Isha Ambani’s 481-Carat Diamond Necklace at the Met Gala
At the 2025 Met Gala on 5 May, Isha Ambani wore one of the most talked-about jewels of the night: a double-tiered diamond necklace from her mother Nita Ambani’s collection, reported to contain 89 diamonds totalling 481.42 carats. Its design looked instantly familiar, and for good reason.
The necklace
According to reporting by InStyle and the jewellery historian behind The Court Jeweller, the necklace is set with 89 diamonds, with an 80.73-carat cushion-cut stone at its centre. It is arranged in stacked tiers of square-cut diamonds with a row of rounder stones, a structure that gives it a bib-like fullness at the neckline. Ambani said the piece was borrowed from her mother.
A necklace of this scale needs space around it. Keeping the neckline of the outfit clear rather than adding a high or fussy collar let the tiers read clearly, which is the usual rule for statement necklaces of any size.
A nod to the Nawanagar necklace
The design recalls one of the most famous jewels of the 20th century. In 1931, Maharaja Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar commissioned a ceremonial necklace from Cartier in London. Its centrepiece was the Queen of Holland diamond, and it was also known for its coloured diamonds, set alongside white diamonds. The original no longer exists in that form; it was later dismantled.
The necklace found a new audience in 2018, when a recreation inspired by it appeared in the heist film Ocean’s 8, worn by Anne Hathaway’s character. Ambani’s piece follows the same tiered design but is made entirely of colourless diamonds, without the coloured stones of the Cartier original. The Court Jeweller described it as “a replica of a replica”.
The outfit
The necklace was paired with a custom look by Indian designer Anamika Khanna, cut to suit the evening’s theme, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”. It combined sleek tailored trousers and an embroidered top with a waistcoat jacket and a dramatic train, worked with zardozi embroidery, handwoven Benarasi textiles, pearls and tassels. The mix of Western tailoring and Indian embroidery gave the jewellery a suitably grand but structured backdrop. InStyle also reported that she wore rings on loan from Tiffany & Co.
The look leaned on Indian craftsmanship and family heritage, a thread that has run through several of her Met Gala appearances.
Other big jewellery moments
Ambani was far from the only guest to make headlines that night. Rihanna, whose partner A$AP Rocky was one of the evening’s co-chairs, arrived in Marc Jacobs and used the red carpet to reveal that she was expecting her third child. Her tailored, dandy-inspired look fitted the theme closely.
What set Ambani’s appearance apart was the story behind the jewel. By choosing a family piece modelled on a lost Indian royal commission, she turned a single necklace into a reference to jewellery history, which is exactly the kind of storytelling the Met Gala rewards.
