This is an X-post from the LGD diamond forum; several people thought that those on this forum would have interesting opinions as well! I'd love to hear them. I'm a consultant that does a lot of work in pricing and customer perception and love to hear how/why people think the way that they do.
Last week, in a middle-class area, I saw a mid 20's woman wearing a huge diamond: probably 6 carats and more or less colorless. It was a massive oval and looked great. But totally out of character for this shopping mall, what she was wearing, what she was driving...hair, makeup. Either totally out of character or rich enough "not to give a crap what others think". But based on the area, probably not.
Last Saturday, wifey and I stopped by Neiman Marcus as she needed some makeup (they have great service BTW; we even got introduced to the store manager!). A couple enters the store; early 70's gentleman and his mid 30's wife; they stood next to us as while they said hi to our salespeson. OK, enough about the jokes there; we've all seen it. Yet she was a very attractive woman wearing great jewelry: what looked to be a thick diamond and gold Cartier cuff, Rolex Lady President, and 10 carat tennis bracelet. She was wearing a Balmain dress, Louboutins, and carrying a Birkin (my wife is a fan of these brands-the Birkin is on her holy grail list). She had a RBC diamond on, also 6 carats, looked to be G/H color.
It got me thinking: the first woman I'll assume had a lab grown diamond on and I thought it was a beautiful stone. Would have put down 30/1 odds that it was LGD. The second woman's could have been mined or LGD, but my mind went "wow, that's a gorgeous stone-probably cost more than all of our cars combined". She and her husband looked to be easily wealthy enough to afford such a stone. She could have been, some would say, "cheating" with an LGD but the stone looked in character.
For those of you who've seen this or are in this situation; do you think people make assumptions about whether the diamond is expensive or not based on how the person otherwise looks? I'm not implying that people here wear diamonds just to show off wealth, but we all know that expensive jewelry has always been a status symbol, wheather a symbol of wealth and power or ownership (jewelry purchased by a spouse for example). We all make mental shortcuts when assessing someone, even if it isn't specifically how much money they have spent on their jewelry.
A salesperson at a very high end boutique told me that some of her clients with massive diamonds (6-15 carats) will buy LGDs to swap out on trips or to minimize risk. Their friends all assume it's just another (massively expensive) stone that they are wearing, and you know they are comparing recent purchases over lunch.
Last week, in a middle-class area, I saw a mid 20's woman wearing a huge diamond: probably 6 carats and more or less colorless. It was a massive oval and looked great. But totally out of character for this shopping mall, what she was wearing, what she was driving...hair, makeup. Either totally out of character or rich enough "not to give a crap what others think". But based on the area, probably not.
Last Saturday, wifey and I stopped by Neiman Marcus as she needed some makeup (they have great service BTW; we even got introduced to the store manager!). A couple enters the store; early 70's gentleman and his mid 30's wife; they stood next to us as while they said hi to our salespeson. OK, enough about the jokes there; we've all seen it. Yet she was a very attractive woman wearing great jewelry: what looked to be a thick diamond and gold Cartier cuff, Rolex Lady President, and 10 carat tennis bracelet. She was wearing a Balmain dress, Louboutins, and carrying a Birkin (my wife is a fan of these brands-the Birkin is on her holy grail list). She had a RBC diamond on, also 6 carats, looked to be G/H color.
It got me thinking: the first woman I'll assume had a lab grown diamond on and I thought it was a beautiful stone. Would have put down 30/1 odds that it was LGD. The second woman's could have been mined or LGD, but my mind went "wow, that's a gorgeous stone-probably cost more than all of our cars combined". She and her husband looked to be easily wealthy enough to afford such a stone. She could have been, some would say, "cheating" with an LGD but the stone looked in character.
For those of you who've seen this or are in this situation; do you think people make assumptions about whether the diamond is expensive or not based on how the person otherwise looks? I'm not implying that people here wear diamonds just to show off wealth, but we all know that expensive jewelry has always been a status symbol, wheather a symbol of wealth and power or ownership (jewelry purchased by a spouse for example). We all make mental shortcuts when assessing someone, even if it isn't specifically how much money they have spent on their jewelry.
A salesperson at a very high end boutique told me that some of her clients with massive diamonds (6-15 carats) will buy LGDs to swap out on trips or to minimize risk. Their friends all assume it's just another (massively expensive) stone that they are wearing, and you know they are comparing recent purchases over lunch.
300x240.png)