Hey De Beers, why not collaborate on a wedding gown collection?

 Well, I already told you how De Beers started the engagement ring craze and how - via advertising no less - they toyed with the most basic economics rule (the scarcer the good the more expensive - read it all here). But today, as I browsed via the many websites I browse daily - and yes, these include women's magazines, I have no shame in that because I need to keep abreast with all kinds of news - a story stopped me dead in my tracks. Love and The City.

I know what you are thinking - the title is not exceptionally creative (a riff on Sex and The City) and the content is about the many different styles a bride could wear - something most magazines (male and female) are doing lately, by that I mean editorial content which get them percentages of sales where redirected to websites selling the mentioned goods. See the story here.

What really spiked my attention was that the story was "presented by De Beers"... So as De Beers (and other major diamond-providing companies) face the specter of the many problems they face (GenZ not interested in traditional wedding rings, lab-grown diamonds etc....) here they are. As I always tell my students doing a project or research "ma fik tfout min el beb fout min el chebek" (you can't go through the door, go through the window). If you look closely at the different brides, each styled differently, to suit different tastes and what not, the only thing in common is that their jewelry is provided exclusively by De Beers.

But blink and you'll miss it. The magazine only specifies that the story is "presented by De Beers" in a small typography, you'll be lost in an eloquent text by Tara Gonzales, and you'll be looking at what brand this groom wore and which is the supplier or the dress of that bride etc.... Oh, and the rings, bangles, brooches, are by....

Which got me thinking - why doesn't De Beers actually collaborate with one of those very trendy wedding dress designers (Anyone from Vera Wang - who specializes in that segment - to the much-awaited Elie Saab iterations). I mean now that the door is open (or is it the window?) why not go full throttle and make a once in a century collaboration for the ages?

So apparently, a diamond is not forever

Here's a small tidbits in economics - the scarcer the good, the higher the price.

So technically emeralds should be higher in price than diamonds due to scarcity.

Enter De Beers and "a diamond is forever" campaign, which basically created the modern engagement ring in the process.

So basically, via marketing not economics, diamonds skyrocketed in value and price. Well, not anymore.

It seems diamond prices are in freefall, due to many reasons. The first is that lab grown diamonds are entering the market in full force. Considering a lot of diamonds have politically questionable origins, well, when you know your diamond is coming from a lab all ethical reservations seem to fall. Also, it seems millennials are diverting their spending more towards events and travel as opposed to jewelry and expensive objects. 

Sure, no one is talking that diamond trading giants are going bankrupt, but apparently prices are in such freefall that India, the place where 90% of diamonds are cut and polished is giving heavy signals for mines to decrease their productions. Also Alrosa and De Beers are both taking precautionary measures - the former stopping all sales, the latter allowing customers to refuse stones they were technically bound to buy.

Sure, if you take the Alrosa logic, you play with supply, ergo the demand will increase along with the price (mind you this brings us back to the beginning and to the fallacy of the price in itself had it not been for the De Beers marketing campaign). 

But hey, they'll always be a girl's best friend. Or a Shirley Bassey enduring gem.

Antoine Saliba and the diamond investment.

Real Estate? Check (here and here) Home appliances? Check (here) and now diamonds as per Antoine Saliba. All these are pretexts to release your lollars from the bank, to protect your investment and to baically find a way out of the current banking-financial mess. Well, whereas these ideas seemed outrageous in the past, these days if they involve taking the money out of the bank and investing it anyhere else (no matter the depreciation!) suddenly they look logical. Appealing even. The problem with a diamond ring is that usually it brings a wife with it, then a family, so that sort of increases spending.