Diamonds Unleashed is a brand with a social purpose that symbolizes, promotes and supports women’s empowerment. It celebrates that women, like diamonds, are brilliant, multi-faceted and unbreakable. Every purchase has a give back, so women not only are empowering themselves but are giving back to empower young girls* to be successful in life. It’s an all around rewarding opportunity!
A huge component of Diamonds Unleashed mission is also to ensure that the diamonds used in the collection are responsibly mined. They have partnered with CanadaMark Dominion Diamonds who only uses diamonds from mines in the Northwest Territories of Canada.
We recently met Kara Ross, creator, guru, designer of the Diamond Unleashed movement and collection.
Why should women consider self purchasing their first diamond instead of waiting for a man to give one as a gift?
The perception associated with diamonds is that you should wait to receive one. We wanted to create a movement that challenged women about how a diamond is bought, given and perceived and empower them to celebrate themselves and not wait to be given diamonds and also create a way to pay it forward through diamonds to help create the next generation of strong female leaders. We wanted our collections to be accessible, so we created a collection for HSN that features real diamonds, an aspirational line for Neiman Marcus called #SHESBRILLIANT and our engagement ring line that is exclusive to the Kara Ross NY flagship store.
Tell us about your own proposal and engagement ring
I am a pretty adventurous, not scared of anything kind of woman, but the one thing that got me was parasailing and that’s where Steve proposed! We were parasailing behind a boat in the Bahamas and we were so high up in the air. I was so scared that I wasn’t focusing on him at all and that’s where he proposed, but I made him get on his knee and do it again once we landed safely back on the beach.
Being a jewelry designer, I designed my own ring. The initial ring featured a single stone in a platinum wrapped wire setting. It was beautiful and also unique, as a jewelry designer, I have ideas all the time and wanted to try one with my own engagement ring, and that resetting ultimately spurred the idea for Diamonds Unleashed.
Your engagement ring collection is so unique. What was the inspiration behind the most intricate pieces?
We wanted to re-think the act of engagement to mean more than just the traditional notion of a man asking a woman to marry him. In this era, women are asking men, there are same-sex marriages and many women who never marry, but choose to pursue a career. A Diamonds Unleashed engagement ring begins a story unlike any other. Our rings aren’t just the story of a couple’s commitment to each together or a woman’s commitment to her life’s path but a commitment to make the world a better one. Each ring provides scholarships for girls in low-income countries so she can choose her own future, or help girls in our inner cities learn to code and become more employable. The cause can then become something else a couple can share and engage in together. Getting engaged is a magical moment, but helping transform other lives as they transform their own offers a truly special and deeply meaningful way to begin a life together.
As for the inspiration behind the rings, the snake rings are based on my redesigned engagement ring. I was attracted to the snake because they are so powerful and often seen as scary, but there are different meanings around them. The snake wraps up the finger and is eating the diamond. The Tree of Life idea came from the snake, thinking about the story of life.
What do you think of this new trend of women proposing to men?
I love it! We’re in the 21st century, why do we have to stick to a very dated mold? Women are strong, powerful, brilliant and unbreakable; while the norm may be to wait for a man to propose, women today are also empowered to lead corporations, be successful entrepreneurs, be the breadwinners and they should also be comfortable expressing their love to their partner and asking them to be joined as life partners.
- Tree of Life Ring, featuring a 1.05 cts CanadaMark diamond provides 1 scholarship*. Retail price is $12,000.
- Snake Ring, featuring a 1.08 cts CanadaMark diamond (G, VS2) provides 1 scholarship*. Retail Price is $10,000.
- Snake Ring, featuring a 2.42 cts CanadaMark diamond provides 2 scholarships*. Retail price $20,000.
- Tree of Life Ring, featuring a 3.00 cts CanadaMark diamond provides 3 scholarships* and retails for $37,500.
For $100, you can purchase the Diamonds Unleashed shoe clip, in the shape of the Diamonds Unleashed logo, which Kara designed to be an international symbol of female empowerment. The diamond-accented clip is designed to be worn on shoes, but could also be worn as a lapel pin or used as a money clip. Each clip features a genuine single-cut pave’ diamond that is ethically sourced and produced.
* DIAMONDS UNLEASHED has partnered with She’s The First and Girls Who Code as our launch year beneficiaries. She’s The First provides scholarships to girls in low-income countries with the goal of creating first-generation graduates and our next generation of global leaders. Girls Who Code is a national nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in the technology and engineering sectors. DIAMONDS UNLEASHED is committed to donate all net profits from the sales of our jewelry and products after expenses.
