From Kate Beckinsale, Taylor Swift and Adriana Lima all wearing Lark & Berry in 2021, to most importantly, giving back to our customers by gifting over £20,000 in fine pieces over the Christmas holidays - it was an exciting, whirlwind 2021 for Lark & Berry.
DISRUPTING AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY
For our brand, 2021 was really two big stories in one – how far we’ve come since launching in 2018 and our outstanding accomplishments for the year. A mere 3 years ago, we disrupted the entire fine jewellery industry, causing serious blowback from the biggest, oldest players in our game. But the success we’ve had with each successive year has reinforced what we always knew: Keep offering beautiful products using only sustainable stones, and we’ll succeed.
This intuition proved correct when, contrary to all diamond experts’ predictions, the world started choosing lab-grown diamonds. Headlines proving cultured is the way forward, in every major fashion periodical, now come fast and plentiful. Findings such as “New survey reveals 60 per cent of UK men choose "lab-grown" diamonds for memorable marriage proposals” (From a survey conducted by Mayfair based Rêve Diamonds - November 2021) and “How lab-grown diamonds became every girl’s far more ethical best friend - even a top expert can’t tell the difference.” (Daily Mail – June 2021) Lab-grown diamonds are becoming the norm, as evidenced by our brand having received hundreds of mentions, features and celebrity placements just this year alone.
This brings us to one of our most exciting moments of 2021...
THE LUCKY £10,000 NECKLACE WINNER!
In December, to celebrate the year's accomplishments, we decided to do a £20,000, 12-day giveaway over the holidays. The prize on the final day was a stunning 18ct gold necklace studded with cultured diamonds worth over £10,000 in value! For the first 11 gifts, we had winners from all over the world, and for our final gift, our winner came from none other than London, mere miles from our flagship Marylebone store.
Amy Markley of Wimbledon Village, an accounts manager for an art gallery in Mayfair, was drawn randomly from thousands of entrants. Upon meeting us to receive her grand prize, she had this to say about discovering cultured diamonds and Lark & Berry:
“I heard about Lark & Berry through my mum, who was looking into lab-grown diamonds for her engagement ring a few months previously - and it was actually she who told me to enter the competition! I would 1,000% would go lab over mined, this has completely changed my opinion on mined diamonds and actually educated me further on just how horrific the mined diamonds industry is! This is the way forward for sure, and I will definitely be recommending Lark & Berry and lab-grown to friends.”
--Amy Markley
MAKING THOUSANDS OF CUSTOMERS HAPPY
Our customers are the most important factor in our success. Our celebration of everyone who made us who we are today doesn’t stop with our giveaway. We’ve made hundreds of couples happy by creating their dream engagement rings. One such couple was UK-based pair Shane Fagan and Van Ren Sim, who came to us after a fruitless search through the catalogues of the oldest, most traditional brands:
"From my first visit to the Lark & Berry location in Marylebone, I knew the search was over. Their experts helped me navigate a confusing world of engagement rings, and then they guided me through collaboration on every detail of the ring's design, including of course on finding the perfect diamond. I'm grateful for their making this a fun process, and more importantly for Van's stunning and truly unique ring."
--Shane Fagan
2021 also saw us help hundreds of customers change up their looks with our fine piercings in our London studio when eases on lockdowns permitted, which helped to lift many spirits in these trying times:
“I just love your jewellery! I had been thinking about getting something as a 3rd lobe piercings for a little while. So, I was looking over your catalogue and I just really loved the design with this Hoop. And when I decided on that piece, I just thought getting it as a 3rd lobe piercing would really complete my ear in the way I had been wanting to.”
--Laura Baggi, satisfied customer and local Londoner
CELEB & PRESS SUPPORT
The world continues to take notice of the disrupting impact Lark & Berry is making on the fine jewellery sphere. We were grateful to be featured in the Daily Mail last year, where our founder Laura touched on being inspired by the movie ‘Blood Diamond’ and by the elegance of her grandmother - both integral ingredients in forming Lark & Berry.
Despite stresses caused by COVID, 2021 was still a year of Lark & Berry jewellery being sported by some of the biggest names in show business. Taylor Swift wore us on both Jimmy Fallon and appearance on SNL as musical guest. Her publicist even excitedly reported Taylor wore us out on a night with her friends! Kate Beckinsale and Adriana Lima both wore us to red carpet events, and Priyanka Chopra wore us on one of her most important campaigns this year!
There’s too many more to write about in such a short blog, so here is just some of the 2021 celeb love!
We are also grateful for all the international press we got in 2021 – many of these outlets have shown us support since the beginning, even through all the early pushback!
Lark & Berry enters 2022 with expectations sky-high, and we have every intention of exceeding them! We have so much in store for you… but we don’t want to spoil the surprises. Follow us on social @larkandberry for great content and our latest brand news. We want you to know that our success just wouldn't be possible without you. There’s no kind of exposure we love better than our customers wearing Lark & Berry jewellery out in the world and starting a conversation about buying fine jewellery that’s made better for the planet and people.
