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Trends in engagement rings move slowly, then all at once. We have been designing them from our Mt Hawthorn studio since Stelios Palioudakis took over in 2007, and for the first decade the order book barely shifted. Round brilliant, white gold, six claws, set high. That was most of what left the bench.

The last four years have been different. The centre stone is now more likely to be elongated than round. Yellow gold has gone from a metal we rarely quoted to roughly a third of new commissions. And close to half the couples who walk in ask about lab grown before we raise it.

Here is what Perth couples are actually commissioning in 2026, why each of these has taken hold, and where we would tell you to be careful. One caveat before any of it: a trend is a terrible reason to buy a ring that has to work for fifty years. Read this as a map of what is available, not a shopping list.

Coloured Diamonds

White is not the only option, and it has not been for a while.

Yellow, champagne, cognac and blue diamonds all appear in our bespoke work now, usually as a centre stone in a simple setting that gets out of the way. The appeal is straightforward. A coloured centre reads as deliberate. Nobody chooses one by accident, which is precisely the point for couples who do not want a ring that resembles everyone else’s.

Where to be careful: colour grading in fancy diamonds is far less standardised than in whites, and price swings hard on saturation and hue. See the stone under two different lights before committing, because a yellow that sings under showroom halogen can flatten in daylight.

Pink Diamonds

Western Australian pink diamonds sit in a category of their own, and their story has changed since we first wrote about them.

The Kimberley mine that supplied roughly nine tenths of the world’s pinks closed in November 2020. Certified stones with original paperwork have not become more available since, and they will not. That scarcity is real rather than marketing, and it is why pinks behave differently to almost every other stone we sell. Most jewellery loses value the moment it leaves the shop. Certified pinks are among the few exceptions, which we cover properly on our investment stones pages.

We hold loose pink diamonds at the studio and set them both as centres and as accents. A single 0.05 carat pink in the gallery of an otherwise white ring is a quietly popular request, and it costs a fraction of a pink centre stone.

Halo Rings

The classic halo has not gone anywhere, but the way it is being used has changed completely.

A traditional halo rings the centre stone with smaller diamonds and makes it read visibly larger, which is why it dominated the 2010s. What clients ask for now is the hidden halo: a ring of small stones set beneath the centre, invisible from above and only revealed when the wearer turns her hand. It adds sparkle and lifts the stone slightly without adding any visual bulk from the top.

It is the single most requested personalisation detail we build and works with almost every centre shape. It is also the detail photographs miss, so see one in person.

Vintage Style

Vintage is less about the ring looking old and more about the cut of the stone.

Rose cuts, old mine cuts and old European cuts have all returned strongly. These were cut by hand under candlelight and lamplight, before electric light and modern proportion standards, so they return a softer, warmer, slower sparkle than a modern brilliant. Under the harsh afternoon light we get through the shopfront window on Scarborough Beach Road, a modern brilliant flashes hard and an old mine cut glows. Some people prefer the second thing immediately.

Vintage-inspired detail follows the same logic. Hand engraving and milgrain, both done in house, give a band texture a machine finish cannot. If you inherited a stone, an antique-style setting is often the most honest home for it.

Art Deco Rings

Art deco design, originating in the 1920s, is built on symmetry, geometry and strong lines, and it has aged better than almost any other period style.

The trilogy layout is the one we build most: a centre stone with two flanking stones, often tapered baguettes, sometimes a coloured gem between two white diamonds. Baguettes are unforgiving to set, because a step cut shows any misalignment instantly, which is exactly why we like them as a demonstration of bench work. You can see the range in our art deco collection.

Deco suits anyone who wants geometry without fuss. Emerald and radiant cuts both sit naturally inside it.

Pear Shaped Diamonds And Elongated Cuts

Pear was once considered an unusual choice for an engagement ring. It is now part of the biggest shape shift we have seen in twenty years.

Ovals, pears, marquise and elongated cushions all share one property: length. A stone that runs up the finger reads larger per carat than a round of identical weight, and it lengthens the visible line of the hand. That is the whole reason for their rise. Ovals are the most requested shape through our door at present, with marquise climbing steadily on the back of its vintage silhouette.

East-west settings extend the idea further by running an elongated stone horizontally across the finger. It reads as modern immediately, it suits smaller hands well, and it photographs quite differently to anything else on this list.

Where to be careful: pears and marquise have points, and points chip. Both need a v-claw or a protective bezel at the tip, particularly if the wearer works with her hands. That is a setting decision, not a stone decision, and it is worth insisting on.

Yellow And Rose Gold Bands, And Mixed Metals

White gold and platinum ran unchallenged for two decades. Warm metals have taken a serious share back.

Yellow gold now sits at roughly a third of our new commissions, up from almost nothing when we opened. It suits warmer skin tones, it needs no rhodium re-plating, and it reads as deliberate against a modern clean-line setting rather than merely traditional. Rose gold gets its colour from copper in the alloy, which makes it slightly harder than the other two, and it pairs particularly well with elongated shapes and morganite centres.

The newer move is mixed metal. Clients now request two-tone deliberately rather than accepting it as a compromise: a yellow gold band with platinum claws, which is both a design choice and a structural one, since platinum holds a stone more securely over decades.

Two metals in a ring reads as intentional. Three starts to look like indecision.

Toi Et Moi Rings

Two stones, side by side, meaning you and me. The style is a couple of centuries old and has come back hard in the last three years.

It works because it carries meaning without needing explanation, and because it offers a design problem worth solving. The two stones can match or contrast. We have built pear and oval pairs, a diamond alongside a sapphire, and one memorable ring pairing a white diamond with a Kimberley pink.

It is not for everyone. A toi et moi sits wider on the finger than a solitaire of the same total carat weight and is harder to pair with a straight wedding band. Design the band at the same time or plan on a fitted one.

Lab Grown Centre Stones

This is the single largest change in the market, not just a trend.

Around six in ten American couples now choose a lab grown centre, and while Australian numbers lag, the direction is identical. The average lab grown centre runs around 2 carats against roughly 1.6 for natural, which tells you exactly what people are doing with the price difference.

Our position has not changed. Lab grown buys more size and clarity for the money, and it will not hold value, because production capacity is effectively unlimited and prices continue to fall. Both facts are true at once. If the ring’s job is to look extraordinary on a hand, that is not a problem. If it is meant to be worth something to a grandchild, it is. We set both and explain the trade-off the same way every time, which we have written up in lab grown versus natural diamonds.

Bespoke Pieces

Every trend above is available off a shelf somewhere. What clients increasingly want is a ring that belongs to them specifically.

That is most of what we do. Every commission moves from conversation to 3D rendering to a silver prototype you can wear before anything is cast, so nothing is committed to gold until you have seen and worn the actual proportions. Interstate clients get the prototype posted out.

Personalisation now shows up in small ways rather than large ones. A hidden halo. Hand engraving inside the shank that nobody else will read. A family stone repurposed into a new mounting, which we do constantly, and which is the only genuinely irreplaceable material we handle. Roughly one in five rings we make contains a stone that was already in the family.

The bench doing this work carries close to two centuries of combined experience. Master jeweller Paul holds two Jewellery Association of Australia Awards, and the same team handcrafts the Miss Universe Australia crown each cycle. Your ring goes through at least two pairs of hands before it leaves the building.

Frequently Asked Questions

The trend questions we get asked across the counter.

What Is The Most Popular Engagement Ring Shape Right Now?

Oval, by a clear margin, with round brilliant still second and marquise climbing. Elongated shapes read larger per carat, which is most of the reason for the shift.

Should I Choose A Ring Based On Trends?

Only partly. Trends are useful for discovering what exists and useless as a decision rule. The rings that still look right after twenty years are the ones designed around the wearer’s hand and daily life rather than around the year they were bought.

Is Yellow Gold Really Back?

Yes, and it has held for five years now rather than spiking. It has gone from a metal we rarely quoted to roughly a third of our commissions.

Are Hidden Halos Worth The Extra Cost?

Usually. The cost is modest relative to the centre stone, and it adds sparkle and a small amount of height without changing the ring’s profile from above. It is the detail clients mention most often a year later.

Can I Combine Several Of These Trends In One Ring?

You can, and it is where most bespoke work lands. Be careful about stacking too many. An elongated east-west stone in mixed metals with a hidden halo and hand engraving is four ideas competing for one finger. Two is usually the limit before a ring stops reading as designed and starts reading as busy.

Come And See What Is Actually Selling

Trend articles are written months before you read them, ours included. The order book is more current than any of it.

Come to our Mt Hawthorn studio and we will show you what is genuinely leaving the bench right now, put elongated shapes next to rounds on the hand the ring is for, and let you see a hidden halo from the angle it was designed for. You can look through the custom gallery beforehand, or start shaping something with our bespoke ring builder. If you are early in the process, what to know about engagement rings covers the fundamentals first.

Book a consultation and bring photographs of jewellery she already wears. They tell us more than any trend list.