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Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged. We asked Canadian jewelry experts to dish on the ring

Style experts offer insight into buzzy Swift engagement news

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It’s official! Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged.

The superstar singer-songwriter posted about the news on her Instagram account, noting “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”

The post featured a sweet gallery of photos from the engagement, showing Swift and her NFL beau in a flower-filled garden. The post received more than 13.9 million likes in the first hour of being posted.

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Swift style expert Sarah Chapelle, the Vancouver-based founder behind the website and the bestselling book Taylor Swift Styled, broke down the star’s outfit from the engagement photos on Instagram.

“While it’s not a surprise that it happened, I’m very heart-warmed and grateful that the two of them wanted to actively share it with fans so we could bask in their joy and this amazing moment,” Chapelle says.

Swift wore a striped silk-blend halter dress with ruched detailing by Ralph Lauren, tan leather sandals from Louis Vuitton, and a gold Cartier Santos Demoiselle Watch with diamonds.

“The dress is sweet and bridal without being too on-the-nose,” Chapelle says. “I’ve always said Taylor would be well-suited for a Ralph Lauren campaign, so it’s wonderful to see one of his pieces incorporated into such a momentous occasion in her life.

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“We can only hope he’s also tapped for the wedding dress!”

Kelce also wore Ralph Lauren in the engagement photo shoot, Chapelle notes of the professional athlete and podcast host’s cashmere look.

“We can appreciate a coordinated moment,” Chapelle says. “It feels very Taylor to wear a dress by an American designer for what will undoubtedly be one of the most-followed modern American weddings.”

But the main character of Swift’s look shared in the post was the ring. A close-up image of the engagement ring showed a flashy finger adornment featuring a very large centre gemstone set in yellow gold.

Chapelle noted on social media that the ring was a custom piece created by New York City jewelry designer Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewelry.

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Canadian jeweller Chau Lui, who is the co-founder of Celi, says the ring appears to feature an elongated “Old Mine” cushion-cut stone. The ring, Chapelle says, is “Taylor in a nutshell,” noting it’s a nod to the artist’s “longstanding love” of vintage.

“The ring is a stunning glamorous statement piece with an heirloom quality to the design, speaking perfectly to Taylor’s personality and style,” Lui says, adding the ring appears to have hand etching on the band.

The jewelry expert says Swift’s ring appears to have at least a seven-carat diamond. Toronto-based Celi offers a five-carat, lab-grown Old Mine-cut diamond ring, which retails for $16,500.

Cathy Shen, founder of the Vancouver-based engagement ring studio Ma Folie, noted Swift’s engagement ring appears to have a low setting to the centre stone.

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“Meaning Taylor won’t be able to wear a traditional wedding band and have it stack, but the ring is the main character so I doubt she’ll wear a traditional band with it,” Shen says. “She might design a unique wedding band that curves around the centre stone, or wear a wedding band on a different finger.”

Shen estimates that if Kelce purchased a natural diamond, he spent between $1-$1.5 million CAD on the ring. The lab-grown diamond estimate would be between $45,000 to $65,000.

Both jewelry experts noted that celebrity engagement rings, whether Swift’s newly revealed ring or Hailey Bieber’s oval diamond secured on a slim band, can have a big impact on engagement ring trends.

“Celebrity engagement rings spark cultural waves,” Lui says. “This has continued this year with Zendaya’s stunning east-west bezel set ring, sparking a huge east-west and bezel set trend that continues to spike in interest.”

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“Not very many people know about old-mine cushion-cut diamonds,” Shen adds. “But I think they will now.”

As for any Swift Easter eggs hidden in the engagement images, Chapelle thinks she may have spotted something.

“To my eye, it appeared that the band has a ‘T’ engraved into it, which I imagine is mirrored on the other side,” the Swift style expert says. “This likely is a reference to their couple name, TNT (a reference to Taylor and Travis), which Taylor even alluded to in her Instagram caption via the dynamite emoji.

“She is even wearing her (Tiffany T Diamond Wire Ring) in these engagement photos, which I’ve always thought appealed to her for how it looks like two Ts wrapped around her finger.”

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