NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 06: Char DeFrancesco (L) and Marc Jacobs arrive at their wedding reception at The Grill in Midtown on April 06, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Gotham/GC Images)
Joyce writes articles for The Knot Worldwide, specializing in celebrity wedding features and pieces on wedding trends and etiquette
Joyce conducts interviews with real couples about how they’ve adapted to the challenges of wedding planning during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
In addition to The Knot Worldwide, Joyce also regularly contributes writing to Architectural Digest, Paste magazine, Refinery29, and TODAY.com
Updated Jun 07, 2019
There was a lot to take in, fashion-wise, when it came to Marc Jacob and Char Defrancesco’s glamorous April 6 nuptials in NYC, especially given that their guest list was a veritable who’s who of the biggest players in the industry. Amid it all, however, the stars of the show were still undeniably Jacobs and Defrancesco, who donned the most dapper of suits for the occasion: Jacobs in a custom-fitted piece by Huntsman and Defrancesco in a green velvet smoking jacket by the same.
The pair even wore matching diamond and onyx penguin pins as a symbol of their fidelity to each other, a gift from Prada and Miu Miu designer Fabio Zambernardi. (“Penguins have only one partner and mate for life,” Jacobs captioned a close-up shot of the pins on Instagram.)
It was Defrancesco’s wedding band, a 17-carat emerald-cut eternity ring, that caught the light (and our attention) whenever the candle designer moved or shimmied. The band, created by Material Good, was an impressive many months in the making, with four different iterations before the final design.
Here, Material Good’s Head of Business Development Yoni Ben-Yehuda tells The Knot about how Defrancesco’s band came to life. "Char and Marc started as clients of ours, and have become very good friends over the last several years," Ben-Yehuda notes. "It was a huge honor to be asked to design something so meaningful and important as Char's wedding band."
Initially, the couple had a rather clear-cut vision for what they wanted to create. "Char and Marc shared an enthusiastic vision of the most killer emerald cut eternity band that used approximately one-carat per each diamond," Ben-Yehuda explains. "We welcomed that enthusiasm with open arms. We began to pull in multiple layouts of approximately 1-carat each emerald cut diamonds in different length-to-width ratios to figure out Char’s preference there, along with figuring out the range of color and clarity he preferred. The overall look of the band evolved with each subsequent meeting until we landed on the perfect layout."
(Material Good)
The process was accompanied by its own set of challenges, however. "Fancy shape eternity bands, and most especially with step-cut diamonds such as emerald cuts, is difficult when the diamonds don't match up," the jeweler explains. Every facet needed to be aligned, as did the carat weight, the color and even the clarity.
"On top of that, the quantity of diamonds needed for the finger size in question also needs to be taken into consideration," he says. "Char’s ring is on the larger end so we needed to find a greater quantity of diamonds that would work, which made this project a bit more challenging. When all was said and done, we considered around 60 diamonds as we narrowed it down to the final 17 diamonds that would work in the layout we needed." Read more about the process below.
What kind of grooms would wear this type of band?
This wasn't the first request for a groom that we’ve gotten for a design in a similar vein, albeit previous ones have been mostly produced on a smaller scale! We are finding there has been a huge upswing in men not only getting into wearing more jewelry, but also wanting to make a statement where their wedding bands are concerned. It’s absolutely something we love to see and work with. Whether going wide, chunky, and therefore more bold with a plain metal band, or incorporating diamonds or other precious gemstones, these pieces have been so fulfilling for us to create.
Any opportunity we have to interact one-on-one with clients in order to bring their visions to life is a win for us, and especially meaningful when working on wedding jewelry.
How much lead time do you typically need?
In terms of lead time for a piece of this caliber, we would love to be given four to six weeks (if not slightly longer) in order to be able to thoroughly search for the perfect stones and allow for time with the client to flesh out the finished band. We were beyond grateful to have been given ample lead time by Marc and Char so we were able to give this piece the time and attention it deserved.
(Material Good)
(Material Good)
What is the estimated cost of a piece like this?
As far as cost is concerned, there are many factors at play. Of course there will always be a certain baseline given the time dedicated toward the finished product, as well as the fact that all of our pieces are handcrafted.
The difference between a handcrafted piece of jewelry, as compared to a mass produced item created in a factory, is like night and day. Hand-working and hand-setting these pieces allows for a finer quality to the work and attention to detail that is unmatched. The specifics of the diamonds are what causes the cost to fluctuate. However, part of our personal approach, and what we pride ourselves on the most, is going above and beyond in terms of working with our clients within the budget they bring to the table. The goal is that the client always feels comfortable and never feels out of his/her league where cost is concerned.
