Yellow, White or Rose Gold

A constant at Stone Paris is the marriage of gold and diamonds. The timeless combination lends the brand’s design a classic elegance.  

Stone Paris specialises in 18kt solid yellow, white and rose gold and all the diamonds follow the Kimberley process, which ensures the stones are not conflict diamonds.

We spoke to jeweller Marie Poniatowski about gold, from giving a choice to her customers to her love of mixing gold colours.

In its rough form, gold is yellow. To make other colours of gold, jewellers either add an alloy – rose gold is gold and copper – or have to plate – for white and black gold.

Marie says: “Gold is yellow to start with. To get rose gold, we add copper. For white gold, you need to plate, and I add palladium to it so it’s whiter. So yes, you may need to replate at some point, but it depends on how acidic your skin is.”

Because different colours of gold are made differently, maintenance varies. White gold may need replating after a couple of years, yellow and rose gold may show scratches and may need to be polished to keep their brand new look…

However, no matter what jewellery you have, Marie has a handy tip to maintain it: “Of course, don’t sleep with your jewellery, don’t go into the ocean, don’t shower with it on…

“You need to look after your jewellery, and the best way to do that is to use washing up liquid, a soft toothbrush and once it’s clean, dry it with a hairdryer on the cold setting. It will remove soap, moisturiser, and any dirt that’s accumulated.”

Stone Paris is a jewellery brand that offers a choice of gold to its customers. For Marie, this is a no-brainer.

“Every colour of gold gives you something different. There are fashions, but I don’t want to buy into it. And proposing my pieces in different colours of gold puts me outside fashions. At one point, it was white gold, then it was black gold, then rose gold, and all of a sudden yellow gold came back. It never stops changing. And it also depends on countries, even cities!

“I believe jewellery is outside time, it’s for an entire life and to pass on. I don’t like the fashion cycle side of things, so that’s why I have all the colours.

“We’re all different, and we should be able to have the same jewellery but not in the same colour. And I don’t want to be the one to tell you “this is the colour” if it doesn’t suits you.”

Giving choice to her customers is paramount to Marie, who recalls being shocked when her godmother would only design for women like herself.

“When I was a child, I would see my godmother, who was at the head of Lanvin, and she would only make dresses that you couldn’t wear if you had any breasts, because she had none. It has always shocked me. It goes back to childhood when I thought, you can’t do that.

“When you create a brand it’s to make people dream, it’s about aspiration and inspiration. If I only make things I like, this will seriously reduce the number of people I can reach, it will only be women like me. I want Stone Paris to be a brand for every woman, whoever and wherever she is, whatever she likes most… I want to make them happy.”

Marie “wants to appeal to all these women who don’t all have the same tastes or the same preferences, but it also has to go with the overall look of the collection. I won’t put rose gold with emeralds, because I don’t find it pretty, but that’s my personal taste”.

Stone Paris, in the end, is Marie’s brand and while she goes to great length to appeal to “every woman”, her collections still start with her tastes. 

“If I find a colour doesn’t go with a model, I don’t do it. I always do white, white gold goes with everything. Rose or yellow don’t necessarily go with everything, but that’s my taste, it’s subjective. If a piece is pretty in all the colours, we do all the colours.”

Stone Paris’ fans may wonder what colour of gold they should go for, and Marie believes you don’t really have to choose.

“Which gold will look best on you depends on your skin tone, silhouette, style… some women wear rose gold beautifully, other make yellow gold beautiful…

“What do you wear? What is your style? What other jewellery do you own?

“For example, I love mixing gold, I find yellow and white gold go beautifully together. I don’t find it shocking to mix and match gold colours. We have loads of small earring we sell separately, why not experiment?

“But this is extremely personal and about my taste, another jeweller may tell you the exact opposite!”

Deciding on a colour of gold is extremely personal. Think of your style, other pieces you own, or like Marie, pick what you find the prettiest or mix and match to your heart’s content. 

But remember: Pure gold is always yellow, but pure gold is too soft to make jewellery with. The amount of gold in an alloy – which is what gold jewellery is made of – is measured in karat.

24 karats is pure gold

18 karats is 75% gold

14 karats is 58.3% gold

10 karats is 41.7% gold

9 karats is 37.5% gold

Metals gold is alloyed with vary, but silver, copper, nickel and zinc are common.

To make rose gold, yellow gold is mixed with copper.

To make white gold, the gold alloy is rhodium-plated.