Adwoa Aboah Stars in De Beers Jewelry Campaign as Company Rebrands, Readies Paris Flagship

LONDON - The De Beers diamond jewelry brand is facing the future with a new name, a fresh focus and a campaign that aims to reflect its multicultural origins.

The company, which launched in 2001 as De Beers Diamond Jewellers, has rebranded as De Beers London, with the tag line "True brilliance comes from within."

A new campaign called Portraits of True Brilliance will be released Monday and stars the model and mental health activist Adwoa Aboah. It reflects the brand's new attitude which is female-focused and proud of its roots in London and southern Africa.

Shot by the British photographer Oliver Hadlee Pearch in a classic London town house, the campaign looks to capture the creativity of its designs which are inspired by the natural world.

In the campaign, Aboah is photographed wearing pieces from the Talisman collection, which is marking its 20th anniversary this year. The collection combines rough and polished diamonds, and challenged convention when it launched in 2005.

She also wears pieces from the Enchanted Lotus collection. The jewelry shapes are inspired by the watery flower, which grows abundantly in the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

The campaign and rebrand mark the culmination of Céline Assimon's tenure as chief executive officer of the jewelry brand. As reported, she will be leaving the company at the end of February after more than four years, and a search is underway for her successor.

In an interview, Assimon she said it was important to emphasize what makes De Beers jewelry different.

"London has a unique combination of history and tradition with edginess and modernity. It's a true melting pot of culture and creativity. We are reinforcing our identity as a brand born and raised in London, with roots and soul in the incredible nature of southern Africa," she said.

"We've been working hard behind the scenes," Assimon said. She described the lead-up to the campaign as a "journey," aimed at refining the brand's identity as a creative, design-driven brand rather than a "diamond provider."

She said the campaign is important for a variety of reasons, and evidence that De Beers is speaking increasingly to women who are looking for something not-so-traditional and purchasing for themselves across a variety of price points.

Assimon and her team picked Aboah for the campaign because she "perfectly embodies the De Beers woman. She is graceful, sophisticated and committed to the causes she believes in. Most of all, she is absolutely unafraid to be her authentic self. She personifies our belief that true brilliance comes from within," she said.

The sweet spot for Enchanted Lotus sales is between 5,000 pounds and 10,000 pounds, although prices can dip as low as 2,400 pounds for a pendant necklace or pin.

Assimon also said De Beers is seeing "a lot of appetite" for the high jewelry collections that range in price from 30,000 pounds to 200,000 pounds.

She said that woman buying for themselves tend to buy unconventional pieces rather than the classics they might already have, such as tennis bracelets, diamond studs and solitaire rings.

"We're also seeing women wanting to layer more design pieces with classic ones to express their own creativity," she said.