Pomellato's Latest High Jewelry Collection Is a Love Letter to Milan
Begin here.
When it was founded in Milan in 1967, Pomellato was a pioneer in what was then called prêt-à-porter jewelry. Before that, jewels were something you took out of the vault on special occasions. Pomellato created pieces for newly working, increasingly independent women to wear anytime they wanted. Those strong, handcrafted pieces remain classics and that mission Pomellato’s signature.
The house introduced high jewelry in 2020, and though the rare stones and intricate designs of the one-of-a-kind handmade pieces may not suggest jewelry for every day, the Pomellato focus on the woman who wears each piece and the life she lives while doing so remains clear. As does its center of inspiration: The collection’s title is Ode to Milan.
This Skyline necklace, which moves almost like a scarf draped casually down the neck, is designed with 128 rare spinels, a stone famed for its place in history (the Black Prince’s ruby in the British Imperial State Crown? Trick question. It’s a spinel) and for its rarity (high-quality spinels can be harder to find than diamonds). This necklace is part of a chapter in the collection titled Vertical Landscapes, in honor of the city’s molto milanese architecture.
Don't look down.
In 2014 two verdant towers appeared against the Milanese sky. The façades of Bosco Verticale, designed by Boeri Studio, are home to 800 trees. How do you translate the inspiration from visionary works of architecture into something someone might want to wear to the black tie opening of, say, an architecture biennale?
Color creates the blueprint. The Bosco Verticale inspired green tsavorite and blue and pink sapphire bracelets in Pomellato’s Ode to Milan collection; the famed architecture of Giò Ponti—specifically his Palazzo Montedoria (above), near Piazza Caiazzo—was the creative source of this Giardini Verticale necklace, in which the shades of Ponti’s vision are mimicked by a stone called indicolite, a variety of blue tourmaline that is said to promote openness and tolerance, as well as protection from evil curses.
And there you are.
Could there be a collection called Ode to Milan without an homage to the Duomo? Work began on the grand cathedral around 1386, and it’s still not quite finished. It remains the establishing shot of any visit to Milan. The achievements of this Terrazza Duomo necklace are its subtle engineering—it sits perfectly against the wearer’s collarbone—and the way it elevates Pomellato’s bold signature gold and diamond palette into the realm of high jewelry through cut and design.
But the piece is also remarkable, given the intricacy of its inspiration, in its simplicity. And the power of that, as any observer will be keen to tell you, is as much a landmark of Milanese style as any building.
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