Victoria may have secrets, but Tiffany wears her heart on her sleeve...or bracelet or ring or necklace.

"Nowhere is a Tiffany diamond more beautiful or more treasured than in its place of honor, on the hand of a woman."

--Tiffany & Co. Gemology Standards book

On Monday morning, Mariana and I made our way to the Philadelphia Tiffany & Co. on Walnut Street. We met Natalie, a graduate gemologist and sales professional, to give us an informational on the ever-sought-after Tiffany engagement rings, and also a visit around to the other Tiffany Collections.

Seriously an awesome experience-- and pretty much everything we can tell is included in their 2 informational handbooks (covers below):

Also on Tiffany.com
Big takeaways:


-The 4 C's they look at when choosing diamonds for collections: cut, color, clarity, and carat weight.
-All engagement rings are made from platinum or yellow gold; brochure showed three different fonts available for engraving.
-There is no custom-ring design accepted-- all rings are created by Tiffany, and the size of the ring or carat can be changed/differ, the Tiffany, Lucida, Novo, Bezet, Etoile and Legacy settings are what you're choosing--see http://www.tiffany.com/Engagement/Browse.aspx#p+1-n+6-cg+-c+-s+-r+-t+-ri+-ni+1-x+-pu+-f+1/0/0/0/0/0 (however, there's a pretty wide range from these combinations, so most people can find what they want)
-Website has the selection of Fancy Shapes, and a wider range of cuts. Here's the round brilliant Princess-cut in Tiffany Setting (most popular engagement ring!):

-"The Tiffany round brilliant-cut stone has 57 or 58 precisely aligned facets that work together in absolute geometric unison."-from "The Physics of Beauty," pg. 21 in Standards Handbook

The books give you the math of the shiny-ness, and outlines their standards for 'superlative' quality diamonds:

According to Natalie, most men already have an idea of the type of ring their significant other wants, and the style they will choose -- only once has a new fiance brought in her engagement ring to change it within the week (when you want a bigger rock, you get a bigger rock).

-Younger couples come in to get promise rings as well, and they'll often choose from the "artist collections" like Elsa Peretti for Tiffany, or Paloma Picasso. ther artist collections include Frank Gehry, Jean Schlumberger.

-The launch of the "Tiffany Keys" was one of the most successful launches to date; the pieces are inspired by old keys found in a Tiffany warehouse:

-The "Atlas" collection is also one on my favorites, designed after the Greek titan Atlas. "Hanging above each of the Tiffany stores is a roman numeral clock that is supported by Atlas himself. Hence, the roman numerals that are used on the entire collection."

Some of these pieces are similar to a compass rose, except the directions are the numerals...

 

Above: Compass Rose, and Tiffany Atlas Ring.

Overall, I would say the experience did a lot more for satisfying our own curiosity about the wonder and international renown that is attached to the Tiffany brand.

But we hope you liked it, too. And as for you guys, pretty much anything from this place will do the trick. Victoria may have secrets, but Tiffany wears her heart on her sleeve...or bracelet or ring or necklace.

We'll leave you with a quote from one of our fave movies:

"...Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling? Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's..."

-Holly Golightly, Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961

xo,

Shannon