Diamonds are forever, but so are gold, silver, and any precious gemstones, particularly when you can repurpose your unworn jewellery pieces into sparkling new designs. Just look at the many lives lived by the Royal Family’s pearls, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds, which have transitioned from brooches to necklaces to tiaras, or the famed 69.42-carat Taylor-Burton diamond, which wore as ring and a necklace, after her husband Richard Burton purchased it for $1.1 million in 1969 (more than £7 million in 2024).
A recent high-profile “jewellery re-styler” is , who turned her two-stone engagement ring, a typical Toi & Moi style, into two distinct rings dubbed “Divorce Rings”. “I don’t think a woman should be stripped of her diamonds just because she’s losing a man,” Ratajkowski explained exclusively to Vogue.
Below, Vogue’s guide to the best places to get your jewellery repurposed.
Pragnell
A vintage specialist that has been in business for six generations, and is based on London’s prestigious Mount Street, Pragnell is a dependable jeweller for converting heritage pieces into the latest bijou du jour. Nothing is too big or too intricate for Pragnell to handle. “Consider a lovely Edwardian gem-set brooch,” says director Tom Crookenden. “A simple renovation could include attaching a chain to convert the piece into a more wearable pendant, a more complex remodel would be to unmount all of the gemstones and create a one-of-a-kind cocktail ring.”
Sophie Breitmeyer
“It is often difficult to recover the full cost of an engagement ring, so repurposing it into something new is a great way to keep it its value,” explains London based Sophie Breitmeyer, who specialises in crafting bespoke engagement rings. When it comes to marraige separations, she’s more used to creating divorce necklaces than rings. More than any other item though, antique brooches are bought into Breitmeyer’s atelier in search of new life. Ten years ago, a particularly special project led her to set the central diamond from an antique brooch into a solitaire engagement ring and, more recently, to add a halo of multi-cut diamonds from the same brooch to mark that couple in question’s tenth anniversary.
Lily Gabriella
According to Burlington Arcade-based Lily Gabriella Elia, restyled heirloom jewellery creates the perfect “something old” for your wedding day. “For a bride-to-be, I revamped a pair of her grandmother’s earrings by adding drop pearls and updating the design into a modern creations,” explains the London designer, who gravitates towards an Art Deco and Modernist aesthetic. She is often asked to give pearls a modern twist, and advises that recycling jewellery can at times be challenging due to material and gemstone limitations. “Flexibility in design is crucial to fulfil the client’s vision,” she says.