Area jewelers discuss trending engagement ring styles, colors and shapes

When it comes to engagement ring trends, one thing holds true: The ring should represent the wearer and her unique taste.

And more often now, Regan Laiben, sales manager at Jayson Jewelers Ltd. in Cape Girardeau, says men are coming in with their fiancees-to-be to look for the ideal engagement ring.

“I’d still say there’s a small percentage of men coming in, but I think it takes the stress and the nervousness out of just making sure it’s the perfect thing,” Laiben says.

Laiben believes working with a local jeweler can help couples find exactly what they may be looking for.

“The thing that we see the most is that everyone wants their ring to be unique, and as a local, independent jeweler we can make that happen, whereas your chain stores, they just buy in bulk and that’s what they do,” she says.

Happy young couple trying on a ring in a jewelery shop with the help of a mature clerk

Being a small business also allows the sales managers to create more personalized experiences for couples.

“They come to us, that’s our job,” Laiben says. “We want them to shop local, regardless of where it is. That’s the most important thing, to support your people here in town.”

As far as trends go, Laiben says she is seeing mixed metals, stackable rings, and couples not always choosing to have a matching wedding set.

“We carry individual rings, and then we could always get the identical matching bands because that’s how we carry; that’s what our suppliers do,” she says.

Laiben says she carries various shaped rings, bezel-set styles and options with patterns.

Latin American couple buying an engagement ring at a jewelry store talking to salesman

“Not just your traditional style,” she says.

One of the lines Laiben has seen rise in popularity is a stackable line of rings from Laurence Bruyninckx.

“That’s a trend that we saw coming, and we’ve picked it up and had it for a couple of years now,” she says.

She says people are putting halos around diamonds in different styles and shapes, like a cushion-cut rounded halo or a “vintage” style.

William Zickfield, sales manager at Zickfield’s Jewelry & Gifts in Cape Girardeau, says one downfall of looking for something “antique” or “vintage” is that everyone’s concept of the style is unique.

“What people end up with a lot of times is the old, traditional standard style — the rounds or princess, or cushion cut’s a big one now,” he says.

Although Zickfield says he thought the halo style would be trendy and in and out, he says it’s not going anywhere.

“I sell a ton of that ring,” he says.

Laiben says rose gold also is coming in to play, and that it has been a trend for several years now.

Simplicity seems to be on the rise, as Laiben says she’s seen a pickup in solitaire mountings, meaning the mountings on the sides don’t have any diamonds.

“Simple is always going to be in style,” Zickfield says.

Another trend according to Laiben would be colored stones, like morganite, an apricot-colored neutral stone. More often than not, though, an imitation stone is needed to provide increased strength and durability. Instead, she says they try to use apricot-colored sapphires, because sapphires will hold up more long term.

Laiben says trends are sometimes hard to pinpoint because brides want something unlike anyone else’s and catered to their taste.

“And it should be, no matter how big or small,” she says. “That’s what we gear toward, is what makes it unique for them and their personality.”

Zickfield agrees.

“Jewelry trends are all over the place, but we’re big on preaching ‘What do you like?’” he says. “... Everybody’s interpretation of what’s beautiful is completely different.”

Zickfield says he bases his interactions with customers on his own experiences buying his wife’s engagement ring.

“I wanted to make sure she was going to like it because she wears it every day. ... You can change your earrings, you can change your necklace or whatever, but the one from us being married is the one she wears every single day, so I at least wanted her to be happy with it,” he says. “That’s kind of the way I try and sell with everybody, because I want us to help them be happy with what they get. I don’t ever want anyone leaving this store unhappy with what they got.”

Trends may come and go, but both Laiben and Zickfield stress the important of finding a ring that will bring the bride joy throughout her life, not temporarily.

“It’s all about making it yours and making it unique,” Laiben says.

“The trend is trying to find something to fall in love with, more so than anything,” Zickfield says. “It’s hard to nail down, that’s why we have so many of the different ones to choose from.”