Freja Beha Erichsen | Patrick Demarchelier | Harry Winston Jewelry

Freja Beha Erichsen | Patrick Demarchelier | Harry Winston Jewelry via FGR

For now the United States remains the largest diamond market, and retailers like Tiffany & Co and Harry Winston are seeing major demand for the $50,000 engagement ring.

Diamonds are emerging as the new gold for a growing upper middle class in China, India and Russia, offering a safe-haven substitute for volatile currencies. On Thursday, diamond miner and retailer Harry Winston reported a 192 percent increase in quarterly rough diamond sales.

It’s not expected that new diamond mines will be found around the globe, insuring value in expensive brilliance. Reuters reports that Canada would well move from the third place supplier of diamonds to the top producer.

China is expected to overtake the US as the top consumer of diamonds in the next decade. Hong Kong has never shied away from displays of wealth and glitz, and most reports expect more flash and dash out of China than we’ve seen in the Modern-values displays of wealth in America.

Freja Beha Erichsen is lensed here by Patrick Demarhelier for the Harry Winston Jewelry campaign. The images are Traditional values to the nth degree. Classically lovely, not sexual in the least, no hint that this girl has slept around, we see American 5-star branding.

What could go wrong with this beauty besides divorce court? Note that America’s upper class power couples are divorcing less than previously.

Discovery News shares insights about the serious possibilities of diamond mining in space. Arthur C. Clarke’s 1997 science fiction sequel “3001: The  Final Odyssey” places a gigantic diamond mountain ejected for the core of Jupiter on Europa.

Richard Branson’s heirs may become diamond miners far in the future. For now, it seems that expensive diamonds are man’s best friend, along with women’s. Presumably s(he) who pays for the ring keeps it. After all “Diamonds Are Forever’.

“Blood diamonds” remain a political issue, as is the entire topic of conspicuous consumption. I image a future campaign directed to Smart Sensuality women that says, ask for a $10,000 diamond and build a legacy educating 100 girls instead.

These topics are all unfolding as we speak. WikiLeaks reveals that the American diplomats believe Zimbabwe’s president Mugabe is tied to “blood diamonds”. Even Kanye West is in on the action about our relationship with the sparkling baubles.

Kanye West | Diamonds From Sierra Leone

More Harry Winston 2011 Campaign