The world of jewelry is subject to change. Nothing stays the same for very long – there are always movements back and forth as people’s tastes change, and trends cause jewelery to sway back and forth like a pendulum. However, there have always been certain sacred areas that are not prone to changing very quickly. One of these is the world of wedding rings, which are governed by tradition and custom, and have remained basically the same for several decades now. Nobody really expected wedding rings to change for a long time, and until now this expectation has been more than met.
Interestingly, however, we are definitely starting to see a lot of change in the world of wedding rings. For one thing, people seem to be moving away from the traditional stone, which is the diamond. Over the last few years, we have seen a drastic decline in the popularity of diamonds. A lot of this has to do with the whole “conflict diamond” publicity fiasco, which occurred when certain facts came to light which showed that the diamond industry had been acting in a very unethical way, and that people in less developed nations were basically losing their lives in order for diamond cartels to be able to cheaply acquire diamonds that were sold to western consumers at hugely inflated prices. No surprise, then, that a lot of people chose to move away from diamonds.
What is surprising is that people have started moving away from yellow gold. Yellow gold has always been the most popular metal for the wedding ring, particularly the mens wedding ring – but not anymore. Instead, it is being replaced by the white gold wedding ring. This probably has a lot to do with the way that yellow gold is perceived – a lot of people see it as being flashy and obnoxious, not exactly ideal qualities in a time of economic strife, when people are tightening their purse strings. Even the most traditional kinds of jewelery, it seems, are not immune to the winds of change.
