Diamond duds! As De Beers sales plummet, even brides want a handbag over a ring

Three weeks ago at London’s gleaming LoveLuxury boutique, owner Emily Abraham jammed a dozen Hermès bags on a spotless glass counter.There was a coveted blue Kelly bag named for the actress Grace Kelly, a classic black Birkin with an 18-karat white gold clasp and an orange croc-embossed purse that matched the famously bright Hermès packaging.“I’ve just got engaged,” said the customer, an ultra-polished woman named Saniya.“And instead of asking for a ring, I’ve asked for an Hermès bag.”Two days later, another shopper walked into LoveLuxury’s Dubai location and asked bag expert Souhaila Loudiy for the same thing.

The social media moments landed hundreds of thousands of views across TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.They also hinted at a new kind of stone-walling.More women are eschewing diamonds in favor of handbags when it comes to milestone markers like engagements, births and new jobs.“I think it’s clear that handbags, particularly high-end bags, have replaced jewelry,” handbag expert and Fashion Institute of Technology professor Emily Blumenthal told The Post.She points to the Fendi Baguette and the Chloe Paddington Bag as examples of Gen Z investment plays that might previously have been a pair of Tiffany studs.“With the price of gold skyrocketing and the rise of lab-grown diamonds, jewelry doesn’t seem to carry the same cachet it used to,” Blumenthal added.That sentiment is backed up by industry data that says the price of natural diamonds on the resale market has sunk more than 50% since 2021.Meanwhile, a new report in the Financial Times traces the fall of the diamond emporium De Beers, which just plummeted from a $13 billion company in 2011 to $2.3 billion.

It is allegedly on the block for just $1 billion.Even with the resale price of Hermès Birkin bags falling a reported 38%, many New York women still want their money where they can see it — swinging off their arm.“These days, bags retain more value than diamonds,” Richie...