‘Some consumers won’t see lab-grown diamonds as real diamonds, and they may not feel like it holds the same prestige as ordinary diamonds.’ explained Matilde Mourinho Felix, founder of newly launched lab-grown diamond jewellery label, Matilde. Felix also believes that the reasons that some leading jewellery brands haven’t tapped into the lab-grown diamond business is because they are traditionalist or because they may fear alienating their core consumers. However, demand is growing exponentially.
“Although the shift towards demand for a more ethical, sustainable and affordable offering of diamonds has been gradual, for me 2019 felt like a pivoting point.” says Mourinho Felix. “Forbes has reported that in 2019, demand for lab-grown diamonds had increased by 20%, while the rough diamond market suffered a 25% decline in sales.”
Felix built her brand based on her love for jewellery, but the more research she did, the more she realised how little she knew about the origins of the most sentimental pieces that she already owned. During her market research she found that shopping priorities of consumers had changed and is changing with ‘sustainability and transparency becoming very much a priority’.
When building her own brand ‘Matilde’, Felix also took into consideration that her peers and younger customers whom may share the same passion for diamonds, won’t necessarily have the same disposable income and are often aspirational consumers.
“I really wanted to create a brand that allowed consumers from all economic demographics to be able to have the option to make conscious sustainable choices, with the best quality materials, same prestige, without breaking the bank.” That is one of the benefits of this offering. Costs for developing lab-grown diamonds make them much cheaper, but also likely due to the historical lack of awareness and subsequent demand.
As the popularity of lab-grown diamonds begins to gather pace, we also caught up with the girls behind Kimaï - a luxury ethical jewellery brand specialising in lab-grown diamonds - to discover some more truths about the phenomenon, and why their family backgrounds in natural diamonds encouraged them to make the move to lab-grown…
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