Page 79 - Sharp Spring 2021

of a marriage or [remember] a special point in your life,” says LeVian. “That’s why people use diamonds to commemorate those kinds of things. If you want to commemorate it with something man-made, then you’re losing the luxury component.”
Ebrani, on the other hand, thinks there should be room for both types of products. “A rare natural diamond is definitely an investment, but you shouldn’t look at it as that. You should buy natural or lab-grown diamonds because they’re sentimental and people love jewellery,” he says, mentioning the various natural diamond corporations that have launched their own separate synthetic lines in recent years (including De Beers and James Allen, among others).
The technological strides involved in the production of lab-grown diamonds can’t be discounted, as they clearly demonstrate what the human mind can create. “I could have used a 20- or 30-carat diamond [on the jacket], but I didn’t,” says Nguyen of his gift for Drake. “I made an owl entirely of diamonds, in a way, merging the old and the new. And that’s the idea behind lab-grown [jewels]: they’re the 2021 version of a diamond.”
In general, computer-catalyzed inventions have been disrupting all sorts of industries, including fashion, healthcare, and publishing. But there’s something that feels slightly different when it comes to lab-grown diamonds. That a gem’s rarity should solely dictate its value is at risk of becoming outdated — and it’s precisely that idea that the synthetic diamond industry is trying to turn on its head. And clearly, people are listening: if the two products are almost impossible to distinguish, does it really matter where a diamond comes from? If investing in the gem for personal reasons, and not to eventually resell it to try and make a profit, wouldn’t it be preferable to spend a more manageable and accessible amount of cash on it?
Perhaps, in the not-so-distant future, an amalgamation of the two products could portent the arrival of an entirely new industry merging two trains of thought. Another possibility? Earth-mined diamond purveyors will step into the lab-grown game, selling either concept to interested consumers and creating an even larger empire of diamonds in the process.
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