In a sweet video and a series of photos shared on their Instagram accounts this week, Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber can be seen kissing on a cloudy day in Hawaii.
The couple, who got married in a private ceremony in New York back in 2018, seemed to be renewing their wedding vows in a windswept, grassy field and Hailey Bieber, draped in a white lace dress, showed off a growing baby bump.
Looking a little closer at the romantic video and accompanying photos, eagle-eyed jewellery afficionados were able to spot that the couple were sporting matching eternity rings – the ‘Forever’ diamond bands by Tiffany & Co., which are crafted from platinum and feature a full circle of gleaming white diamonds.
According to the New York-based jeweller, “each Tiffany Forever ring celebrates the eternal bond of lifelong love and commitment.” Indeed, the house is something of a pro when it comes to romantic jewels – its founder, Charles Lewis Tiffany, arguably introduced the silhouette of the modern engagement ring when he created a prominent, six-prong diamond-set ring (aptly known as the Tiffany setting) back in 1886. It’s still a bestselling engagement ring design over 130 years later.
By choosing a pair of eternity rings for each other, the Bieber’s are actually tapping into a romantic tradition that can apparently be traced back to the early Egyptians (around 2,000 BC), who wore circular ‘shen’ rings or amulets (stylised loops of rope) as symbols of permanence, infinity and eternal protection.
The Egyptians also introduced the concept of the circular Ouroboros ring – a snake eating its own tail – as a symbol of the endless cycle of death and rebirth, which was adopted by the Greeks and, eventually, the Victorian Europeans, who wore it as a symbol of eternal commitment and adoration. Prince Albert famously gave Queen Victoria a snake ring with an emerald head and ruby eyes for their engagement.
These serpentine rings were eventually replaced by sleeker, gem-set rings in the 1920s, which looked more like the eternity band as we now know it.
The modern eternity ring itself was introduced in the 1960s, pioneered by the diamond company De Beers, as a band of precious metal set with an unbroken line of small, identically-cut gemstones (usually white diamonds, which can either adorn the top half of the ring, or its full length) to symbolise never-ending affection and love.
Indeed, the brand was the first to associate diamonds with commitment, thanks to its infamous ‘a diamond is forever’ marketing campaign, which debuted in the late 1940s.
Now, eternity rings are often chosen as wedding bands to sit alongside a bride’s engagement ring, or to celebrate an important anniversary. Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy all famously sported diamond eternity bands, while more recently, The Princess of Wales was given a diamond eternity ring by Prince William following the birth of their son Prince George, and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, was given an eternity ring by Prince Harry in 2019 to mark their first wedding anniversary.
As the fabulous Biebers attract enormous amounts of attention with everything they do, expect sales of this classic love token to soar once again this summer.
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