The Standardization of Beauty
Variance Diamonds
How Is Beauty Measured?
Two men are responsible for the development of the standardization of diamond quality.In the 1940s, the founder of GIA coined the term "The 4Cs" to help his students remember the factors that characterize a faceted diamond: color, clarity, cut, and carat weight. His successor at GIA expanded the founder’s work by developing the grading system to “objectively” measuring a diamond’s quality.
Is this really still the way that we are evaluating what is beautiful?
The problem with standardization is that it doesn’t take into account taste, preference, or uniqueness.
Color
White is considered the most beautiful color, but diamonds occur in a variety of colors.We love smoky salt and pepper, soft green, and subtle peach. They each have the sparkle of a diamond but with unexpected color and character.
Clarity
The diamond with the fewest imperfections is considered the best but we find that sometimes inclusions create fascinating pictures. If a diamond were a painting, the inclusions would be the composition. We only use diamonds with beautiful inclusions.
Cut
Perfect symmetry is considered the ideal cut. If you know our jewelry at all, you know we love asymmetry. We tend to favor cuts which are a little wonky or old fashioned. We think asymmetrical cuts have more character than their perfectly symmetrical counterparts.
Carat
The recommendation is to purchase the biggest diamond you can afford. Size matters except that sometimes you want a big diamond and sometimes you don’t.