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Industry
The Rise of Fancies
While rounds remain the most popular shape, fancies are gaining more attention.
By Brian Bossetta
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But their practical appeal also plays a role in the market’s increasing interest in fancy shapes. The fact is that on a per-carat basis, fancy shapes are less expensive — and more affordable — than round diamonds. In the process of fashioning a round, more of the diamond — 48 percent to 52 percent — is cut away, whereas in cutting a fancy, more of the rough is retained. Mehul Shah, owner of Shivani Gems, a diamond manufacturer and wholesaler in New York City, explains the same piece of rough that could produce a 40-pointer polished round could produce a 49-pointer oval, a shape, Shah notes, that has become his most popular fancy within the past year or so. Generally, rounds are 20 percent to 30 percent more expensive than fancies. For example, a 1-carat VS round that Shah says he prices at $6,500 sells for $5,000 in an oval of comparable size and clarity. Klugman says a 1-carat VS2 round that lists for $5,600 goes for $3,500 in an emerald shape in the same clarity and weight.
In 2012, the launch of the Neil Lane Designs® collections from Kay Jewelers, which uses “a lot of different fancies” in its pieces, was a major catalyst, according to Shah, in strengthening the fancy market. “Before then, the fancy market was steady,” he says. “Now, it’s very strong.” Selling fancy shapes as the center stone is a growing trend in the bridal sector. “We see more and more jewelry manufacturers, and us as well, making bridal collections with fancy shapes,” says Dotan Siman-Tov, managing director of Lili Diamonds, a diamond wholesaler and manufacturer based in New York City. Celebrity engagement rings, such as Lady Gaga’s heart-shaped diamond and Mila Kunis’ emerald-cut diamond, have also contributed to the rising trend of fancy shapes in the bridal sector, according to Shah. “They help bring attention to fancies,” he says. Some retailers are showcasing the fancy trend, according to David Hamou, vice president of Ovadia Diamonds U.S.A. Inc., a diamond wholesaler and manufacturer in New York City, “by extending their collections to more vintage/nontraditional designs and advertising more fancy shapes in jewelry.”
The fancy market is cyclical and the popularity of specific shapes ebbs and flows. Siman-Tov, noting that his company has fancy clients all around the world, says, “The most popular current fancy shape is the cushion. It’s not a traditional look. I assume it’s because it is the fancy shape that is closest to the round shape but much cheaper in price.” Ovals have caught on recently for Hamou, who says that demand for ovals above 2 carats has been exceptionally strong. Because ovals and cushions are cut from the same rough, and because demand for cushions is greater, there are fewer ovals being manufactured and their scarcity, he explains, makes them more attractive. “When you get a nice oval in a larger size, it’s easy to sell because there are so few of them,” Hamou says. A modified brilliant cut similar to the round, the oval is a great option for someone who wants something that’s distinctive without straying too far from the look of the round. The unique trait of the oval is that because of its elongated shape, the stone often appears larger than its actual carat size. Though personal tastes vary, the classic oval length-to-width ratio range is 1.35 to 1.50. Demand for pear shapes under 1 carat, Hamou adds, has also strengthened, though he says that pears are seldom used as center stones and are most often crafted into necklaces and earrings. The pear, another modified brilliant cut, merges the shape of the round with the marquise. Symmetry is an important factor in the pear with an ideal length-to-width ratio range of 1.40 to 1.70. The point of the pear should be directly in line with the highest point of the stone’s rounded top, which should form more of a semicircle than a narrow curve. Another popular fancy is the princess shape, which had been Klugman’s best-selling fancy. “Princess was the hottest a few years ago, then it became the cushion,” he says, noting that princesses, especially in 4-grainers, are still in high demand. Chris Detel, officer manager at Pristine Gems, a supplier of fancy shapes based in New York, says G to I princesses in VS and SI are his best-selling shape. The most attractive attribute of the princess, Detel says, “is the unique look,” with its faceting patterns similar to the round highlighting the brilliance of the diamond. Symmetry is also an important element of the princess, which should appear as a perfect square with no chips on the corners. Chips that sometimes occur during the setting of the stone can be hidden from view by the prongs. Chipping on the corners is only a concern if it is significant enough to affect the stability of the stone once it is set in the prongs. Radiant shapes have also risen in popularity, Klugman says, but only in 2 carats to 3 carats, with the bulk of radiant demand in bridal. The radiant and the cushion both come from the same type of rough and both have brilliant faceting, though the cushion is four-sided with curved lines and the radiant octagonal with lines that are straighter. “Radiants are a very specific item,” Hamou says. “They are more of a special cut and I don’t get requests for them too often. They don’t sell quickly.” Klugman says that the elegant emerald has caught fire recently, supplanting cushions as his hottest fancy. “Emeralds provide a classy look,” he says, adding that emeralds between 2 carats and 3 carats are the most popular sizes in the shape. Like cushions, emeralds project a vintage style. With their elongated step cuts that highlight the stone’s clarity, Klugman says they are mostly used as center stones in engagement rings and are cut from the same type of eight-sided rough as cushions. In picking out emerald shapes, Klugman says it is the length-to-width ratio that is the key factor. So in a 1-carat emerald shape, the ratio should be 3 to 1 — the length being three times the width. Emeralds, like other step cuts, do not reflect the sparkle of the diamond to the degree of other shapes, such as cushions and radiants. However, they do — because of their large, open facets — highlight clarity, so inclusions are often more visible, which is why most emeralds are of higher clarity grades. “If an emerald is not made well and is very flat with no depth, it will look like a piece of glass and will have no brilliance to it,” Klugman adds. The fiery flashes of the emerald shape enhance the elegance of the shape. When searching for fine fancies, Shah looks for stones that have “a lot of life in them. They shouldn’t look dead or gray.” Shah keeps an eye out for the “bow-tie effect,” a bow-tie-shaped shadow that often appears in oval, pear and marquise shapes. The bow tie, which can be seen with the naked eye in the center of the stone, blocks the radiance and shine of the diamond and diminishes the gem’s overall beauty. The better the quality of the stone, the less noticeable the bow-tie shadow. The marquise, which requires a very long piece of rough, is closest in price to the round, running only about 7 percent less than a comparable round shape. This is the main reason why, according to Klugman, the marquise is “dead as a doorknob.” The same type of rough needed to shape a marquise can be used instead to produce an oval or other shapes that are more marketable. “So the demand for the marquise kept going down and it never came back,” Klugman says. “For every 100 fancy shapes cut, there’s about one marquise.” Detel disagrees, insisting the marquise is not so dead, especially in smaller stones “under a carat” because they are often used as side stones to accentuate either a round or a fancy set as the center diamond. Hamou says, “Smaller marquises work well for necklaces and earrings, but not so much for center stones and in bridal.” Shaped like a football, the marquise, similar to the oval, produces the impression of being larger than its actual size and has one of the largest crown surfaces of any shape. Demand for the heart shape, popular in the 1980s and ’90s, is also lessening, Telonis points out, partly due to the fact that it is more labor-intensive and complicated to cut. The heart shape also requires a certain type of flattened, triangular rough. Both sides of the heart need to be identical and a plump heart with rounded shoulders is considered more desirable. Cutting rounds requires less skill than cutting fancies, which are more detailed in their shapes, according to Saul Goldberg, president of William Goldberg Diamond Corporation, a diamond wholesaler and purveyor of fine diamonds in New York City. “You really have to have more of an eye when cutting fancies because, depending on the shape, the proportions can be way off and nobody is going to want to buy it, such as a pear that’s too skinny or an oval that’s too fat,” he says. The relative simplicity of cutting rounds, he says, is also enhanced today by computer technology that makes shaping rounds “pretty much ABC.”
It’s not just the cutter that determines the final shape of the diamond. The shape of the rough often dictates the shape of the polished. Though the same rough can potentially be used to make either a round or fancy, Shah says it depends on the size and shape of the individual rough stone. For instance, perfectly symmetrical octahedral, or eight-sided, crystals lend themselves to cutting cushion, princess, radiant and emerald shapes. The fact that there is more loss of rough weight in cutting certain shapes is a consideration as to which shape to cut. But so is consumer demand. And demand for rounds remains the highest of all shapes, which accounts for their dominance of the diamond market. When there are options, it is tempting to select the shape that is in highest demand and that will sell most easily. There is also the appeal of the shape itself. A round cut reflects the intensity of the diamond’s brilliance more than any other shape. Essentially, there are two types of rough diamonds: makeables and sawables. Makeables are whole stones that can be fashioned into a polished diamond without the cutter having to saw, or split, the rough stone. Sawables are rough stones that will produce more yield — two polished diamonds — if the stone is cut, or sawed, in half. According to Howard Davies, head of commercial development for De Beers, the supply of makeables is greater than the supply of sawables, though quantifying the supply ratio is hard to calculate. However, Davies says, “The relative rarity of sawables tends to increase as the average size of the goods increases.” This is why, as a general rule of thumb, sawable rough is more valuable than makeable. But the price, Davies notes, is “determined by the percentage of polished that can be recovered from the rough and the size breaks that this can allow the diamantaire to achieve.” Illustrating his point, Davies says that a 10-carat sawable crystal will likely yield a 7-carat polished stone from which the diamantaire will cut a 5-carat fancy as the major stone and a secondary stone with the remaining 2 carats. “Ultimately, it’s the final yield, and the value of that polished that is produced, that will inform the value of the rough,” Davies says. Other factors, he adds, mainly what shape will allow a manufacturer to make the most profit, will also play a role in determining the finished product.
Styles and trends within the diamond industry are in a state of constant flux, affected by changes in fashion, economic trends and fluctuations in consumer confidence. Diamonds are very subjective in taste and design. It’s all about what a cutter wants to make and a consumer wants to wear. And while rounds will no doubt continue to dominate the diamond landscape, fancies will continue to have their own corner of the market as well — as they always have. “Cushions have been around for 200 years,” Telonis says. “They were popular in the nineteenth century and again in the 1920s and 1940s and surged again in the mid-2000s when they were part of the return to a more vintage look.” For Eve Goldberg, vice president of William Goldberg, fancy shapes do not represent a trend in diamonds, but a mainstay. “If fancies are a trend, then I’d say they are a trend that’s here to stay,” she concludes.Article from the Rapaport Magazine - May 2015. To subscribe click here.
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