Has wedding ring shopping become a stressful experience? This monumental purchase should feel fun and exciting, and HOLDEN wants to give you the best ring shopping experience. HOLDEN is reinventing what it means to be a fine jewelry company. The NK Bride team is happy to share the inside details on how Jewelry companies can work for their customers, and what HOLDEN can do for you.
Q: HOLDEN has a very new and modern approach to wedding band shopping. Can you walk us through how the process works? What can those looking to shop with you expect out of the experience?
A: So many of our couples have come to us after having a negative experience in a traditional jewelry store. They’ve felt overwhelmed, pressured, or excluded by pushy salespeople (particularly if they don’t look like the couples that have dominated wedding industry media for the past 50 years). We want to make shopping for a wedding ring fun and joyful! It’s a purchase that celebrates your love and is something you’ll see every day for the rest of your life. We don’t want people to feel pressured to decide in a split second with a stranger breathing down their necks, so having an online shopping experience is something that we think makes people feel more comfortable and relaxed.
Q: What inspires the HOLDEN team? As a collective of creative designers and craftsmen, are there any unifying inspirations in creating a HOLDEN ring?
A: We’ve always been drawn towards clean, geometric shapes, but at the end of the day it’s about the customers and what they’re looking for. We like to think of our standard profiles as canvases - we’re giving our couples the tools and puzzle pieces to build the ring they want.
Q: Sustainability is an important topic in the fashion and jewelry world, what does HOLDEN do for sustainability that sets it apart from other jewelry brands?
A: Something that is essential to us is using sustainably sourced materials. We use exclusively recycled and conflict-free precious metals for our rings, and we have chosen to only source lab grown diamonds for our diamond rings. In many cases, it’s impossible to trace a mined diamond to its exact origin, so we prefer to use lab-grown diamonds. We also custom make every ring to order, so we have zero backstock that becomes waste if nobody buys it. We try to be as sustainable as possible in other ways - our packing peanuts are biodegradable in water and we’re always looking for new ways to become more sustainable. We also offer pickups at our office in Midtown if you’re based in NYC and want to avoid shipping altogether.
Q: Can you explain what a lab grown diamond is, and why it is a good choice for jewelry production?
A: Lab grown diamonds are diamonds grown in a lab rather than mined from deep within the Earth. All lab grown diamonds start with what’s called a diamond seed, which is an extremely thin sheet of pure carbon. Through extremely high pressures and temperatures mimicking the conditions deep within the earth, the seed is grown into a rough diamond which is then polished. Fun fact: because diamonds are the hardest mineral, only diamonds can polish diamonds! We like lab grown diamonds for three main reasons: they’re more environmentally friendly (they use significantly less water and energy), they’re less expensive than mined diamonds, and they’re conflict-free (they’re fully traceable - zero chance of accidentally purchasing a blood diamond). We wrote a blog post on lab grown diamonds with more information if you’re interested in learning more!
Q: As an evolution of the standard jewelry company what problems from the traditional jewelry industry is HOLDEN solving?
A: One of the reasons we started HOLDEN was to modernize a sometimes archaic-feeling industry that wasn’t adapting to the world as quickly as it should. We’d heard horror stories from friends and family saying they had been made to feel uncomfortable in jewelry stores because salespeople were pushy or judgmental, or that they made assumptions about couples that were hurtful and untrue. We sought to change that at HOLDEN, allowing couples to make the decision on their own time while remaining super accessible to them should they have any questions or need any help. We’ve also consciously kept our selection curated, because we’ve found that some online jewelers have so many options that couples feel overwhelmed. We have our standard rings that you can customize, but of course, if there’s something you want that you don’t see, chances are we can make it happen.
Q: Is HOLDEN’s New York City location a significant factor in your brands success? What about the city influences the way HOLDEN operates?
A: We <3 NY! It’s really important to us to know the people who make our rings, and we’re in our workshops every day. Our business is located in the Diamond District, and all of our rings are handcrafted within a block of our office by jewelers with generations of experience. There’s so much history in New York City’s jewelry industry: we love being able to tap into traditional jewelry making techniques while also modernizing it with the direct to consumer model. New York is also such an energetic city on the forefront of change and progress, and we love to feel like a part of that.
Q: Delivery to your door is a convenience that the younger generation craves, do you feel that HOLDEN has potential to grow with time because of the specific values of your brand?
A: Something we didn’t expect was that purchasing wedding rings sometimes slips through the cracks while couples are planning a wedding! They’ll suddenly remember at the eleventh hour when they have approximately one million other things to do, so the convenience of being able to design a ring online and have it delivered to your door is something people really love about HOLDEN (although don’t wait until too late - because our rings are custom made to order, allow for two weeks until your ring is ready to ship!).
As things move more and more online, it’s so important for people to still feel like there are people on the other side of the interaction. As long as we stay dedicated to stellar and accessible customer service (we just introduced a texting option in addition to calls, email, livechat, Instagram, and Facebook messages), I think we’ll continue to grow!
Q: HOLDEN is for all couples, what do you do as a brand to make sure all couples feel welcomed and included?
A: It’s essential to us that every person who comes to HOLDEN feels represented. The wedding industry is historically set in the idea of “his and hers” and this is something we’re actively pushing against. Our rings aren’t gendered - any person can purchase any of our rings. We are dedicated to using inclusive language in all of our content and to representing all types of couples - we want everyone to feel included by our brand. We also want to make sure that in addition to our communications, we’re financially invested in contributing to change - we are in the process of partnering with a charity right now that supports LGBTQ youth.
Q: What do people love most about getting their rings through HOLDEN? Are there any compliments that you receive from clients consistently?
A: People love our customer service, which feels awesome! We’re a small company and we dedicate a huge amount of our time to making sure all of our couples feel supported and heard. We make resizings and returns super easy for couples, and we really bend over backwards to make sure you get the exact ring you want.
Q: How does your lifetime guarantee work? How does this policy support your goal to make wedding rings not only meaningful, but easy?
A: We understand that your wedding ring is a lifetime commitment, and we want people to feel like HOLDEN is there for the duration, so we offer a lifetime guarantee with free resizings for life.
Q: HOLDEN has signature ring styles, how does a bride move forward if they are interested in a more customized ring? What would this process look like? Are there one-on-one appointment options with HOLDEN designers?
A: Because all of our rings are custom, it’s definitely possible to customize our rings further than our options on our website. You can email help@hiholden.com to be put in touch with one of our designers to talk about what you’re thinking! If you’re in the NYC area, you’re totally welcome to book an appointment to see our rings in person and discuss customization, but if you already have a specific idea in mind, go ahead and send us an email and we’ll let you know if it’s possible!
Q: What are your most popular ring styles? Do you see trends developing in ring design?
A: Our classic domed band is our most popular, but because everything from width to metal to karat to polish is customizable, it’s tough to narrow it down to a specific ring. As far as trends go, we love the idea of both partners wearing engagement bands/rings, regardless of gender.
Q: What’s coming up for HOLDEN? Any new designs or projects to watch out for?
A: We’re planning to introduce a few other jewelry product categories later this year! Some of the early designs look amazing and the whole team is really excited about the launch. Just like our current offerings, our new products will be customizable and designed for people of all genders. Keep an eye out for new ring designs as well!
To learn more about Holden check out their website!