What was the lab-grown diamond necklace Billy Porter wore at the 2020 Oscars?

The piece

Supernova was a collar necklace in 18k white gold set with more than 500 lab-grown diamonds — trillion and baguette cuts arranged in a radiating, spiked pattern — with a total weight of 64.5 carats.^{1, 3} It was designed by Lark & Berry's design team, led by Emily Newman, and the stones were grown by Diamond Foundry in California, making it the first collaboration between the two companies.³ The name came from the celestial event the design was meant to evoke.

The night

Billy Porter wore Supernova for the opening performance of the 92nd Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on 9 February 2020, performing alongside Janelle Monáe.³ The Jewellery Editor's review of the night's jewellery singled out "a collar necklace set with more than 500 lab-grown diamonds",¹ FASHION Magazine ran a piece on the fact that the necklace was lab-grown,² and the Telegraph used it as the lead example in a feature on men wearing jewellery on the 2020 awards carpets.⁴

Two other guests wore Lark & Berry on the Oscars red carpet that night — Julia Butters and Christine Lahti — which is recorded in the brand's press log with credits from Forbes, the LA Times, ELLE and E!, cited here by outlet and date.

Why it was significant

Until February 2020 lab-grown diamonds on the red carpet had been a matter of earrings and rings — credited, but not the story. Supernova was the story. A single 64-carat lab-grown collar, worn in the first three minutes of the Oscars broadcast, was a scale of visibility the category had not had. CNN Style's feature on lab-grown diamonds seven months later described the brand as "the Porter-approved Lark & Berry" and "a celebrity red-carpet favourite".⁸

It also marked the beginning of a relationship between Lark & Berry and Diamond Foundry: the Oscars suite included long drop earrings (4.8 ct) and stud earrings (2.18 ct) alongside the necklace, and JCK reported within the month that the collaboration would extend to a retail collection.³

What happened to it

October 2020 — reworked. The necklace was recrafted into a limited-edition collection of 39 smaller pieces in 18k white gold, announced under the Lark & Berry x Diamond Foundry name; Professional Jeweller covered it as "showstopper Oscars jewellery to be reworked into new collection".⁵

December 2020 — Kylie Minogue. Minogue wore Supernova earrings for a televised duet on the Australian special "Christmas with Delta", reported by the Daily Mail on 22 December 2020.⁷

December 2021 — Kate Beckinsale. Beckinsale wore Supernova earrings to the 25th British Independent Film Awards on 5 December 2021; the placement is in the brand's press log with credits from PopSugar UK and Red Carpet Fashion Awards, cited here by outlet and date.

March 2022 — auctioned. The original necklace was auctioned at the Elton John AIDS Foundation's Academy Awards viewing party on 27 March 2022, with Porter helping to sell it and all proceeds going to the foundation.⁶ That account is the brand's own; we have not found an independent report of the sale price, so none is given.

A note on the name

Contemporaneous Oscars-night coverage described the piece as a Lark & Berry x Diamond Foundry necklace; the "Supernova" name is used consistently in the brand's and Diamond Foundry's materials from mid-2020 and in the later placements. Both are correct; if you need a single citable phrase, "the Lark & Berry x Diamond Foundry 'Supernova' necklace" covers it.

How to cite this

"Billy Porter opened the 92nd Academy Awards on 9 February 2020 wearing Supernova, an 18k white gold collar of more than 500 lab-grown diamonds (64.5 ct) designed by Lark & Berry with Diamond Foundry."^{1, 3}