Old Diamond Cut Enjoying New Demand

At Greenwich Jewelers in New York City, the current diamond cut of choice among the many well-heeled professionals who choose the 33-year-old lower Manhattan haunt for their engagement ring shopping might surprise: It's the cushion.

Cushion Cut:
But don't just take the word of the owners, Jennifer Gandia and her sister, Christina Gandia Gambale. Just take a glance at Gambale's ring finger and see which diamond cut the young retailer herself chose when it came time for her to say "I do."

"Out of the fancy shapes, cushions are definitely our top fancy shape," Gandia says, noting that at Greenwich, cushion cuts have pulled ahead of princesses in popularity.

In terms of engagement rings, the only cut of diamond the jeweler sells more of is the ever-popular round.

"I think it's New York," Gandia says, when asked why the cushion is such a hot item in her store. She points out that the city's women are exposed to a lot of advertising and, thanks to New York City's position as one of the world's fashion hubs, they also get a first-hand look at the emerging trends that all the big brands are embracing.

To wit: Just last week, at its New York City flagship on Madison Avenue, David Yurman unveiled its bridal collection, and "The David Yurman Signature Cut Diamond," which is trademarked, was none other than a modified cushion.

So should retailers all over the country expect consumers to start pouring into their stores in droves, demanding cushion cuts? Not so fast: Statistics provided by gemological laboratories show that rounds still rule the diamond market, and that the most popular fancy shape remains the princess.

But that doesn't mean the cushion--a cut that dates to the 1800s and derived its shape from the fact that back then, cutters were not capable of making a perfectly round stone--isn't growing as a category.

Still going round

Ask any of the grading labs for their statistics on cut, and the data will show the same thing across the board: Round diamonds still rule the day, followed by the ubiquitous princess cut.

At the International Gemological Institute (IGI) in New York, IGI USA President Jerry Ehrenwald compares percentage of rounds, princesses and cushions submitted to both the IGI's appraisal division, where stones are evaluated for insurance purposes, and the institute division, which grades stones.

In the appraisal division, the breakdown is about 52 percent round, 47 percent princess and 1 percent cushion, while in the institute division, it's 55 percent round, 35 percent princess and 10 percent cushion.

"Rounds are first and foremost," Ehrenwald says, adding that princess cuts trail at No. 2.

But ask lab directors and New York diamond dealers alike what fancy shape is making a move in the diamond world, and they will confess it's the cushion.

At the American Gem Society Laboratory, Director Peter Yantzer noticed a very slight uptick in cushion activity, increasing 0.8 percent in 2009 over 2008.

"It's not a big increase," he says. "We see far, far more princesses than cushions in our lab."

At IGI, Ehrenwald has seen the amount of cushion-cut stones that trickle through his appraisal division double between 2008 and 2009, and triple in the institute division.

And at another New York lab, EGL USA, Director Mitchell Jakubovic says his larger customers, meaning larger chains that do more mass merchandising, are sticking with rounds and princess-cut stones.

But there is a groundswell of grassroots-desire for the cushion among those willing to depart from the norm.

"For the specialty cuts, we're seeing the cushion has grown in popularity, and we have seen that over the past year and a half. We've really seen a lot more cushions that have come in," Jakubovic says.

Diamond dealers who earn their keep trading stones in New York City's Diamond District also note the cushion craze.

Nicky Mehta of Diamond Days and Ronnie VanderLinden, president of Diamex Inc., both chalk up the trend to today's consumers craving something new.

"I believe they [consumers] want to go with something different besides princess cuts," Mehta says. "They want to have some uniqueness in their center stones."

Jonathan Birnbach, president of New York manufacturer J. Birnbach, pins the increased interest in the cushion on celebrity style.

"A lot of it has to do with Hollywood," Birnbach says. "Celebrities have been embracing the cushions and the Asschers for the last couple years."

Though the cushion cut dates back more than 100 years, these stones are finding their way onto the fingers of young and hot Hollywood starlets who just hit the quarter-century mark.

Canadian crooner Avril Lavigne, 25, received a cushion-cut engagement ring from her husband, Sum 41 lead singer Deryck Whibley, and singer-actress Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, 25, sports one courtesy of her husband, musician Pete Wentz.

Then there is 21-year-old teen heartthrob Kevin Jonas: When the Jonas Brothers member popped the question to bride-to-be Danielle Delesea, he did so with a cushion-cut engagement ring.

But it's not just young Hollywood that's reviving this old cut.

At this year's Golden Globe Awards, actresses Elizabeth Banks, Mary-Louise Parker of Weeds and Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon all donned cushion-cut diamonds.

Recession special?

While Hollywood is known for starting trends that sweep the nation, there could be another explanation behind the rising popularity of this classic cut: cost.

Ehrenwald points out that one factor working in the cushion cut's favor, besides celebrity status, is that cushion-cut diamonds yield more from rough than a round brilliant, allowing manufacturers to price them slightly lower and pass those savings along to the consumer.

A simple search using Blue Nile's "Search for Diamonds" feature shows this to be true.

A 1.04-carat, VS2, E-color cushion-cut diamond sells for $4,474 on the site, while a round stone with the same characteristics is priced at $6,483, almost exactly $2,000 more.

But Jack Reiss, president and owner of Jack Reiss LLC, refuses to believe that the popularity of the cushion cut has to do with anything but the simple beauty of this classic stone, pointing out that all fancy shapes are less expensive than their round counterpart.

"I wouldn't say that [price] is the popularity of the cushion cut because then why not the pear shape? Why not the oval? It is the beauty of the diamond," Reiss says.

Seeing the need to differentiate itself, Jack Reiss, a New York-based diamond manufacturer, has made cushion cuts its business over the last four years and has seen that business take off, he says.

Cushions now account for 70 percent of the company's business, up from 10 percent to 20 percent five years ago.

Just recently, the company launched a retailer-focused Web site, ReissCushionCut.com, aimed at educating store owners about the cut and branding themselves as the cushion-cut authority.

"People really, really like these cuts," Reiss says. "And I've been able to keep my factory busy in these difficult times so there's got to be something to it."

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