Queer couples helped reshape engagement rings beyond diamonds

One diamond solitaire for one bride stopped being the default once queer couples began asking commitment rings to signal identity as well as marriage. That shift opened the door to alternative gemstones, gender-neutral settings, and designs meant to be worn by one partner, both partners, or whoever wanted the ring to feel like their own.

How queer-led design rewrote the ring

Lauren Fisher’s June 18 WWD Digital Daily feature on queer-owned jewelry brands focused on Ashley McGinty of Chouette Designs and Kris Harvey of Kris Averi. McGinty describes fine jewelry as a slower-moving category than apparel, but one where queer consumers often sit at the front edge of change; Harvey says the industry operated on a narrow script for years. The questions that followed were practical, not abstract: should both partners wear engagement rings, and should a ring read as masculine, feminine, or neither?

Those questions changed the form of the piece. Instead of designing for a single bridal script, designers began building around flexibility, with gender-neutral settings and stone choices that could carry more than one visual language at once. Colored gemstones are taking center stage in bridal jewelry.

The diamond standard was always a product of marketing

The idea that a diamond engagement ring is the only serious option has a relatively short history. Sotheby’s ties the modern diamond standard to De Beers’ 1947 “A Diamond Is Forever” campaign; before that, betrothal rings often featured colored gems, miniature diamonds, or pearls. National Geographic traces diamond dominance to modern marketing, not ancient custom.

The field opens to materials and shapes that better match the wearer and the relationship, whether the look is built around a colored center stone, a deliberately unisex band, or a ring that does not lean on gendered cues at all.

The new vocabulary: materials, settings, and who wears the ring

The clearest design change has been the move toward jewelry that can be shared in spirit, if not always in exact form. That includes engagement and wedding rings designed without a gendered owner in mind, plus stones selected for texture, contrast, or color rather than for diamond hierarchies alone. In practice, the market now includes salt-and-pepper diamonds, black diamonds, moissanite, lab-grown diamonds, moss agate, and other colorful stones that give couples more room to signal identity without falling back on the standard solitaire.

In 2020, JCK covered Brilliant Earth’s Mx Collection, a gender-neutral line of wedding and fine jewelry composed of four engagement rings and nine wedding bands. The materials mattered too: platinum, 18k white and yellow gold, and 14k rose gold gave the line a straightforward luxury vocabulary instead of a novelty-driven one. The line used the same precious-metal language as traditional bridal jewelry.

The brands making the shift visible

Automic Gold is one of the clearest examples of how queer-owned brands have translated values into material choices. The company is queer- and trans-owned and makes genderless pieces in recycled solid 14k gold and platinum with reclaimed or ethically sourced diamonds and gemstones. That combination is more specific than the vague sustainability language that often clouds this category, because it names both the metals and the sourcing standard rather than hiding behind broad claims.

Holden’s engagement-ring and wedding-band collection is completely gender-neutral. VENVS builds around non-traditional couples and names its stone palette openly: salt-and-pepper diamonds, black diamonds, moissanite, lab-grown diamonds, moss agate, and other colorful gemstones. Elliot Gaskin’s New York studio pushes the idea further through custom engagement rings and heirloom transformations, using recycled gold and ethically sourced gemstones to turn older material into something that fits a different relationship model.

Some lead with identity, some with material ethics, and some with custom work, but all of them reject the old assumption that a commitment ring has to look one particular way to be legitimate. The clearest signals are recycled gold, platinum, reclaimed stones, and named setting categories.

How the broader bridal market absorbed the change

Tomfoolery’s Love Ring showcase, covered by JCK in 2025, is an annual exhibit themed around gender-neutral styles, with participants asked to submit creations that could be worn by anybody.