Christine Hvelplund has one rule - Diamonds!
For the Danish jewellery designer Christine Hvelplund, diamonds are not a feature but a non-negotiable. Every single piece she designs contains at least one, it is the only rule she designs from.
That constraint, far from limiting her, is the source of everything the brand stands for.
The Copenhagen-based designer came to jewellery through the diamond trade. For several years, she worked alongside her husband at his high-end watch and jewellery store in the centre of the city - first trading loose diamonds, then moving into design. That origin matters. Where most designers come to diamonds through aesthetics, Christine came through the stones themselves. She handpicks every diamond personally, and that eye for quality runs through every piece she makes.
"The diamond is always the center of the pieces I create, but it's never the 'classic' diamond piece - it always has a feminine and modern feel."
Christine Hvelplund explains. That distinction is worth sitting with. Christine Hvelplund jewellery is not the diamond jewellery of a previous generation - the solitaires and tennis bracelets that announce themselves immediately. It is something more considered: diamonds placed with intention, in designs that feel as relevant today as they will in twenty years.
"Timeless jewellery that will last forever, while still being modern."
- Christine Hvelplund
The brand has a deeply personal quality that customers respond to consistently. Several pieces are named after Christine's three children. Her oldest daughter Naila models many of the campaigns and works within the business. "Customers really like that it is a personal, loving, family affair," Christine says - and it shows in the work. These are not pieces designed by committee or market research. Christine only designs jewellery she would wear herself.
"When you purchase a piece of Christine Hvelplund jewellery," she says, "you purchase something that I have put my heart and soul into."
The Conscious Collier is her own dream piece - a statement design that represents the full ambition of what the brand can do. The Flower earstick sits at a more accessible price point and is already a bestseller, a newer design that has found its audience quickly. Both are expressions of the same philosophy: a diamond at the centre, a modern sensibility around it, and the quality to justify keeping it for a lifetime - or passing it on to the next generation.
"I design jewellery you want to pass on to future generations, and which is designed to be just that."
- Christine Hvelplund
In a market where so much jewellery is made to be replaced, that is a more radical position than it sounds. For anyone looking for diamond jewellery with a genuinely contemporary edge, Christine Hvelplund, selling via The Jewellery Room, is exactly that.
Further reading: The complete guide to buying diamond jewellery