My Favorite Color

“What’s your favorite color?” That’s a common question asked by children and fashionistas alike who want to learn more about someone’s personal preference. Color is both transformative and revealing about a person, too.

The Language of Color

Pastel blue transports a wearer to idyllic tropical waters. Red is power, strength and life itself. Green beckons us to think of new life—of spring—full of new beginnings. And yellow is eternally optimistic. Pink is ultra-feminine, while sophisticated black is very uptown.

I have my own history with color. During my university years I studied in Germany. After that, I embarked on a career in TV as a director and photographer in Munich. But when I got married, I became religious and emigrated to Israel—and with that a new start began.

I always saw the world as full of colorful images and in moving clips—and I needed an outlet to continue expressing my love for color. Engaging in the world of fancy color diamonds provided me with that ideal outlet to articulate my love for color.

What’s White?

Personally, white diamonds were completely foreign to me. Rapaport’s colorless diamond report (called the Rap List or Rap Sheet) publishes an updated price list every Thursday.

But I never understood how to figure out the price of white goods. How much or what is 28% below or 16 % below the Rap Sheet?

Leibish and Martin Rappaport

So I stayed away from white diamonds whose prices have been reported in Martin Rapaport’s Rap Sheet since 1978.

In the Footprints of Cartier

I entered the fancy color diamond trade some 35 years ago. Travelling to India for the first time in 1990, I was overtaken with the abundance of goods in fantastic fancy colors. India is an exotic locale awash in sights, smells, and sounds that engulf the senses. 

I imagine I experienced that same thrilling excitement as the brothers Pierre and Jacque Cartier did over a century ago when they embarked on a mission to India for jewels from that intriguing land.

Arranging Colored Stones For Optimum Effect

One of the first lessons I learned was that1+1 is not 2 but 3. And 3 seemed to be the secret number for creating enthralling designs. So we started to make designs with mixed colors in glass boxes.

It quickly became apparent that setting two stones of contrasting colors together produced a more powerful effect than each stone displayed on its own.

Colorful Beginnings

Before online selling became ‘a thing’, we established ourselves as one of the pioneering vendors on the internet. We launched our internet business under the domain, fancydiamonds.net and sold loose fancy colors initially, and then our own jewelry.  We soon found gemstones to be a natural extension to our fancy color diamond business. 

As we watched the first years of our business grow powerfully on the worldwide web, we found we had 2 million site visitors a year.

A Quarter Century On

Today we are over 25 years on the internet, selling different colors as we respond to trending color tastes year after year. For example, in difficult times like this year, bluff colors are in great demand, like Pinkish Brown or brownish Yellow. Brown modifying colors with yellow, or pink create a great price point. 

Building a Solid Foundation

Our foundation has always been offering top quality goods-- stones suitable for jewelers in New Bond St and the Place Vendôme in Paris. But the high point of our business was acquiring Argyle pink diamonds at their Tenders.

Our in-house graduate gemologist, my son Shmulik, a highly regarded specialist in Argyle pink diamonds, runs this operation. We have committed tremendous resources to the Argyle Tenders. We won 26 stones in a 2015 Tender alone.

But we couldn’t sit still once we understood that the Argyle mine was closing in 2020.  We knew we needed to add powerful color goods to our collection.

Argyle Pink Tender stones gave a great upgrade to our goods- their beauty is unparalleled. The similarity between vivid pink diamonds and fine rubies was so apparent that we simply could not ignore its comparison.

Red for the Win

Even today I have difficulty deciding which is more appealing: a fine Pigeon Blood Ruby or an Argyle Fancy Purplish Red diamond?

For me personally though, there’s no question, I found my absolute favorite color—red.

LEIBISH Round Red Ruby and Diamond Halo Earrings

The Pigeon blood color ruby jewelry offers a great alternative to Argyle Pink diamonds which are hard to find.

Sunny Outlook Ahead

The ever-changing market flip-flopped again during this summer of 2024. Intense and vivid yellow diamonds have become as hot as the summer heat in the desert. But goods are hardly available. The Surat manufacturing market has to restart making yellow diamonds especially those with intense and vivid colors.

Yellow diamond ring by Tiffany

Vivid Yellow Diamond Ring by Graff

Yellow diamonds are the basis of all fancy-color jewelry and have the widest market share. We have tremendous resources and expertise in cutting yellow diamonds. We cut every single stone that is set on Jacobs & Co.'s aptly named Billionaire Timeless Treasure Watch—an extraordinary feat that took years to assemble.

After so many flip flops, it appears that the fancy color market is returning to adore its mainstay, with exciting yellow diamond jewelry.