A rivière is the French term for a necklace that traditionally features the same gem in graduated sizes, from smallest on either side of the clasp at the back, to largest in the center front.
But the Danish jeweler Sophie Bille Brahe had always felt that a traditional diamond rivière wasn’t really her style. “I would feel a bit too, like, lady, you know, wearing my diamonds,” she said.
So in 2018, she created what has become her brand’s best seller: the Collier de Tennis, a rivière of bezel-set diamonds (50,500 euros, or $54,545) that features an asymmetrical arrangement of the stones.
Ms. Bille Brahe described the variation as “a little simple twist” that modernized the design, likening the side-by-side placement of the smallest and the largest diamonds to “the point where the sea and the sky meet.”
She said women who bought the necklace tended to wear it every day: “I think it’s the most beautiful when you wear it with a white T-shirt: it feels quite simple and effortless even though it is a very expensive piece.”
The rivière (in English, river) became popular in 18th-century Europe, then the advent of diamond mining in South Africa in the 1870s resulted in a plentiful supply of hand-cut stones for the style. In 1937, for example, Queen Mary of Teck, the wife of King George V of Britain, was photographed wearing seven diamond rivière necklaces for the coronation of her son George VI.
Now, as opportunities for formal dressing have dwindled, the gemstones used in the style are typically smaller, more in line with those used in a classic tennis bracelet. And celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Bella Hadid and Hailey Bieber have layered rivières on and off the red carpet, a progression of the “neckmess” trend of multiple chains and pendants from the 2010s.
“Our customers are coming back and buying more varieties,” said Suzanne Kalan, whose studio is in Los Angeles. “An emerald necklace; a rainbow. And changing the look: mixing, matching.”
Her baguette-cut diamond and gemstone rivières have varied from a 16-inch necklace in 18-karat gold, half set with colored sapphires ($9,400), to a 30-carat diamond necklace ($274,400).
“If I had the same-weight diamonds in rounds, it would be a bit too much to wear during the day, I think,” she said. “I love a lot of diamonds, but it’s not flashy, you know, it’s just modern and different.”
Wearing a single rivière, she added, seems “a little bit more serious,” but layering them looks “more casual, more fun.”
The London jeweler Jessica McCormack said her rivières were inspired by antique styles and featured the traditional Georgian cutdown setting technique, in which diamonds are surrounded by blackened gold. She said she modernized the style with a seemingly random mix of diamond sizes rather than an even, graduated display. “It has a very relaxed look to it because it’s not perfect,” she said.
In her advertising campaigns, a 42-carat diamond rivière necklace might be styled with a cotton tank top, which she said reflected the way that her clients have worn it. “They love it being dressed down,” she said.
Camille Zarsky, the founder of the Seven, a jewelry retailer with boutiques in Manhattan’s West Village and Sag Harbor in the Hamptons, said that when she began her business in 2022, rivières accounted for about 20 percent of her sales. Now, they constitute 60 percent.
A few years ago, she explained, “the dainty chains with pendants on them used to be the thing that you would see women kind of wearing to go work out in.” But now, women consider rivière necklaces “like an everyday staple that they’re literally wearing with everything,” she said.
Ms. Zarsky said customers had been drawn to unusual colors and shapes, such as the ombré sapphire tennis necklace by Emily P. Wheeler ($22,000) and the best-selling 16-inch sterling silver Tile Necklace (from $1,400) by Nakard, Nak Armstrong’s diffusion line.
“The primary reason women are purchasing these pieces is to mix and stack,” she added, a look that echoed the style of Anna Wintour, the editor of American Vogue, whose signature jewelry is two or more rivières in colored gems.
The rivière style is “the hype piece” of the 2020s, according to Jessica Busiashvili, a co-founder of the New York brand OX Jewelry.
She wrote in an email that a single row of diamonds accentuated the neckline and collarbone, what she called “the most feminine contour of the body.” Her modern take on a rivière, the $65,000 platinum and diamond Moment necklace, featured 9.5 carats of diamonds in rotating links shaped like hourglasses, the brand’s proprietary link design. She also wrote that the fishhook clasp allowed the piece to be worn as a necklace, bracelet, hair ornament, lapel chain or even a “face veil, from ear to ear.”
Material Good, a retailer with stores in New York and Miami, sold 52 diamond tennis necklaces from January through July this year, compared with 34 in the same period last year.
Teresa Panico, the retailer’s head of fine jewelry, wrote in an email that clients were attracted to one-of-a-kind styles that featured unexpected cuts and colors, such as an 18-karat white-gold necklace set with 29 carats of diamonds cut in oval, pear, marquise, emerald and round brilliant styles ($164,200).
Material Good’s range of contemporary rivières has included Fernando Jorge’s 18-karat gold and emerald Flicker necklace ($30,500) and a row of emerald-cut diamonds and rubies in 18-karat rose gold by Shay ($20,960).
Such styles are significantly more costly than pendant necklaces or gold chains, which Ms. Kalan said contributed to their newfound popularity for everyday wear. “I mean, you need to wear them in the daytime,” she said. “You’re spending so much money collecting all these pieces. Wear them, enjoy them.”
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