Carbon Copy? Pandora Takes a Shine to Lab-Made Diamonds

Lab-grown diamonds such as these from the French company, Diam-Concept are growing in popularity. (Getty Images)
Lab-grown diamonds such as these from the French company, Diam-Concept are growing in popularity. (Getty Images)
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Carbon Copy? Pandora Takes a Shine to Lab-Made Diamonds

Lab-grown diamonds such as these from the French company, Diam-Concept are growing in popularity. (Getty Images)
Lab-grown diamonds such as these from the French company, Diam-Concept are growing in popularity. (Getty Images)

Pandora, the jewelry maker best known for its silver charm bracelets, will stop selling mined diamonds and focus on more affordable, sustainable, lab-grown gems, it said on Tuesday.

"Diamonds are not only forever, but for everyone," Pandora Chief Executive Alexander Lacik said as the Danish company launched a new collection of man-made stones.

Pandora, which made 85 million pieces of jewelry last year and sold 50,000 diamonds, said it aimed to "transform the market for diamond jewelry with affordable, sustainably created products".

The growing acceptance of man-made diamonds by millennials attracted to cheaper stones guaranteed not to have come from conflict zones has spurred firms such as De Beers to end its decades-old policy of shunning synthetic gems in its jewelry.

Prices of lab-grown diamonds have fallen over the past two years following the U-turn by De Beers in 2018 and are now up to 10 times cheaper than mined diamonds, according to a report by Bain & Company.

Pandora's new collection of lab-grown diamonds will be launched initially in the United Kingdom and will be available in other key markets next year, it said.

Pandora said it expected the diamond market to continue to grow, with sales of lab-grown diamonds outpacing overall growth.

Pandora's lab-grown gems will be made using a technology in which a hydrocarbon gas mixture is heated to 800 Celsius (1,472 Fahrenheit), spurring carbon atoms to be deposited on a small seed diamond, growing into a crystal layer by layer.

Pandora, which has until now sourced mined diamonds from KGK Diamonds, said it will get its lab-grown stones from suppliers in Europe and North America. Mined diamonds already in Pandora stores would still be sold, it said.

Opponents of mined diamonds say their extraction causes environmental damage and so-called blood diamonds help fund conflicts. A study commissioned by the natural diamond industry in 2019 said mined diamonds were less carbon-intensive.



Saudi Fashion Commission, SAIP Launch Intellectual Property Protection Guide

The new initiative builds on the commission's role in empowering the fashion sector
The new initiative builds on the commission's role in empowering the fashion sector
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Saudi Fashion Commission, SAIP Launch Intellectual Property Protection Guide

The new initiative builds on the commission's role in empowering the fashion sector
The new initiative builds on the commission's role in empowering the fashion sector

The Fashion Commission launched the Intellectual Property and Designers' Rights Protection Guide for the fashion industry, in collaboration with the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP).

The initiative builds on the commission's role in empowering the fashion sector, supporting its community, and fostering a developmental environment that addresses all stages of the product value chain.

The guide aims to serve as a reference for designers to benefit from intellectual-property laws by protecting and registering their innovative designs, thereby enabling them to obtain legal protection.

It also seeks to promote a culture of creativity and encourage designers to develop new creations while safeguarding their rights against replication or intellectual theft.

The Fashion Commission offers the protection guide to cover four key areas within the fashion industry: patents, which include new inventions and technological advancements in fabric and garment production; industrial designs, which pertain to aesthetic elements and decorative patterns that give fashion items their unique appearance; copyright, which covers artistic and creative outputs such as illustrations, patterns, and designs; and trademarks, which include logos and symbols that distinguish a product in the marketplace.

The Fashion Commission said designers and brand owners can access the Intellectual Property and Designers' Rights Protection Guide through the commission's official website.

Moreover, SAIP receives public rights complaints via its website from rights holders or their representatives regarding violations of works protected under the Copyright Protection Law and the Trademarks Law.