) Lisa Levinson. According to the NDC’s latest trend report, the appetite for a more varied color spectrum often reflects “a desire for larger stones”, with consumers increasingly willing to compromise slightly on clarity.
Desert-hued diamonds are also more affordable than white diamonds in colour D, the purest grade. “Many clients are taking a more pragmatic approach or have a fixed budget, and therefore there is an opportunity to play with color, purity and carat size to find the ideal diamond,” says Satta Matturi, founder of Matturi Fine Jewelry.
London-based jeweler Cora Sheibani attributes shifting consumer sentiment to the fact that pure stones, “besides being extremely rare, can sometimes lack personality”. The growing acceptance of varied colors is also linked to rising interest in vintage stones from the secondary market. “When we talk about antique diamonds, clients are beginning to understand that old diamonds don’t come with a lot of options,” says Krishna Choudhary, founder of Santi Jewels, which specializes in antique diamonds, often from the legendary, now-extinct Golconda mine in India. “But even for newer diamonds, clients are moving away from the idea of having the perfect diamond with the best color and clarity. They would rather have something that has character.”
A response to lab-grown diamonds?
Beyond design experimentation and shifting consumer tastes, there are strategic considerations at play. Natural diamonds are a finite resource, and global production is declining. According to a 2024 joint report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and De Beers Group, the primary natural diamond supply is projected to shrink by “approximately 1% over the next 10 years”, while demand is expected to grow only “in the range of 2% to 4%” in wholesale value for cut and polished stones between 2023 and 2033.
This tightening supply colliding with rising demand suggests the Desert Diamonds campaign aims at satisfying customers by offering a wider aesthetic palette. Brazilian jeweler Ara Vartanian, an early champion of black, grey and brown diamonds, also sees an opportunity to unlock value and move existing stock. “Evocative labels such as ‘galaxy diamonds’ or ‘fancy white diamonds’ improve the perception around stones that were once worth a modest amount, and gem dealers can transform their inventory overnight,” Vartanian says.
Many industry insiders see the campaign as a timely and necessary response to the proliferation of perfectly flawless lab-grown diamonds. According to a study by Tenoris, Madestones and Bernstein, sales of loose lab-grown diamonds in the US rose from 20% to more than 50% between January 2021 and September 2023, overtaking natural diamonds, whose share fell from 80% to below 50%.
“Undeniably, lab-grown diamonds, which have flooded the market, have altered the perception of perfection. Paradoxically, this abundance has made natural uniqueness more precious,” says Asprey chair John Rigas.
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Although lab-grown diamonds have cannibalized natural stones to some extent — De Beers estimates that US demand for natural diamonds slipped from $44 billion in 2018 to $43 billion in 2023, with $7 billion displaced by lab-grown stones and another $6 billion spent on lab-grown diamonds as a separate category — their rapidly falling prices are now curbing further cannibalization. A McKinsey study published in November 2024 notes that lab-grown diamonds sold at a 20% discount to natural stones in 2018; by 2024, the discount had widened to 80%, and insiders estimate that this year the discount reached 90%.
“I have analyzed the mainstream emergence of lab-grown diamonds very closely, and it’s all about price,” says independent diamond analyst Paul Zimnisky. “Demand for lab-grown diamonds increases as their prices go down. When lab diamonds were priced in line with natural diamonds 15 years ago, there was almost no interest.”
Zimnisky points out that “a big part of the appeal of fine jewelry is the value and rarity; once you can have as much as you want, part of the desire goes away.”
For this reason, Zimnisky welcomes De Beers’s renewed marketing effort and the launch of A Diamond Is Forever media platform as essential for the health of the sector. “Historically, the industry has had success when it properly markets its product,” he says. “Diamonds are an emotional product for most people, so marketing and effective communication are essential, it always has been.”
