If you have plans to get engaged or married soon, choosing rings will be a high priority. Not everyone goes for diamonds, but if you want to choose the most popular and traditional of gems, there are plenty of choices available to you.
These choices include the number of stones, with the most popular options being a single (solitaire) diamond or a trilogy of three stones, usually with a larger central diamond and either two other diamonds on either side or different gems such as sapphires or rubies.
Whatever number of stones you choose, the key decision is the cut, especially for the dominant gem in the centre.
There are several different options, including the oval cut, emerald cut, pear cut and Asscher cut. To this may be added the Princess Cut.
What Does The Princess Cut Look Like?
A princess cut diamond is square or rectangular in shape, with a symmetrical shape and between 57 and 76 facets, which produces lots of sparkle as the light hits it from all sorts of different angles. It may particularly appeal to those who like lots of very straight, clear-cut lines, as opposed to the curves of some other kinds of cut, like the oval or pear cuts.
It also differs from the emerald cut in having a more symmetrical shape without the long flat slab shape on top, while the Asscher cut, one of the most similar in shape to the princess cut, has angled cuts on the corners.
This means that while the princess cut is very different to some other types of cuts and fairly similar to others, it is still a sufficiently distinctive design to stand out on its own.
Advocates of this design have attributed some very notable qualities to it, including the stone looking larger than it is and having the versatility to work with different rings, from solitaires to halo or trilogy rings.
What Makes The Princess Cut A Modern Option?
The question of whether something looks ‘modern’ is sometimes a matter of debate, not least as many styles and materials come in and out of fashion over time.
However, this is not the case with a princess cut, as this was first devised in the 1970s. That makes it a much more recent design than the other popular diamond cuts.
For example, the Asscher cut first appeared in 1902, while the emerald cut, first used on emeralds in the 1500s, has been popular for diamonds since the 1920s. The pear cut goes back further still, to 1475, when Flemish diamond cutter Lodewyk van Bercken invented it using a new diamond-polishing machine he had just devised.
What this means is you will never see a vintage ring with a princess cut diamond. Anything you see will be dated in the last 50 years. Of course, what that means is that there may be many married ladies you know with this cut. What they probably won’t have done is inherited that ring, with it being passed down as a family heirloom.
Of course, some people love vintage or retro jewellery styles, but if modern is your thing, you cannot go wrong with a princess cut.
Equally, not everyone is inspired by modernity, although when it comes to diamond cuts, this is not necessary anyway; there are plenty of other reasons to love a style.
What Famous Ladies Wear A Princess Cut Diamond?
There will be many who will have more than half an eye on what kind of cuts celebrities are choosing. There’s always someone famous getting engaged or married, so some may feel it is worth seeing what they are doing.
Among the well-known ladies to sport princess cut diamonds is Hilary Duff, whose engagement ring was from hockey-playing fiancé Mike Comrie. The gold ring had a 14-carat princess cut ring as its centrepiece, with two smaller accent diamonds on either side of it.
Another case was that of comedienne and actress Sherri Shepherd, whose engagement ring had a three-carat princess cut centre stone diamond.
At the same time, many people like to go for something a bit different from the styles the celebrities are going for and it may be that absence of princess cuts from some of the more high-profile celebrity engagements of 2025 (like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, or Georgina Rodriguez and Cristiano Ronaldo) might itself be an encouragement.
Other people will take no notice at all of what the famous folk are doing and it is certainly important to remember that an engagement or wedding ring is all about your engagement, your wedding and your life thereafter.
It is precisely because of this that we always seek to meet whatever your tastes require in our bespoke jewellery.
You don’t have to be a princess to wear a princess cut. Instead, you simply have to love its clear, sharp edges, symmetry and sparkle.