Designing an engagement ring for Taylor Swift is quite the task: she’s one of the most photographed celebrities in history, her engagement has been feverishly rumoured for months, and her romantic life has been analysed in microscopic detail for nearly two decades. So no pressure, right?
The 35-year-old pop megastar announced her engagement to Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce via Instagram on August 26 with the caption: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” (Although you’d need to have one hell of a side hustle to be a gym teacher and afford that ring).
Swift and Kelce have been together since 2023. According to Travis Kelce’s father, the proposal took place at a garden in Lee's Summit, Missouri, almost two weeks ago.
For the big occasion, Swift wore a black-and-white striped Ralph Lauren halter dress, brown Louis Vuitton heeled sandals, and a gold Cartier Santos Demoiselle Quartz watch with an impressive diamond-encrusted face.
Now, onto the ring: Taylor Swift’s engagement ring is a whopping old mine cut diamond, which is colourless, rounded at the corners, bezel-set in yellow gold and features filigree detail work on the band.
Estimates on the cost and carats have varied, but diamond experts at Steven Stone have judged the ring as 12 carats, with a likely value of $700,000. Other jewellers have estimated a price tag of over $1 million.
According to Vogue, Kelce worked closely with the ring’s designer, Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewellery, to design the ring for Taylor Swift.
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Kindred Lubeck is a buzzed about New York-based jeweller who specialises in vintage-inspired, hand-engraved jewellery with “natural and captivating gemstones”. She is the daughter of Jay Lubeck, a well-known goldsmith.
The few rings still up for sale on Lubeck’s website retail between £13,000 and £25,000.
“Artifex is about betting on and believing in yourself even when it feels like no one understands or sees your vision,” Lubeck has said of her brand. “It’s about fearlessly charging forward with no army behind you.” Obviously, Lubeck’s use of the word “fearless” has not been lost on the Swifties, who are already deep into deciphering the ring’s potential easter eggs.
One of the most respected Taylor Swift scholars, @taylorswiftstyled, wrote on Instagram: “If my eyes don’t deceive me, in the photo we have it appears that part of the filigree work includes a small ‘T’, which I would guess is mirrored on the other side of the band.
“If I’m guessing, this is possibly a reference to Taylor and Travis’ couple nickname ‘TnT’ — which Taylor nodded at in her caption via a dynamite emoji. This wouldn’t be the first time Taylor has worn jewellery that references the shorthanded nickname. In these photos, she is wearing her ‘double T’ Tiffany & Co ring that winks to this possibility.”
Lubeck’s latest ring collection is also entitled “from the vault”, which appears to be a nod to Swift’s delayed release of songs that never made it to her original albums.
You’d think with a ring the size of an actual easter egg, there’d be little to (old) mine out of its intricacies, but Swifties will always find a way, after all. Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Americana!
