May babies share their birthstone with one of the all-time style icons in History—Queen Victoria. She set many trends through her time as Queen, but one that continues to stick with us is when Prince Albert proposed to her with a snake ring—with her birthstone in the head. Emeralds and snakes both enjoyed tremendous popularity and still do.

Emeralds are also associated with hope and prosperity and are a happy color for a gemstone. As we move to our ‘next normal’—all women born in May, or who just love the meaning and hue of this precious stone should have an emerald piece -or many-of their own.

After the Oscars closed the season, I couldn’t help but remember one of Hollywood’s jewelry moments that live on in our collective memories when, in 2009, Angelina Jolie wore a pair of Lorraine Schwartz pear-shaped pendant earrings. Since then emeralds have been a stone that have been designed in an eclectic mix of classic pieces and irreverent and daring independent designer jewelry.

Speaking of Hollywood, stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Merle Oberon and Marlene Dietrich wore their large emeralds on and offscreen while first ladies such as Jackie Kennedy and style icons such as The Duchess of Windsor wore them as engagement rings.

Before we show modern versions of May’s birthstone, let’s take a look at just two stories (which happen to be my favorites) about emeralds.

Marlene Dietrich's emerald jewelry was created by some of her favorite houses at the time in which she lived and worked. Renowned jewelers Paul Flato and Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin designed her own pieces which she wore in press photos and films such as Desire. During a dinner party held by Katherine Cornell, a story circulated that Dietrich took off her 37.41-carat cabochon emerald ring, while she was helping bake a cake in the kitchen, and then realized that it was gone. The other guests helped her look for the ring, turning the dinner party into a treasure hunt. It was only during dessert that the ring was discovered by one of the other guests—inside a piece of the cake.

Another gem of a tale is one about the Duchess of Windsor. In addition to a beautiful emerald suite by Cartier and the engagement ring, she owned another emerald pieces. It was an emerald necklace that The Windsors purchased from Harry Winston in 1956 and it caused more of a stir than anticipated. While at a ball in Paris the following year, which was attended by the Maharani of Baroda, everyone wanted to see The Duchess’s stunning new necklace. The Maharani—Sita Devi—agreed that it was beautiful: “After all, those emeralds used to be one of my anklets.” This was a shock to the Duchess. She eventually exchanged the piece for another jewel and agreed with Winston that the house could not sell the necklace, which Harry Winston had created from a pair of anklets that he had bought from the Maharajah of Baroda, to anyone who might have known about The Duchess’s brief ownership of it. The Duchess went on to purchase more jewelry from the renowned house.

The following jewels may not share such storied moments but they are all creative jewels that range from eye-catching to edgy to more adventurous to awe-inspiring. Let’s take a look:

Ananya's emerald Ombre Scatter Ear Jacket in 18K white gold, emeralds white diamonds and tsavorites.

Eden Presley's 14K yellow gold necklace with Muzo emeralds and diamonds.

Fred Leighton's emerald cut emerald approximately 2 carats with old European cut diamonds mounted in platinum topped yellow gold, circa 1900.

Adel Chefridi's oval gold pendant set in a starburst pattern with diamonds orbiting an emerald.

Hoorsenbuhs' 18K gold Infinite Bracelet with emeralds diamonds.

Retrouvai 14K yellow gold one-of-a-kind heirloom bezel earrings 14k with exclusive cut emeralds.

The Last Line 14K yellow gold emerald baguette tennis bracelet.

Estate Diamond Jewelry's rare Edwardian Era Ring, circa 1905 with high-quality calibre’ emeralds that frame the center old mine cut diamond, and additional diamonds.

Nak Armstrong's Flora Bypass earrings with five carats of emeralds mixed with other gemstones in 18K recycled gold.

KATKIM's bespoke floating Asscher emerald ring with diamond pavé band set in 18K yellow gold.

Emily P. Wheeler's 18K rose and white gold earrings with emerald cabochons and pink tourmaline peridot, and baguette and pave diamonds

Ashley Zhang's Green Light Rolling Ring with center Colombian emerald with the rolling ring featuring 12 emeralds in a hand craved star pattern.

GFG Jewellery X Gemfields (Walk for Giants) 18K yellow gold, responsibly sourced Zambian emeralds and diamond earrings.

ALMASIKA's Universum Emerald Ring in 18K yellow gold.

Sig Ward Jewelry's 14K yellow gold, emerald and diamond Manifest Necklace with meanings of luck, hope and prosperity with five emerald hearts to "help you see love in everyone and what's all around."

EMERALD CITY

Debuting for the month of May’ Birthstone is Muzo Emerald Colombia’s new e-commerce website and a brand new visual campaign, which has been created to engage with new consumers and offer an education tool for this world leader in the production of responsibly sourced emeralds. Gabbi Harvey, Head of Business Development for Muzo explains, “Our new campaign is a celebration of the beauty, rarity and versatility of Colombian emeralds. Our goal was to let the emeralds shine by using gorgeous natural lighting and through very sleek, minimalist styling - by the talented Jennifer Csengody-Novetsky (a former Harper's Bazaar editor and Bergdorf Goodman alum). We honor our heritage with our choice of Latin American talent: photographer, Gabe Araujo and model, Alana Tapigliani.

Muzo's Nova Collection Flower Earrings in 18K white gold, diamonds, and Muzo emeralds.

In describing the new website, Harvey says, “We designed it to provide consumers with a chance to gain a 360-degree view of Muzo; it truly tells our Mine to Maison journey. We want visitors to use the site as a resource, where they can go to educate themselves on emeralds, shop for beautiful jewelry and be inspired. We are looking forward to revealing some exciting new collaborations, with proceeds supporting The Muzo Foundation - our CSR organization - throughout the year.”

Muzo’s Nova Collection Cocktail Halo Ring in 18K white gold, diamonds and Muzo emeralds.

The jewelry on the website will focus on Muzo’s latest signature collection, ‘Nova’, as well as a capsule group from a longtime collaborator, Mercedes Salazar. Additionally, the company will still provide access to its archive of independent designer collaborations from such dynamic partners as Harwell Godfrey, Katherine Jetter, Loren Nicole, Nina Runsdorf, Robinson Pelham and Silvia Furmanovich.