< Engagement Rings & Weddings / Engagement Ring Styles
Antique Diamond Cuts Are the Hot New Thing in Engagement Rings
The “Taylor Swift Effect” supercharged the trend for antique diamond cuts.
Updated: December 5, 2025
Written by: Marion Fasel
Just one look at the diamond in Taylor Swift’s engagement ring and gem experts knew it was an antique stone. The primary clue spotted in the August 26 Instagram post announcing the pop star’s engagement to her football player boyfriend, Travis Kelce, was an ever-so-slightly shadowed circle in the center of the elongated cushion-shape diamond.
Modern diamonds don’t have that detail, which is caused by an open culet. So, what’s an open culet?
Well, a culet is the bottom center of a diamond. Antique diamonds, which were cut by hand before the invention of power tools, have a flat facet on the culet. This style of culet is described as “open” because light passes through it, creating a small, slightly dark circle that can be seen in certain settings. As cutting tools advanced in the 20th century, culets became cone-shaped, bouncing bright light back to the top of the gem and making the dot disappear.
Meet the Expert
- Marion Fasel is an esteemed jewelry expert, author, curator, and trend forecaster.
- She is the founder and Editorial Director of The Adventurine online jewelry magazine.
- She is the author of several books, including The History of Diamond Engagement Rings: A True Romance
The Taylor Swift Effect: The Rise of Antique Cut Diamonds
Another detail that confirmed the “Tayvis” diamond was cut a very long time ago is the small, high table, which is a flat facet on the crown, or top half, of the gem.
In the distant past, lapidaries cut diamonds with two goals in mind. One was to preserve as much carat weight as possible; modern cutters work to maximize a stone’s brilliance, which means they will lose weight to remove flaws and make better light. The other historic goal was a romantic one. Cutters arranged facets so the gem would sparkle in candlelight. In other words, antique diamond cuts emit a softer light.
Taylor Swift’s antique diamond marks a departure from the centuries-old tradition of selecting the most brilliant diamonds available for engagement rings. The choice also illustrates an appreciation for the beauty and character of the hand craftsmanship of the past.
Antique diamond cuts are too rarefied to move markets in a massive way, unlike the pop star’s impact on easily accessible, affordable items such as friendship bracelets. But interest in the old stones has experienced a “Taylor Swift Effect” boomlet. The niche diamond choice has also shone a light on independent designers who use them at labels like Darius, Erstwhile, Prounis, Single Stone, and, of course, Artifex’s Kindred Lubeck, the goldsmith behind Swift’s ring, whose select inventory is perpetually sold out.
“Antique diamonds have a special allure to me,” explains Darius Jewels designer and founder, Darya Khonsary. “They hold the secret poetics of crystallization deep within the earth, the passion of the cutter, who shaped these antique stones by hand with attention and care, giving them a unique personality and the lived history of the stone as it traversed generations.”
Below, find out about some of the most beloved antique diamond cuts: antique cushions, rose cuts, and Old Mine cuts.
Antique Diamond Cuts: Cushion Cut Diamonds
Antique cushion cuts come in as many shapes as throw pillows. Two of the world’s most famous historic diamonds are square cushion cuts: the 45.52-carat blue-gray Hope Diamond and the 128.54-carat yellow Tiffany Diamond. Antique cushions can also be old mine cuts. More on that below.
Elongated antique cushion cuts were moving into the spotlight just before Taylor Swift took it to the stratosphere of fame. Around the holidays in 2024, Tom Holland proposed to Zendaya with a giant elongated antique cushion-cut diamond set horizontally, or east-west, in a ring believed to be designed by Jessica McCormack, who does not comment on celebrity engagement rings.
At Only Natural Diamonds, we noticed the growing interest in this glamorous antique shape before the high-profile engagements. It inspired us to select an elongated antique cushion-cut diamond set in a Prounis ring for the cover of my book, The History of Diamond Engagement Rings: A True Romance, published in December 2024 in collaboration with OND.
“I adore the wider, subtly imperfect facets of antique cushions,” explains Jean Prounis. “I also appreciate the way they hold time and remind us of the historic rarity of natural stones.”
Antique Diamond Cuts: Rose Cut Diamonds
Rose cuts changed the diamond landscape when they were invented in the 17th century. The triangular facets covering a diamond’s domed crown gave engagement rings a whole new look and a special brilliance. “I love the romantic glow of antique rose cuts,” says Corina Madilian, founder of Single Stone. “Their perfectly imperfect facet patterns remind me of our own individuality and beauty.”
Rose-cut facets can be applied to any diamond shape, such as a round, oval, or pear. This variety leads to the term being layered with the name of a diamond shape in descriptions. For example, a gem could be described as “an oval shape rose cut diamond.” The first engagement ring Lily Collins received from Charlie McDowell in 2020 was a square shape rose-cut diamond set in an Irene Neuwirth design.
Some believe the name “rose cut” stems from the triangular facets that vaguely resemble rose petals. Others think the name grew out of the artistic idea that the facets ending in a point on top look like a rose bud.
Antique Diamond Cuts: Old Mine Cut Diamonds
Old Mine cut diamond is another term in the antique category that is often added as a descriptor for diamond shapes or used on its own. In the widespread coverage of Taylor Swift’s ring, some experts simply referred to her elongated cushion as an Old Mine cut diamond. This idea was mainly based on the size of the open culet visible in the Instagram photo.
Initially designed in the early 18th century, Old Mine cuts have a high crown, small table, and larger open culet than gem shapes developed in the late 19th century. Most Old Miners are squares with rounded corners similar to square cushions, but clearly, they can be elongated cushions as well. The fancy orange brown diamond in the Darius ring here is a great example. It’s reviewed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) as an Old Mine cut diamond, but it has the silhouette of an elongated cushion. In essence, it is both.
The confusing Old Mine name was actually a renaming of “brilliant diamonds.” After the 1871 discovery of the Kimberley Mines in South Africa, the rounded squares from two previous sources of diamonds in Brazil and India eventually became known as Old Mine cut diamonds.
Even though diamond cutters’ skills and tools made it possible to cut more brilliant diamonds in the early years of the 20th century, it took quite some time for the modern round brilliants to fully replace Old Mine cut diamonds in the market. In fact, stones were still being cut with the beloved characteristics of Old Miners simultaneously in the 20th century. As late as the 1940s, the shape can be found in newly designed rings and jewelry.
It’s amazing how a small open culet in Taylor Swift’s elongated antique cushion-cut diamond served as an Easter egg, first for diamond experts, then for fans to delve into these once-obscure tales and become interested in antique gems.
