Last year, Vanessa Stofenmacher wanted to expand her three-year-old direct-to-consumer fine jewelry brand, Vrai & Oro, to include engagement rings. But she couldn’t stand the thought of buying traditionally mined diamonds, which are often unearthed in war-torn countries and sold to fund conflicts. Here’s how she found a stone with no skeletons, and modernized the engagement-ring shopping experience along the way.
Romancing The Stone
Stofenmacher’s search for ethical gems led her to Diamond Foundry, a Leonardo DiCaprio–backed startup that uses a plasma reactor to produce diamonds in a lab. “[Diamond Foundry] changes the environment in which diamonds grow without changing the product itself,” Stofenmacher says. She decided to use its stones in her rings; the partnership deepened last year when Diamond Foundry acquired Vrai & Oro to help commercialize its lab-grown stones. (Stofenmacher is now president of Vrai & Oro and creative director of Diamond Foundry.)
Rethinking The Process
Before bringing the conflict-free diamonds to market, Stofenmacher spoke with engaged friends and learned that neither the proposal nor the ring typically came as a surprise to the recipient. Although most jewelers market rings to men and emphasize engagement as a big reveal, Stofenmacher understood that women were taking a more active role in ring selection. “We wanted to offer [couples] a chance for collaboration,” she says.
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