Jade Rings Are Gen Z's New Obsession Thanks to BTS V

Some trends start on a runway. This one started on a livestream. Jade Rings Are Gen Z's New Obsession after BTS member V styled a traditional jade ring during the group's comeback broadcast, and the numbers since have been startling. Transaction value for jade rings among shoppers in their twenties on Korean fashion platform Zigzag rose by nearly five times between January and July, according to data reported by KBizoom — the kind of spike usually reserved for a viral sneaker drop, not a stone your grandmother wears.

The look has a nickname to match: grandma rings. Instead of one thick band, wearers layer several slim jade rings together or mix them with plain silver bands, turning a stone long associated with older generations into something deliberately youthful. On social media, shoppers trade shop locations, layering formulas, and styling tips with the same participatory energy that made scrunched socks and thrifted ties into this fall's defining styling moves.

The data backs up the feed. Social media mentions of jade rings more than doubled between March and August, while mentions of jade bracelets rose roughly fourfold in the same window, according to social analytics platform Sometrend. At Seoul's Namdaemun Market, stalls sell everything from rings costing a few thousand won to high-end pieces, and no two stones match: each ring varies in color, pattern, and transparency, which is exactly the point. When every piece is one of a kind, every stack looks personal.

The timeline moved fast. V's styling moment landed in early October during the broadcast, and Korean outlets were tracking the surge within days. Fashion press followed, but the market had already responded: transaction data, mention counts, and picked-over trays at traditional markets all pointed the same way. What began as one celebrity styling choice became a measurable retail shift in under a month — a celebrity-to-street pipeline that K-pop has run before, now working on a centuries-old accessory.

From Seoul to Shanghai: the wider jade boom

Korea is not the only place where young shoppers are reaching for old stones. In China, Gen Z buyers are driving a parallel boom in symbolic jewelry — lucky bracelets strung with agate, crystal, and jade, often chosen for traditional associations with protection and good fortune. At one Nanjing museum, visitors now design their own bracelets with an AI app that recommends bead combinations from birth dates and star signs, then assemble the pieces by hand from crystal, jade, and enamel. During the October National Day holiday, the museum sold hundreds of the customized bracelets daily, according to Bangkok Gems News. The mechanism differs from Seoul's layered rings, but the impulse is the same: jewelry that means something personal beats jewelry that just costs something.

That appetite for meaning is showing up in the high end too. Luxury houses are appointing younger Asian ambassadors and placing gemstones with deep East Asian roots into international collections, a shift one jewelry publication describes as a new jade age for high jewelry. The throughline from a museum gift shop to a Paris runway is the same stone, worn by the same generation, for the same reason: it carries a story that a logo cannot.

Why grandma jewelry wins with Gen Z

Underneath the styling tips sits a bigger shift. After years of quiet-luxury minimalism — the same dainty gold chains on everyone — this year's jewelry mood is maximalist and personal, with stylists telling Business Insider that clients now build outfits around statement accessories rather than the other way around. Jade fits the moment because it arrives with centuries of cultural meaning while costing less than a designer logo. The reason Jade Rings Are Gen Z's New Obsession is not really about rings at all. It is about a generation that treats getting dressed as self-expression first and status signaling a distant second, a spirit the rugby shirt's creator-driven comeback shares.

There is a counterpoint worth sitting with. Trends that move this fast can flatten the culture they borrow from, turning a stone with deep significance in East Asian families into a seasonal aesthetic. The difference between participating and cosplaying is small but real: buy from traditional markets, learn what the stone has meant before it meant fashion, and wear it like you know. A trend fades. Respect does not.

For readers tempted to try it, the entry point is forgiving. Start with one slim band in a green you like — paler stones tend to cost less than deep, even greens — and stack it against a plain silver ring you already own. Check the stone in natural light, ask the seller whether it is natural or treated, and skip anything suspiciously perfect at a suspiciously low price. The whole appeal is individuality: a stone with a visible quirk will always look better than a flawless fake. And if the deeper story of China's symbolic jewelry boom is anything to go by, Jade Rings Are Gen Z's New Obsession for a reason that outlasts any single season.