A 2025 consumer study found that 74.8% of women now purchase jewellery for themselves. Not as a replacement for a gift they were expecting. Not as a practical necessity. For themselves, because they decided to.
That would have read as unusual data a generation ago. In 2026, it reads as a description of what is actually happening.
The economic context behind the shift
India's female labour force participation rate hit 41.7% in 2024-25, one of the largest year-on-year increases in the country's recorded data (Economic Survey 2024-25). Urban India, specifically, is seeing a structural change in which women aged 22-38 are earning independently, building financial portfolios, and making purchase decisions that no longer require external approval or occasion.
Female DEMAT account holders in India grew 4.2 times in three years, from 6.67 million to 27.71 million (SEBI data, 2025). That is not a consumer trend. That is a foundational shift in who controls financial choices.
The jewellery category is one of the clearest expressions of this. When women have their own money and their own criteria for spending it, they buy jewellery differently. The 74.8% self-purchase figure isn't a marketing opportunity; it's a side effect of something larger.
What jewellery has traditionally meant in India
Jewellery in India has been tied, for a long time, to occasion and to relationship. You received gold at your wedding. Your parents gave you pieces when you left for college or got your first job. A partner gifted something for an anniversary. The piece's meaning was partly in who gave it and why.
This framing wasn't wrong. It reflected real cultural values around jewellery as a store of wealth, as a family asset, as something passed down. That still exists.
What's changed is that it's no longer the only framing.
When women buy for themselves, the criteria shift completely. They're not choosing for sentiment or symbolic weight. They're choosing for fit, for daily wearability, for what actually works with their life. This produces different purchases from different categories at different price points.
The everyday wear shift
In 2014, 27% of acquired diamonds were worn daily. By 2025, that figure had risen to 52% (De Beers Insight). The shift is in both who buys and how they use what they own.
A BW Businessworld survey found 49% of Indian jewellery consumers now prefer lightweight, minimalist jewellery over heavy ornate sets. This isn't a rejection of traditional jewellery. It's the same woman owning both, but building her daily wardrobe separately, with different priorities.
Outlook Luxe's 2026 jewellery trend report described it as "self-expression taking centre stage," with urban Indian women choosing pieces for their working lives, for travel, for the way they feel at 8am on a Tuesday rather than the way they want to look at a December wedding.
The problem with jewellery that never gets worn
There's a practical result of the old framing that most people don't say out loud: a lot of women own beautiful jewellery they rarely touch.
It stays in lockers. The logic is sound. Gold appreciates. Fine jewellery is expensive to replace if lost. Some pieces carry too much emotional weight to risk in everyday life. So they sit.
Self-purchasing breaks this pattern in a specific way. When you choose a piece for your own daily life rather than receiving it as an investment or a symbol, you choose for wear. You choose materials that hold up to sweat and humidity. You choose settings that don't catch on fabric. You choose something at a price where wearing it to a work lunch doesn't require risk assessment.
This is why the growth in self-purchased jewellery is concentrated in the demi-fine segment: 925 sterling silver, lab-grown stones, solid vermeil. Pieces built for the life you're actually living.
Self-gifting: the cultural reframe
Self-gifting as a concept is up 51% among millennial women globally in 2025 (consumer behavior research, Carat Trade). In India, it is tracking alongside the broader shift in female economic agency.
What makes it meaningful as a cultural shift isn't the spending. It's what it represents about how women relate to themselves. Buying a piece of jewellery for a milestone you hit at work, or because you wanted it and could afford it, is a different kind of relationship to adornment than receiving jewellery as a reward or a marker from someone else.
Both are valid. They produce different wardrobes.
Frequently asked questions
Is it common for Indian women to buy jewellery for themselves?
Increasingly yes. 74.8% of women globally self-purchase jewellery, and India's urban market is closely tracking this shift. D2C jewellery brands in India have built business models around this specifically, with brands targeting the self-purchasing urban professional as their primary customer.
What kind of jewellery makes most sense for self-purchase?
For daily wear, demi-fine materials are the practical choice: 925 sterling silver settings, lab-grown stones like moissanite, or solid gold vermeil. The criteria are wearability and durability rather than investment value. You want something you will actually put on.
What is the price range for everyday self-purchased jewellery in India?
The demi-fine segment in India runs roughly Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 15,000 per piece. This range covers earrings, rings, pendants, and bracelets built for daily wear rather than occasions.
How do women decide what to buy for themselves vs. what to ask for as gifts?
There is no rule. Some women prefer to choose high-value pieces themselves because they want full control over what they get. Others prefer to receive fine jewellery as gifts and self-purchase everyday pieces. The choice reflects personal preference, not correctness.
If you're building a jewellery wardrobe for your daily life rather than your occasions, Myraé's Ananya collection was designed with exactly that in mind.