< Engagement Rings & Weddings / Styles
Lauren Harwell Godfrey Has Reimagined Her Sentimental Diamond Again and Again
The jewelry designer’s engagement ring has evolved with her style.
Lauren Harwell Godfrey wears the third reimagining of her diamond engagement ring while designing for her jewelry line. (Photographed by Vincenzo Dimino)
On a call from her Northern California home, Lauren Harwell Godfrey is multitasking like a pro. She’s packing for a flight to Paris later that day—where she’ll showcase her stylish jewelry designs at the Americans in Paris showroom— while contemplating her outfits. If you know Harwell Godfrey, you know she never just shows up, she makes an entrance. Think bold colors and patterns, impeccably tailored suits, and, of course, jewelry that doesn’t just complete the look but defines it.
Her personal style has grown alongside her career—confident, bold, expressive. With her style evolution came the realization that her original natural diamond engagement ring, lovely as it was, didn’t quite keep up.
Meet the Author
- Jill Newman is a jewelry authority, editor, and storyteller with over 25 years of experience, having reported from diamond mines in Africa, cutting workshops in India and Belgium, and ateliers around the world.
- She serves as Editor-at-Large for the Natural Diamond Council, with additional bylines in The New York Times, Town & Country, Elle Décor, and Robb Report.
So she changed it, then changed it again, and now she is already thinking about the next iteration. “Victoria Beckham has 15 engagement rings, and I love that,” Harwell Godfrey tells Only Natural Diamonds with a mischievous laugh. “That’s my goal.”
One Diamond, Many Lives
At 50, Harwell Godfrey knows what she wants and what she likes. She was married in 2009 with a 2-carat round brilliant natural diamond and platinum ring adorned with tiny diamond side stones. “It was delicate, and I’m not delicate,” she says.
That was pre-jewelry designer Harwell Godfrey. By the time she launched her jewelry collection in 2018, her aesthetic had taken a dramatic turn, and so did her ring. “Once I became a designer and developed my own style, I knew this ring wasn’t me.”
Once I became a designer and developed my own style, I knew this ring wasn’t me.
The dainty platinum ring was melted down, and she reset the round diamond in a bold 18-karat yellow gold design with a hexagonal halo of baguette-cut diamonds on a beaded band. That ring didn’t just capture her new style; it sparked an entirely new chapter in her business. “When clients and friends saw my new ring, they loved it, and it became part of the collection,” she says.
Lauren Harwell Godfrey Transformed Her Diamond Ring As Her Style Evolved
As her design voice grew stronger–think ’70s vibe, chunky gold, and bold geometry—so did the ring. In the third iteration of her diamond, she set the stone in her sculptural Hubba style with generous curves and her signature hexagonal shape.
“I like the play between the classic round stone and the bold, geometric hexagon shape,” she says. “It’s about disrupting expectations, mixing classic cuts with modern silhouettes, manipulating the visual impact of a stone.”
Harwell Godfrey’s evolving engagement ring has become both a design lab for her creativity and a gateway for clients looking to reimagine their own heirlooms. “So many people come in with engagement rings or pieces they’re not wearing,” she says. “We take the diamonds and give them a new life—in my style.”
A client recently came into her store at the Marin Country Mart with a pair of 3-carat diamond stud earrings. Harwell Godfrey turned one into a ring and made the other into a pendant, both in her signature hexagonal halo and bold gold setting. Another client wanted a spin on the Hubba eternity band, so she created a version with a large center diamond framed in a smaller gold hexagon.
Some projects are especially close to heart. After her grandmother passed away, she left her 1980s wedding ring, a prong-set marquise and round stones, to Harwell Godfrey’s mother. The designer transformed the diamonds into a chic gold bangle that her mother wears all the time.
What’s Next?
Well, a 7-carat Asscher-cut champagne diamond is calling her name. “I’m falling in love with desert diamonds,” she says, referring to De Beers’ newly launched collection of diamonds in earthy hues. “I love the depth of the warmer tones.”
So yes, her fourth engagement ring might be in the works by now. For Harwell Godfrey, every redesign is more than a style update, it’s a reflection of who she is in that moment. And for clients, it’s a reminder that while diamonds last forever, but the design can evolve again and again.
