The fellowship of the friendship ring

In June of last year, Gigi Hadid took a leaf from Ariana Grande’s famous 2022 song, ‘7 Rings’, where Grande sang about buying her friends matching diamond rings (wouldn’t we all love a friend like AG). Hadid slid into fine jeweller Cece Fein Hughes’ Instagram DMs to commission matching rings for her besties—Kendall Jenner and Taylor Swift.

“It started with a funny Instagram post,” says Hughes, about the cheeky visual featuring Swift’s cat and Jenner’s dogs, among other celebrity pets like the Late Queen of England’s much-adored corgis, reimagined on the brand’s iconic signet rings, caught Hadid’s eyes. “She saw that post and forwarded it to us going, ‘Can I make these for my girls?’ And we were like, oh my god, do you mean Taylor Swift and Kendall Jenner?”

Indeed, it was the supermodel, asking for a pair of matching signet rings to acknowledge her best friends. As motifs, the pair collaboratively settled on Swift’s lucky number 13, Benjamin Button her cat, her sportsperson boyfriend’s jersey number ‘87’, and engraved initials of her newest album TTPD aka The Tortured Poets Department. Similarly, for Jenner, Hadid approved the details of Jenner’s doberman pinschers, ‘Pyro’, the name of a beloved dog, equestrian symbols like the horseshoe, and ‘818’ in honour of her tequila brand.

Truth be told, if this has you rethinking all your friends and why they are in your life, you’re not alone. Friendship jewellery is having a renaissance moment. “I think what started as perhaps a trend in mid-Covid, driven by the sentiment to give meaningful gifts, has actually grown and will continue to do so,” says Tara Daswani of Tara Fine Jewellery. She describes a recent bracelet she made for a couple of friends made of two stick figures crafted out of diamond baguettes, with movable arms and legs.

Far from the ‘BFF’ heart necklaces split down the middle, bought from Claire’s, shared in secrecy with your middle-school mate, new-age friendship jewellery has become much more bespoke. “Fine jewellery is so much more playful now than it has been in the past. That energy from when we were young and we would have half a heart each or matching friendship bracelets has merged into the older customer who has the money to be able to buy something more fine yet playful for her best friend," says Hughes. A recent commission that Hughes is working on involves forty best friends chipping in a few hundred pounds each to buy a bespoke signet ring for their friend’s 50th birthday.

What makes fine jewellery such a compelling choice for friendship tokens is that unlike other gifts, jewellery carries an inherent sense of permanence and value. It’s certainly less fleeting than a bottle of wine or a pair of trendy shoes. As Noor Fares, the London-based designer behind the eponymous brand known for its celestial jewellery aptly puts it: “There’s something deeply symbolic about jewellery—it’s eternal. A piece of jewellery as a friendship token becomes a wearable memory, something you can hold on to for years and pass on as a legacy.”

For Hughes, the devil is in the details. “Quite literally, down to the last whisker,” she laughs. Since starting her brand steeped in British folklore in 2018, she has engraved everything from pet features (looking at you, Benjamin Button) to secret messages inside bands. Similarly, when it comes to Fares’ much-loved third-eye pendants and earrings, often gifted among close friends, the level of customisation is what makes them extra special. “We take a photograph of the person’s eye and commission a miniature painter to reproduce it, creating a truly one-of-a-kind keepsake that celebrates the person’s individuality,” she explains. Details in her jewellery include talismanic motifs, hidden compartments for personal notes, and even mantras that hold special meaning for an extra layer of intimacy and exclusivity.

As little totems of TLC, these jewels become the ultimate flex among friends to illustrate how well you really know them. To ensure she is able to perfectly package the story of a person into one of her signet rings, Hughes bakes in lengthy interviews with her clients as part of the process. “I really have to make a connection with people and have conversations with them. It’s a fun challenge when someone has pages and pages of what they love and you have to put that into something that's 9 by 11 millimetres small!”

The same level of customisation applies even when creatives make for their own nearest and dearest. Fares and Eugenie Niarchos of jewellery label Venyx recently collaborated to make a necklace for their friend’s 40th birthday. “Every detail of the piece was carefully thought out, incorporating 17 elements and charms from both of us that symbolise her personality, identity and journey. Such as a hand-carved citrine that looked like a piece of cheese, an enamelled Edelweiss Diamond Flower, her favourite bloom, and then the initials of all her children,” explains Fares of the piece.

I can practically hear the clacking of keyboards everywhere inputting ‘what is my birth flower?’ as I write this. Find out, and definitely let your girlfriends know. Because whether it’s Gigi flexing her friendship with Taylor and Kendall or Ariana buying diamond rings for her besties, the message is the same: show your people some love. Bonus points if it’s love they can wear every day.