Los Angeles Valley College alumna, Ruta Fox, was at the height of her career when the dot com bubble burst. After years of rewarding work at one of the nation’s most highly regarded marketing and branding companies in New York, Fox was laid off, and like so many at the time, was forced to find another way to make a living. Fox returned to freelance writing, which had brought her to New York from Los Angeles in the early nineties, and was fairly confident the worst was behind her until a call from her doctor quickly burst that bubble as well… She was told that years of sitting at a computer for eight hours a day was wreaking havoc on her back, and that unless she made some serious changes to her lifestyle, her back would sustain major damage. Not willing to gamble with her health and well being, Fox heeded her doctor’s advice and found that once again, she was wondering how she was going to pay the bills.

	Images courtesy of Ruta Fox
	Ruta Fox Los Angeles Valley College

Recalling that difficult time, Fox said, “I sat on the couch in my apartment and prayed. I had spent my whole career in one field and I didn’t know what to do with myself. That’s when a girlfriend of mine called and, unbeknownst to her, set the wheels in motion for a journey that would change my life.”

Fox’s girlfriend was watching Oprah one afternoon and admired the talk show host’s beautiful jewelry. It was a diamond pinkie ring that struck her the most, so she enlisted Fox (who had once worked in marketing and advertising for both Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales, and knew a thing or two about fashion and jewelry) to find her something similar, but on a smaller, more affordable scale.

Calling on her connections in New York, Fox found the perfect ring for her friend, and liked it so much, she bought one for herself. The following day, another of Fox’s friends came to visit, admired the ring, and said she wanted one as well. It didn’t take long before all of Fox’s girlfriends wanted a ring, so she bought up some inventory with her savings and continued to sell them to friends, thinking, “I’ll just do this to pay the rent while I figure out what I’m really going to do.”

Within a week and a half, Fox had sold all 20 of the diamond pinkie rings she had in stock. At that point, she had a feeling someone was trying to tell her something… even if she didn’t know what that something was.  

Not sure what to do next, Fox called on her longtime friend, Bea Marot, for some guidance. After listening to her friend’s story, Marot, (who happens to be a psychic and had once told Fox, “You’re going to do something huge!”) said she was pretty sure Oprah would love the story and that she happened to have a connection at O, Oprah’s lifestyle magazine. Fox, still struggling with what her next move should be, decided she had nothing to lose and got to work.

Amazed, Fox quickly secured a meeting with a team at O. But she didn't have much time...

The night before her meeting, she got to work on the presentation she would make, crafting press releases, designing a media kit, and all of the other things she had been trained to do during her years in marketing. But this time, rather than marketing the latest fashion trend or hair care product, Fox was marketing herself!

Fox's presentation described the origin of the ring, which had come to represent women who felt empowered to buy diamonds for themselves in a society that had for too long held to the notion that only women with a man willing and able to buy jewelry for them were allowed such a luxury. Fox dubbed the ring the “Ah” ring (A signifying available and h signifying happy) because, when she thought about it, that’s what she and her girlfriends were: single and content with their lives, and willing to provide for themselves some of the finer things in life. The ring was about women celebrating themselves.

When the phone rang the day after her pitch, it took Fox a few minutes to process what she was hearing…The team at O loved her idea and sent it straight to Oprah (who has final say on everything promoted in her magazine). Not only that, but many of the women at O bought Ah rings as well. It didn’t take long for Oprah to offer her stamp of approval, and Fox was told that she and the ring would be featured in the March 2001 issue of O magazine on the “O List” which is comprised of “things that Oprah thinks are great.” That meant Fox had just six weeks to turn her so called business, which until then had simply been some inventory in her apartment and word-of-mouth “advertising” among friends, into a bona fide company.

Fox’s little ring business became Divine Diamonds, a nod to the divine intervention she felt had helped make it all happen, and the pieces began to fall into place. She created a website, ordered inventory, wrote press releases, and was open for business when the issue of O hit newsstands.

Because of her experience in the magazine industry (Fox and two friends launched Exposure, a photography, fashion, and trends magazine that was subsequently sold to Fairchild, the publishers of Women’s Wear Daily, in the early nineties when too many Los Angeles magazines were competing for advertising dollars and several folded) she expected that her exposure would last only as long as the shelf life of one issue of a monthly magazine. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

In the first year of business alone, Divine Diamonds did $1 million in sales.  And the Ah ring, which is made of 14 karat white gold and contains 11 diamonds, sells for only $330! You can do the math. Fox’s story caught on and she soon found her story being told in major publications like the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Harper’s Bazaar, and Entrepreneur. Fast Company named her to its list of “Fast 50 Trendsetters” in 2004, saying that she “turned being single into a million dollar business.” In addition, Fox and the Ah ring were featured in the book, “What Women Really Want” by Kellyanne Conway and Celinda Lake, a book that “explains how women are getting what they really need by rejecting outdated traditions and expectations that no longer fit their reality.”  Fox was a featured speaker at Harvard Business School’s Entrepreneurship Conference of 2004 and Brown University’s Entrepreneurial Extravaganza.

Divine Diamonds continues to be privately owned and personally operated by Ruta Fox, and remains the first and only company to offer a diamond ring specifically designed for and marketed to single women. While she has expanded her line to include a few other meaningful pieces, including a cross pendant, a snowflake necklace, and flower earrings, Fox remains proud of her initial accomplishment. “I had a million-to-one chance of succeeding,” she said. In addition to her years of hard work, Fox credits her Associate’s Degree from Los Angeles Valley College, which is her only degree, with laying the foundation for her current success. “In my time, it was just a given that you went to college to get a good education. For me, Valley College was it.”

To learn more about Ruta Fox, Divine Diamonds, and the Ah ring, visit www.divinediamonds.com.