On Tuesday, London-based lab-grown diamond model Astrea named Sarah Jessica Parker as its world artistic director. The “Sex and the City” star has additionally invested within the model.
In the function, Parker will work with Astrea’s design staff to create items for the model — the primary embrace a pair of chandelier earrings, a moi-and-toi ring that includes pear and emerald stones and an extended diamond necklace. She will function a joint spokesperson alongside Nathalie Morrison, Astrea’s founder and chief government. As a part of the partnership, Parker has additionally develop into a shareholder within the firm, holding an undisclosed stake.
In trend, Parker’s endorsement carries extra weight than the common celeb. Not solely does she have an extended historical past as a trend icon each on-screen and off, she additionally has hands-on expertise within the enterprise, working her SJP shoe line for over a decade earlier than shuttering it final 12 months. While numerous celebrities have endorsed mined diamonds or jewelry constituted of them, she’s one among comparatively few to lend their identify to lab-grown stones.
Parker instructed The Business of Fashion she was excited to come back on board with a model that’s nonetheless comparatively new to the market — the corporate solely simply launched in 2023 — so she could possibly be part of constructing the road from the bottom up.
“There’s a different feeling of investment when you feel like a partner,” stated Parker. “I don’t enter it casually, I ask as many questions as I can. I try to make really good choices about what I can actually offer or contribute.”
She’s hoping she may help in educating shoppers about lab-grown stones in the identical method Morrison, whom she first linked with after Morrison reached out to her agent, did for her. Before the 2 met, she was comparatively unfamiliar with lab-grown diamonds. A fast dialog, she stated, had her rethinking what she thought she knew in regards to the product.
“If you spend 30 minutes … a sort of cursory look at what the [lab-grown diamond] business is, it’s very exciting,” stated Parker, including that the chances with completely different colored and formed stones is a selected focal point for her.
Her buy-in will assist Astrea to face out in what’s changing into an more and more crowded market. The previous few years have seen numerous manufacturers get into lab-grown stones, from jewelry giants like Pandora to quickly-growing upstarts like Dorsey.
Besides its celeb companion, Astrea’s level of differentiation is its deal with producing solely top of the range diamonds, at high-level readability, distinctive cuts which might be troublesome to realize with mined stones and D and E-rated color, or the clearest on the diamond color ranking scale.
“Diamonds are not rare, however, very high end quality diamonds are,” stated Morrison.
By distinction, most lab-grown diamond jewelry manufacturers pitch shoppers on making the stones extra accessible to the common shopper. Astrea’s worth factors are excessive — a one carat diamond solitaire necklace from Astrea prices $3,299, in comparison with $1,850 for a similar dimension at Pandora.
Beyond the stones themselves, the partnership with Parker, Morrison stated, is a significant part of the model’s elevation technique. So is creating items that may be worn in a number of methods — a necklace that may be refashioned right into a pair of earrings as an illustration. Storytelling, too, will play a job in convincing shoppers that their merchandise are well worth the price ticket, explaining the manufacturing and manufacturing processes.
“We embrace the past, the beauty and the love behind the diamonds, but we now can do it in a scientific way, better quality, more traceable and better for our planet,” stated Morrison. “That’s the real message, beyond the business.”