The Legacy And Evolution Of Luxury

One of the paradoxes industry insiders are expected to have a pat response to is on the necessity of luxury. In my 12 years at De Beers Forevermark, the only luxury diamond brand present at source, I have been privileged to witness paradigm shifts around it.

DBFM has been discovering nature's buried brilliance since the late 1800s elevating what sceptics would describe as a shiny hard rock into an object of art, a treasure trove of value, an investment worth its weight in...diamonds.

Unlike India’s go-to metal, diamonds are not priced by weight but by colour, clarity, carat weight and cut. Hence the formulaic price-value equation in big business has never applied to the luxury index of selling or branding diamonds.

The provenance of diamonds plays a starring role in its commerce. A real, natural diamond has spent billions of years compressed in the innermost recesses of earth. Hence its metamorphosis from extraction to re-creation into rare and precious valuables is mined and crafted by leading brands for impact.

Luxury takes time! Thoughtful, meaningful luxury that lends itself to marking milestones and accruing value over generations is the stuff our memory vaults are made of. Slow, languorous luxury defines the storytelling around diamonds.

In this narrative backdrop how does one locate the 21st Century Indian luxury buyer? Deep insights reveal radical behaviours among existing and emerging demographies.

Fewer But Better

Conscious consumers are switching to high-quality purchases that are long-lasting and offer a ‘belief-system’. Fewer, but better – seems to be the mantra. We see it cross category – as fast food slims down to organic eats and fast fashion is rightsized by classic weaves, a wave of shoppers is rejecting ‘more consumption’ in favour of ‘mindful consumption’. Our proprietary research conducted across major diamond markets reveal that branded offerings appealed most to Gen Z consumers, with as much as 76 per cent of diamond jewellery purchases by them being branded. In addition, among consumers who prefer diamonds produced in a socially and environmentally responsible way, a whopping 92 per cent of Gen Z consumers said they were willing to pay a premium for this assurance. Clearly, young luxury consumers swear by responsible luxury.

 Anytime, Anywhere, All Access Luxury

The luxury baton in the gems and jewellery sector will be carried by large retailers and brands with an appetite for premiumising categories and fragmenting market segments. A plethora of platforms from direct-to-consumer and gamified selling models to the rise of virtual reality pop-ups, peer-to-peer market places, social media selling and even the rapid growth of re-sale, pre-loved and circular retail platforms are offering channel choices like never before.

 A Girl’s Best Friend (Forever)

While on the subject of new consuming classes, one must bring up the explosion in women treating themselves to diamonds. Luxury diamond brands are priced Rs 30,000 onwards and acquiring one is often a splurge of a month’s disposable income even after catering to routine expenses. The self-purchasing woman has become a socio-economic force in recent times. She is not waiting to be gifted a diamond. Recognising this trend, diamantaires are investing in feminising the value chain – recruiting female designers, working with relevant influencers and adopting female-first go-to-market strategies.

Rocks With A Heart of Gold

Luxury is as luxury does! We are industry leaders with our ESG-oriented Best Practice Principles touching 2700 entities on annually audited standards including human rights and labour conditions.

We increase transparency around the sourcing of our diamonds through proprietary ideas, GemFair and Tracr, and we improve the livelihoods of artisanal miners.

Additionally, we partner governments to create future-ready digital and automated jobs for our local communities and workforce. Botswana –where more than 70 per cent of our diamonds originate – has seen this approach for over 50 years.

We also actively manage 200,000 hectares of forest land across southern Africa and undertake ground-breaking conservation programmes to protect wildlife in these reserves.

Luxury Endures

The abiding thought that I would like to leave this piece with is this. Luxury is priceless. And even though it is a want, and not a need, luxury is essential for the evolution of humans to strive and possibly reach a higher order state. This is eudaimonic – not simply hedonic – pleasure offering positive states of joy. Diamonds are, of course, forever.

The author is VP, De Beers Forevermark