How Celebrities Are Using Jewellery To Tell Personal Stories

Stars are swerving status symbols and seeking pieces for their message, says Rachael Taylor

A Deep Dive Into The Changing Face Of Celebrity Jewellery

There is a moment of anticipation at any major red-carpet event: what will the stars wear? For jewellery lovers, the thrill is in storied stones and designs so audaciously luxurious that they become a notch of note on fashion’s timeline, such as the 2019 Oscars that made Lady Gaga only the third person to wear the Tiffany Diamond (a breathtaking 128.54 carat yellow stone) since its unearthing in 1877. Although that particular necklace (paired with a black Alexander McQueen dress and chic chignon as a nod to the diamond’s previous wearer, Audrey Hepburn) was certainly one for the history books, it was, like much high-profile event jewellery, most likely a commercial partnership. 

While nobody would turn down the chance to wear such a rarely paraded and enormously valuable rock (estimated to be worth $30m), it is also true that Lady Gaga has been a Tiffany & Co brand ambassador, and at the time it was reported by The New York Times that this could be the biggest red carpet jewellery deal ever signed. 

Such link-ups between stars, stylists and jewellers in which money changes hands to guarantee placements have become commonplace. The result is a small pool of repeating names: top jewellery maisons with deep pockets. Yet, sometimes, stars rebel and choose jewels for the feels rather than the fiduciary benefits. 

Ben Hawkins

Jewels With A Message

Notting Hill jeweller Sophie Lis has an enviable constellation of starry fans, who have found her through word of mouth rather than paid endorsements. The Delevingne sisters, Princess Eugenie, Millie Bobby Brown and Sienna Miller are among her customers, with the Fallen Star hoop earrings in gold vermeil and diamonds (at a relatively affordable £460) the most popular choice: part talisman, part lucky charm. ‘For the elite who have access to everything, it is the meaning that’s important,’ says Lis. ‘These celebrities do not need status symbols or to show wealth, it is more to reveal who they truly are as a person behind the celebrity mask. They choose jewellery to tell a story to the public but also for a strong sense of self, and grounding in times of need.’ 

Lis has found herself being approached by so many celebrities because she moves in the same social circles. It is less stars seeking out a trending jeweller than friends recommending friends. 

This is also how jeweller Benjamin Hawkins found one of his most high-profile clients, the playwright Jeremy O. Harris. During Covid, Harris and his partner Arvand Khosravi lived opposite Hawkins in London, and they struck up a friendship that Hawkins describes warmly as being like ‘family’. In 2022, Khosravi commissioned Hawkins to make a ring for Harris set with an Edwardian diamond, onyx and sapphires, and engraved on the reverse with a note on happiness provided by playwright Adrienne Kennedy. At the time, Harris said: ‘This ring has the DNA of some of the most important [people] to my soul on it and I get to carry it forever.’ He and Hawkins also collaborated to create a ring for the 2025 Met Gala. ‘The idea was to make the first Black Fabergé[-style] egg,’ says Hawkins. It was decorated with a miniature portrait of Harris in 19th-century dress, created by award-winning enamel artist Penny Davis, and on the reverse was a 2.2ct peach-brown pear-shaped diamond and an engraving in homage to Frederick Douglass, the 19th-century abolitionist. 

Hawkins describes the experience as ‘magic’, recognising the rarity of the opportunity. ‘Brands pay so much to be [on the red carpet], so for the person to insist on having a friend make [their jewellery], it’s quite a rare thing.’

Rihanna wears Anabela Chan

Sometimes a star’s personal jewellery preference can seep into red-carpet looks; television presenter Amanda Holden is a collector of Italian jewellery brand FOPE and also wears its jewellery during filming. Sometimes the jewels they seek out in their downtime are wildly different. Julia Roberts, a brand ambassador for Swiss jeweller Chopard, borrowed two Anabela Chan brooches when in London this summer and liked them so much, she bought them. Chan’s joyously colourful jewels stand out with alternative materials including recycled drinks cans, lab-grown coloured gemstones, and food waste (used to create bio-resin in her Fruit Gems™ collection). Her red-carpet roll call is impressive: Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Rihanna are all regulars. ‘I think the creativity, the aesthetics, and our ethos resonate,’ says Chan. ‘For the last decade, we’ve never had a single paid partnership, but we’ve been present at every major red-carpet event from the Oscars to the Grammys.’ 

Jewellery As Activism

Jewellery can also be a way to make statements that go beyond style. Pamela Anderson has reinvented herself in recent years as a fearless style maven, but what has followed her from full vamp to make-up-free red-carpet appearances is her environmental activism. 

Nearly two decades ago she struck up a friendship with Vivienne Westwood rooted in shared beliefs that led to the actress fronting the designer’s campaigns. Today, she partners with Pandora as the face of its lab-grown diamond collection. ‘My agent explained that Pandora has lab-grown diamonds which have less of an impact on the world and the environment and are accessible to everybody,’ says Anderson. ‘I think a lot of people in my industry like to align themselves with high-end brands but for me it is more about accessibility.

Last summer, as she whipped up the public imagination with her magnetic on-screen chemistry with fellow The Naked Gun actor Liam Neeson at the film’s New York premiere, she wore a custom Pandora lab-grown diamond brooch that was originally sported on the red carpet by her son Brandon Thomas Lee. Whether lab-grown diamonds are better for people and planet is a lively and nuanced debate, but it is refreshing to see stars using their platforms to bring awareness. Another actress to do so recently was Michaela Coel, who sought the help of jeweller Emefa Cole. For last year’s Met Gala Coel wished to be ‘dripping’ in not just any gold, but gold that connected to the Ghanian heritage she shares with Cole. ‘Gold is very much part of our culture [in Ghana],’ says the London-based jeweller. ‘It’s just a known thing as a child that you are walking on gold everywhere.’

Cole answered the brief by working with Single Mine Origin, a company providing traceable gold that invests back into the mining communities it sources from. She chose gold from the City mine in Ivory Coast. ‘Prior to the Berlin Conference [in 1884], these lands were not separated by harsh borders and so I always view them as the same land, because I don’t respect the division of Africa by the European leaders of that time,’ says Cole. ‘The Ity mine was a perfect way for me to celebrate our heritage, our culture, our natural resources.’ 

Wearing the resulting softly sculptural earrings, rings and headpiece, plus a shimmering, embellished Schiaparelli dress, Coel looked nothing short of resplendent – a shining endorsement for choosing jewellery with purpose and heart.