Celebrity engagement rings are shaping bridal taste, from Zendaya to Dua Lipa

Zendaya’s east-west set diamond engagement ring on the Golden Globes red carpet in January 2025 and Dua Lipa’s chunky gold ring have given bridal jewelry a new visual language: stone orientation that feels unexpected, bands with real presence, and silhouettes that read as personal rather than prescribed. The clearest shift is not toward bigger for its own sake, but toward rings that look considered from every angle.

Zendaya and the east-west reset

The image immediately sharpened a style that had long lived just outside the mainstream. The Knot’s phrase fits: the debut “hard-launch[ed]” the east-west engagement ring trend back into pop culture, and the description fits the way the setting now moves through bridal conversations: fast, visible, and with enough novelty to feel fresh without reading as costume.

The appeal is architectural. Instead of placing a diamond vertically along the finger, an east-west setting turns the stone horizontally, which changes both the proportion and the mood. A stone that might feel expected in a classic north-south mount suddenly looks sleeker, more graphic, and less formal. The style’s roots go back to the 15th century, and it also had a large audience in the 1920s, which explains why the look feels modern and antique at once.

National Jeweler’s expert estimates place Zendaya’s ring at about 5 carats, with a value of up to $500,000 if the diamond is natural. The setting makes the diamond feel longer, lower, and more deliberate on the hand.

Why the east-west silhouette is sticking

The east-west ring is spreading because it solves a problem many modern buyers now want solved: how to make an engagement ring feel distinctive without abandoning restraint. East-west settings are among the major engagement-ring trends expected to grow in 2025, and the market is moving away from the most rigidly classic formulas. The Knot put collaborative designs at 28% of engagement-ring designs in 2024.

Couples are increasingly shopping together, and that collaborative process tends to reward details that can be discussed, adjusted, and personalized. An east-west setting is easy to understand at a glance, but it still feels like a choice, not a default.

The classic round diamond is still powerful, but it is no longer the only reference point shaping demand. The shift in consumer preference is visible in the growing appetite for settings that alter proportion, profile, and direction.

Dua Lipa and the return of heavy gold

If Zendaya’s ring reoriented the stone, Dua Lipa’s ring changed the weight of the conversation. Her engagement ring is a chunky, gold, cigar-band-style design, and that heavier profile reflects another strain of the market: buyers want rings that look substantive, not delicate by default. The effect is less about sparkle and more about form, with the band itself becoming part of the visual statement.

The modern engagement ring is no longer expected to disappear once the center stone is set. A cigar-band-style ring makes the shank legible, almost sculptural. It also pushes bridal jewelry closer to the language of fine jewelry more broadly, where gold volume, surface finish, and proportion often carry as much weight as the stone.

Chunky bands, vintage diamond cuts, and bezel settings are among the styles expected to dominate the bridal market in 2025. Taken together, those categories point to a customer who wants a ring with structure. A chunky band adds visual mass. A vintage cut brings irregularity and character. A bezel, which surrounds the stone in metal rather than leaving it open on prongs, gives the ring a clean, protective edge and a more defined outline.

What the bridal market is really buying

The rings gaining traction now are not all alike, but they share one trait: they read as authored. An east-west diamond changes a familiar shape by altering orientation. A cigar-band ring gives gold a starring role. A bezel setting turns security and geometry into style. Even vintage cuts, with their softer or more unusual facets, pull away from the standardized look that once defined bridal counters.

Celebrity rings do not just create aspiration; they create shorthand. After Zendaya, east-west became an easily readable reference point. After Dua Lipa, chunky gold feels less niche and more inevitable.