Actress Ana de Armas on the importance of supporting jewellery designers of colour

msn.com:

Blonde, in which she portrays Marilyn Monroe, Ana de Armas is diving into a world Monroe knew quite a lot about: diamonds. The film and fashion icon famously sang "Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend" in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and was known for her elegant style and love of high jewellery (remember when she wore the spectacular yellow diamond necklace dubbed The Moon of Baroda?).

At the time, however, the diamond industry was seen as untouchable and unreachable for both ordinary buyers and small jewellery designers; and only big names, such as De Beers and Tiffany & Co, got the business and the notoriety.

At the same time, conflict diamonds and diamond smuggling became real problems. Now, the Natural Diamond Council, along with brand ambassador De Armas, is looking to change that by backing young designers from around the world and educating buyers on the current state of the industry, which is moving toward a more sustainable and inclusive future. "I started working with the NDC in 2020 and I think it was a process for me of learning," De Armas tells Bazaar at the NDC's launch event in New York City, adding that she got to see how women in Botswana ran diamond mines and handled tractors, and essentially got to know the community behind the precious stones.

Earlier this week, the NDC debuted the collections of the second class of artists from its Emerging Designers Diamond Initiative, which launched in January 2021 with 1 million dollars of diamond credit dedicated to supporting emerging BIPOC jewellery designers, in partnership with Lorraine Schwartz. "The EDDI program was founded specifically to break down the generally very large barriers to entry in the diamond industry," Grant Mobley, a diamond and.