Damson Idris’ Didris debuts bespoke blue diamond brooch, marking F1 milestone

Damson Idris turned the Academy Awards red carpet into a statement of intent: a bespoke Didris brooch centered on a 7-carat marquise blue diamond and framed by 42 surrounding diamonds. Built to mark his F1 moment, the piece carried a hidden F1 engraving on the back and signaled that his year-old fine-jewelry house wanted memory, symbolism and visibility as much as sparkle.

The center stone mattered because colored diamonds sit in a rarified category of their own. GIA says only 1 in 10,000 diamonds has a fancy color, and that value generally rises as color becomes stronger and purer. Blue diamonds are especially prized because their color comes from boron, and natural blue stones rank among the rarest gems in the trade.

The marquise shape magnified the effect. GIA notes that marquise diamonds often look larger face-up than round stones of the same weight, and halo settings can accentuate size. In Idris’ brooch, the 42 surrounding diamonds did more than add glitter: they expanded the visual footprint, increased the labor, and helped turn one center stone into a full red-carpet event. That is why custom commissions cost more than a loose stone and a mounting. The price is carrying both the gem and the design.

Didris has been building that brand story carefully. The house says it was founded by Damson Idris and works with artisans and collaborators around the world, while its earlier collection used 18-karat yellow and rose gold, handcrafted in Mumbai, with diamonds and gemstones sourced from Namibia, Botswana and South Africa and certified through the Kimberley Process. That certification helps screen out conflict stones, but it does not answer every question about mining, labor or environmental footprint, which is exactly why provenance still matters when a celebrity label steps onto the red carpet.