Before you add to cart and place your next order, have you ever wondered how the tennis bracelet got its iconic name? It’s certainly not part of a standard tennis outfit. Tennis bracelets are typically thin bracelets and feature a single strand of small stones. Tennis bracelets are considered the ultimate statement of elegance and taste. They are designed to stay perfectly in place and catch light from any angle. While these features seem to make these delicate bracelets rather incompatible with playing tennis, this is in fact how they got their name and their fame.
World famous tennis champion Chris Evert, who won 18 Grand Slam tournaments throughout the 70s and 80s was renowned for her love for diamond bracelets. She wore them on and off court and in 1987, during the US Open she famously lost her beloved bracelet while playing and insisted on pausing the match until it was found. As the story goes, when asked by a journalist what she had dropped during the match Evert replied “Oh, that was my tennis bracelet.” During a 2018 interview with AOL she famously said “[I] just dropped my bracelet on center court at the US Open and that's when they called it the tennis bracelet.”
This one, iconic incident not only defined the tennis bracelet category, it also propelled it to the top of womens’ jewellery wishlists. Evert transformed the tennis bracelet into a fashion must-have, cemented her fashion icon status and inspired future generations of athletes, such as Serena Williams to follow her footsteps.
But much has changed since 1987 when Evert famously coined the category. Consumers have evolved and so have tennis bracelets. At CARAT* we are embracing a more sustainable approach and use 100% conflict free lab made diamonds and other gemstones for our tennis bracelets. Read our detailed shopping guide to learn how to pick the perfect tennis bracelet for yourself.
Why Use Lab Grown Diamonds for Tennis Bracelets?
You may wonder why we opt for lab grown diamonds instead of using traditional, mined diamonds. There are three reasons for it: Lab made diamonds are physically, chemically and optically identical to mined diamonds. World leading diamond authentication laboratories provide certificates of authenticity for lab made diamonds. At CARAT* we provide a certificate of authenticity for any GENTLE DIAMONDS purchase that exceeds 0.3 carat stone weight. The second reason why the use of lab made diamonds in tennis bracelets is increasingly popular is that lab grown diamonds are more affordable than mined diamonds. While it is complicated to grow diamonds in a laboratory, the supply chain of lab made diamonds is less complex than that of mined diamonds (which leads to lower costs).
The third reason to go for lab made diamonds is what’s most important to us here at CARAT* LONDON: lab made diamonds are the more ethical choice. Our GENTLE DIAMONDS lab made diamonds are not only 100% conflict free, production requires 6.9 times less water than would be required when mining diamonds and 1,281 times less land is disturbed.
Check out our lab grown diamond tennis bracelets.
