The Floating Diamond Engagement Ring Style Is The Next Big Thing

When two New York style setters get engaged, you can be sure their diamond ring is going to be a knockout. Case in point: Alex Ohebshalom, owner of the hot new Fifth Avenue Hotel in NoMad, and fiancé Amah Modek, a fashion stylist and brand consultant. Once they got engaged last fall, they made the ring their first joint design project.

The couple wanted a distinctive natural diamond design, one that reflected their eclectic, art-loving, New York style. “We didn’t want a typical diamond cut or setting,” said Modek, who admired a fashion editor friend’s ring that was created by Sarah Ysabel Narici of DYNE, which led her to the New York-based designer.

The couple considered dozens of natural diamonds before finally selecting a modified trapezoid brilliant cut, internally flawless diamond, which wasn’t like any other stone they’d seen. Ysabel Narici, who described it as a softened pear-shape, had it slightly recut to meet the couple’s specifications.

The jeweler set the diamond on an archer-shaped platinum band with peach-colored gold inlaid pattern. It was positioned slightly above the band, so the stone appeared almost floating.

“From a design point of view, it represents both of us,” says Modek. “My taste is sleek and modern, very New York, and Alex is more eclectic, a maximalist aesthetic vibe.”

At first glance, it appears minimalist, but a closer look reveals the details: the inlaid gold triangles are meant to be their A initials and the band is lined inside with diamonds. “It’s elevated, elegant, and understated,” says Ohebshalom, “and puts the spotlight on this beautiful stone.”

The striking archer-style design, where the stone appears perched on the ring, is the latest style movement in diamond rings.

It’s a style that attracts people with a strong aesthetic, says Ysabel Narici, who has made this sleek design her signature since she established her DYNE brand two years ago.

She was inspired by the shape of the original archer rings, which were commonly worn by men in ancient China and India when firing bows and arrows. Setting the stone in the curve of the band, she says, “allows you to see the diamond from every angle and all its beauty.” It also leaves the band’s entire surface as a canvas to design and tell stories.

For her own engagement ring, Ysabel Narici created a gold band that reminded her of the Japanese art of knot tying, with a 5-carat plus elongated cushion-cut diamond perched on top. The rose-gold band is engraved with subtle personal symbols, like her husband’s C initial, and diamond inlaid stripes.  

Among the jewelers featuring the perched diamond style is London-based Jessie Thomas, who says it’s currently her bestselling style. “It’s for brides who have been looking for something slightly unique and unusual, but not too extreme,” she says. But it isn’t just for brides. Many women who want a diamond ring are buying them, she says, because “they don’t look ‘engagementy’”.

Thomas’ undulating gold bands have a diamond on top or nestled in the wave of the ring. “It creates an organic relationship between the stone and band,” she says.

The archer or floating diamond ring is becoming a fast favorite among young couples and sophisticated women resetting classic diamond rings and looking for something more streamlined yet stylish.

For Ohebshalom and Modek, the ring is a manifestation of their love. “Since we met, we have been dreaming of our life together, and the ring was the first thing we envisioned and collaborated on together,” says Ohebshalom. “It represents our dreams and our future.”