New Rock on the Block: All About Taylor Swift’s Engagement Ring.
On August 26th, I sat in my Walsh living room after the second day of classes, mindlessly scrolling to decompress. Suddenly, my Instagram refreshed and within a second my roommates heard me scream: “Oh my GOD!” That's right, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married 🧨” read the caption of Taylor Swift’s Instagram post, and the world learned that Taylor Swift was engaged.
As a lifelong T-Swift fan, I was over the moon. Before I even swiped through the dreamy engagement photos, I was calling my sister and my friends, screaming the news to them. But when I finally slowed down to look through the proposal post, I froze on slide three. Bam! Taylor’s new bling.
An up-close image of Swift’s new ring. Via: @taylorswift IG
A brilliant old mine-cut diamond now sits on Swift’s ring finger, and if you haven’t seen it yet, prepare to be wowed. Diamond experts have been predicting that the stone is anywhere from 7 to 13 carats, which puts off quite the sparkle, as you can imagine. Set in a yellow-gold bezel setting, intricate engravings and smaller diamonds also decorate the band. The ring was seen glistening from the Kelce suite at Arrowhead Stadium at the couple’s first outing as fiancés to watch the University of Cincinnati football game.
But who is the artist behind the hottest new engagement ring? Her name is Kindred Lubeck, and she, along with the help of Travis Kelce, designed this custom piece for Taylor. Kindred is originally a goldsmith who specializes in hand engravings like the ones she implemented into Swift’s ring design. She founded her company Artifex Jewelry in 2023, after being told for years by industry professionals that she could never be a jewelry maker.
Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewelry. Via: @artifexfine IG
Lubeck has developed her company into an artisan house that sells out entire collections of her antique-inspired jewels. Recently, she released her latest series called “The Vault Collection,” which features 11 uniquely timeless pieces. Whether intentional or not, her announcement post for this collection started with the words “From the vault,” giving the perfect allusion to Swift’s vault tracks from her re-recorded albums. I think that Kindred is the perfect person to have designed Taylor’s new sparkler. Her initiatives rely on making jewelry more than just a pretty novelty, but also something that makes you feel and connect with her pieces. Clearly, Travis put a lot of thought into selecting the right artist to design his future bride’s ring, and an artisan, storytelling jewelry-maker like Kindred Lubeck was the right choice.
Taylor and Travis at their engagement. Via: @taylorswift IG
This whole engagement has both my Swiftie mind and my fashion mind very excited for what is to come. Will the old mine-cut diamond become the engagement trend of the season? Who will design Taylor’s wedding gown? Will we get to see any wedding content from the Americana couple? Let me know what you think on our Instagram!
Sources: https://www.brides.com, https://www.elle.com, https://people.com, https://www.forbes.com