EXCLUSIVE: Neil Lane Introduces Lab-created Diamond Bridal Collection at Kay Jewelers
Neil Lane is furthering his partnership with Kay Jewelers by entering the lab-created diamond category.
The jeweler is releasing a lab-created diamond bridal collection, named Neil Lane Artistry, on Wednesday at Kay Jewelers, which is part of his ongoing 13-year relationship with the jewelry retailer. This is Lane’s first venture with lab-created diamonds.
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“My strength is in my creativity, not my organization,” Lane said. “I met Kay Jewelers years ago and we were able to revolutionize the bridal market, bringing the detail and this Hollywood glamour that I was doing for so many years. This opportunity was sort of another step in my daily mantra of, ‘What’s next? What can I do next that’s interesting, exciting and creative?’ Lab-grown diamonds are just another opportunity to bring that aesthetic to a whole new world of ring-making.”
Lane’s lab-created diamonds collection is debuting with 28 ring styles, including engagement rings, matching wedding bands and stand-alone wedding bands. Prices range from $799.99 to $18,499.99.
The collection leverages Lane’s vintage-meets-modern-day aesthetic and offers an array of diamond shapes, including cushion, pear, oval, emerald and others set onto 14-karat white and yellow gold rings.
“I really go backwards to go forwards,” Lane said about the collection’s design process. “I look at the environment. I look at the styles, designs and trends and I have an intuitive nature of what’s happening around the country, but basically I’m going back to my bag of tricks and detail and thinking how can I bring detail and romance into rings. How do I create a round piece of metal and make it much more than that?”
While this is Lane’s first lab-created diamond collection, Kay Jewelers has been offering styles in the category for several years.
“By adding lab-created diamonds to [Lane’s] collection, we have made this collection more accessible to a wider range of people where we have just given them another choice,” said Lisa Ingram, vice president of merchandising at Kay Jewelers. “Maybe they have a certain budget and they couldn’t afford the carat size or quality they wanted in natural [diamonds,] but they still have a large budget and they can get a Neil Lane piece because of it.”
On the collection’s target customer, Lane furthered Ingram’s sentiment on accessibility and noted how the collection expands his reach across the country.
“There’s a whole America and a whole world of clients that I could never reach,” he said. “That’s the client in Ohio and Delaware and all of the people I couldn’t reach in Hollywood. [Kay Jewelers] has such a vast outreach with all of the stores they have and they’re so well known in middle America. We have a feeling this is what they want today.”
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