When fashion icon Zendaya walked the 2025 Golden Globes red carpet sporting a brand new engagement ring from boyfriend Tom Holland, style watchers were quick to point out the unique east-west orientation of her 5-carat elongated cushion-cut diamond.
It’s a style that’s been around for 100 years, but could also become the next big thing, thanks to the viral media attention the ring generated on celebrity websites and Zendaya’s “It” girl status in Hollywood. (She also claims 160 million followers on Instagram.)
East-west settings became popular during the Art Deco period of the 1920s and 1930s, when jewelry designers stepped out of the box and started experimenting with bold, geometric designs that broke away from traditional jewelry styles.
Today, a diamond rotated 90 degrees from the common vertical orientation reflects an edgy, yet sophisticated, elegance.
Eagle-eyed jewelry pundits identified Zendaya’s ring as a design by British jeweler Jessica McCormack, who has taken pride in revitalizing the styles and setting techniques of yesteryear.
The jeweler’s Instagram page features a ring very similar to the one seen during Zendaya’s walk on the red carpet. In a post from 24 weeks ago, the jeweler described the ring as having a “Georgian back button diamond setting.”
During the Georgian period (1714-1837), jewelers developed a setting style where the back of the diamond was completely enclosed in precious metal, creating a button-like appearance.
The jeweler told theadventurine.com that the setting increases the refraction of the light, producing a magical depth to the stone.
“This style is very comfortable to wear,” she told the website. “The diamond sits low to the finger and close to the skin, and the smooth gold finish enclosing the diamond keeps the stone as sparkly as possible.”
Elongated diamond shapes, such as oval, emerald, marquise, radiant and some cushions, tend to elongate the appearance of the finger when set north to south. Brides with shorter fingers would tend to take advantage of this strategy. On the other hand, brides with longer fingers can easily wear a diamond in an east-west orientation.
What’s more, according to Town & Country, an east-west diamond symbolizes “two equal partners moving forward on the same path.”
With Zendaya leading the way, it’s a sure bet that more brides-to-be will be taking a closer look at east-west engagements rings in 2025 and beyond.
Credits: Zendaya image by Toglenn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, © Glenn Francis, http://www.PacificProDigital.com. Ring images via Instagram / jessica_mccormack.
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