Millennials are still buying diamonds, just not the way their parents did

For a baby boomer, the diamond ring is bought way before the wedding but, for millennials, the ring can come without a wedding and after the couple has had kids. — 123rf.com

Even if you can’t afford to buy a diamond ring at Tiffany & Co’s Michigan Avenue flagship, you can watch one being made. It’s part of a temporary exhibit showing customers how a diamond goes from a rock to a finished piece of jewellery.

Tiffany CEO Alessandro Bogliolo was in town recently to launch the exhibit, which will remain at the Chicago store for six months. He talked about what the 182-year-old luxury jewellery retailer is doing to attract a new generation of shoppers, why he thinks millennials aren’t abandoning diamonds and why you won’t see lab-grown diamonds in Tiffany’s trademark blue boxes.