Diamond Foundry did something no grower had done before: instead of selling rough to the trade and hoping it ended up somewhere nice, it went directly to designers with names and put its diamonds in their work. Between 2016 and 2018 that produced a string of capsules that brought lab-grown into department stores and design-led retail for the first time. Whether they "count" as lab-grown brands is the more interesting question, and the answer is no.
The grower, November 2015
Diamond Foundry launched publicly on 11 November 2015. Founded in 2012 by Martin Roscheisen and Jeremy Scholz, veterans of the solar firm Nanosolar, it used a plasma-reactor variant of CVD to grow stones it positioned as premium rather than cheap, in GHI colour and VS-or-better clarity at one to two carats polished. Leonardo DiCaprio was among the investors, which gave the company an immediate consumer profile 1. It sold "through designer marketplace and traditional wholesale channels" from day one; the designer channel is what this page is about.
Barneys New York, 25 October 2016
The first capsule that the fashion press noticed went on sale at select Barneys New York stores and online on 25 October 2016. Three designers took part: CVC Stones, Eva Fehren and Nak Armstrong. There were 19 SKUs, pendants, bracelets, earrings and home objects, priced from US$675 to US$18,800 2.
Two things about it are worth recording. First, Barneys marketed the stones as "cultivated", a term the FTC had not approved, and JCK reported the Jewelers Vigilance Committee questioning whether it complied with guidance. Diamond Foundry's response was that "our diamonds being man-made is the whole point of our marketing, which we are very clear about" 2. Second, none of the three designers changed their business. Fehren and Armstrong remained primarily mined-diamond designers. The capsule placed lab-grown in a luxury department store; it did not create a lab-grown brand.
Atelier Swarovski at the Oscars, February 2017
A parallel track ran through Swarovski, which had its own created-diamond capability. At the 89th Academy Awards on 26 February 2017, pieces from the new Atelier Swarovski Fine Jewelry collection, described as set with lab-created diamonds with "the same optical, chemical, and physical attributes as mined diamonds", were worn by Emma Roberts and Priyanka Bose as part of the Red Carpet Green Dress initiative. Retail pieces were promised for 2018 4. This is the earliest sourced appearance of created diamonds on a major awards red carpet that this record has found, and it predates any brand launched in 2018. It was a corporate sub-line of a crystal company, not a founded-on-lab-grown jeweller.
Twist, May 2017: the bridal edit
In May 2017 Twist, the Portland and Seattle retailer, launched 13 lab-grown engagement-ring styles with Diamond Foundry stones, designed by Alex Sepkus, Anna Sheffield, Rebecca Overmann, Single Stone and Todd Pownell, priced between US$6,038 and US$15,345. Owner Paul Schneider called lab-grown "inevitable" and said he would describe them plainly as lab-grown because "that's what they are, man-made" 3. Again, these were existing designers adding a lab-grown option through a retailer; none converted.
Jennifer Fisher, June 2018
The last capsule before the 2018 brand launches was Jennifer Fisher's, announced in late June 2018: eight single 18k gold studs in trillion, emerald and keystone cuts, sold individually from US$900 to US$2,875, initially on her own site. Fisher said customers had been asking about diamond origins and wanted assurance "no one was harmed" 5. By then Lark & Berry had launched at Cannes and De Beers had announced Lightbox; the capsule model was being overtaken by brands built on the category from the ground up.
How Diamond Foundry chose partners
In October 2018 JCK asked Diamond Foundry how it picked collaborators. Its PR director said the company looked for "female entrepreneurs who were creating some incredible collections" with a sustainability focus, that relationships were often organic, and that "we let them take the reins". The partner list by then included Eva Fehren, Nak Armstrong, CVC Stones, Jennifer Fisher, Grace Lee, Shahla Karimi, Pamela Love, Pili Restrepo and the AU Showroom group 6.
Did they count as lab-grown brands?
| Partner | Date | Format | Did the designer go lab-grown only? |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVC Stones, Eva Fehren, Nak Armstrong (Barneys) | Oct 2016 | Retail capsule, 19 SKUs | No |
| Atelier Swarovski (own stones) | Feb 2017 | Corporate sub-line, red carpet | Sub-line only |
| Sepkus, Sheffield, Overmann, Single Stone, Pownell (Twist) | May 2017 | Bridal edit, 13 styles | No |
| Jennifer Fisher | Jun 2018 | Eight studs | No |
A capsule is a collaboration between a grower and a designer who otherwise works in mined stones. It proves the stones can sit in good design; it does not create a brand whose identity is the stone. The one case where Diamond Foundry did create such a brand was by acquisition: it bought Vrai & Oro in November 2016 and converted the whole range 7. That story has its own page. The first brands founded on lab-grown in the designer and luxury space arrived in 2018.