New York – The Natural Diamond Council recently unveiled the latest images for its global advertising campaign starring Lily James, which will be available to retailers until 2024.
“To Treasure Now and Forever” was first launched last autumn when the NDC signed the British actress as its second global ambassador.
She succeeds Ana de Armas, who will front the “Moments Like No Other” campaign in 2020 and 2021.
James made her British television debut in 2010. She was introduced to US audiences in 2013 when she played Lady Rose in Downton Abbey.
She played the title character in the 2015 live-action adaptation of “Cinderella,” and received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her portrayal of Pam Anderson in the 2022 Hulu miniseries “Pam & Tommy.”
Next month, she’ll star opposite Kristin Scott Thomas in Lyonesse in London’s West End.For the second iteration of To Treasure Now and Forever, James wore four different outfits paired with natural diamond jewellery from a variety of designers, including Anita Ko and Norman Silverman, as well as independent jewellers such as Greenwich St. Jewelers and Material Good in New York and Aucoin Hart Jewelers in Louisiana.
The idea behind the shoot, says NDC, was to showcase diamonds’ ability to go from day to night.
The looks range from casual, such as a pair of diamond tennis necklaces worn with a white tank top and jeans, to more formal, with James pictured on a New York City street at night wearing a black dress with a diamond choker, ring, piles of bangles and a trio of Huggie hoop earrings.
Photographer Cass Bird shot the campaign, while Rebecca Corbin-Murray styled James and The Wall Group’s Halley Brisker, with hair and make-up by Valeria Ferreira.
The Natural Diamond Council’s latest effort to promote natural diamonds comes at a time when diamond jewellery sales are falling from pandemic highs and competition from lab-grown diamonds is increasing.
Earlier this month, De Beers Group announced it was revamping its 1990s “Seize the Day” category campaign and reviving “A Diamond Is Forever” in a $20 million effort to boost demand for natural diamonds in the United States and China this holiday season.
It also said Lightbox, its lab-grown diamond brand, would no longer sell engagement rings, ending a short-lived test.
To Treasure Now and Forever will run until 2024 and will be used by NDC retail partners including Razny Jewelers and Hamilton Jewelers in the US, Chow Tai Fook in China and Malabar in the United Arab Emirates.
