Luxury bling

At a time when fashion state-ments are more pronounced and the trend lasts as long as it takes for a Botox treatment to wear off (roughly three months), the call of the classic is waning, drowned out by every new exhibition of stylish pomp that comes along. Descriptions such as "modern classic" or "timelessly trendy," once oxymoronic, play-safe labels, now mark the gist of a generation that claims up-to-date style without giving up individuality.

Even the jewelry market, known to be a follower of the classic code (because it used to be so pricey it couldn’t be a victim to the trend), has succumbed to the call of the modern. Fine jewelry took a more flamboyant turn, incorporated less expensive semi-precious stones, called out to the younger trend-tripper. The upshot: luxury fashion jewelry, which has cropped up in collections of designer houses that are fast becoming industry leaders.

Italian brand Pianegonda is one of the pioneers in the art of fashion jewelry. Created in 1994 by a young man named Franco Pianegonda, the brand’s creative and experimental dealings with silver and yellow gold have made it a hot seller in Italy, the rest of Europe, and the United States.

Chief designer and owner Franco Pianegonda, now 37 years old, was neither the sole heir to a family conglomerate nor a product of Italy’s famed jewelry design institutions. An engineer by heart and profession, Pianegonda’s only link to jewelry comes by way of his birthplace Vicenza, the Italian town known for having one of the world’s biggest annual trade fairs for jewelry. His entry to the world of jewelry was paved by frustration – he couldn’t find anything he liked, and so decided to create jewelry for himself. He then began giving his creations to friends who liked what they were given, and who encouraged him to come up with his own jewelry line, which he did – successfully so.

Franco Pianegonda’s story may be typical, but the same cannot be said of his pieces. As an engineer-turned-jeweler, Pianegonda’s reliance on conceptual and architectural design signifies the X-factor that marks his pieces. Pianegonda jewelry is reminiscent of contemporary sculpture: sleek, bold, minimal, and intentionally big. Big, not in an Art Deco way, but big in the way rock stars and pop icons like their bling (Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys, Hilary Duff, and Kelly Clarkson are fans). The waves, crevices, and carving – intricate representations of movement that characterize most Italian jewelry – are replaced by chunky chains, oversized geometric settings, and exaggerated designs. Pianegonda’s main material, and one that the brand started out with, is sterling silver. The metal’s flexibility, affordable price, and subtlety, allowed for more expression, Franco Pianegonda-style.

Once the domain of either gothic rock or traditional Oriental designs, silver is dealt a sleek, smooth finish and usually furnished with a pavé of small diamonds or semi-precious stones. Says Renaud Litr’e, Pianegonda’s managing director, "The stones that we use are usually small because our pieces are more design-oriented." The graphic austerity of Pianegonda’s designs are so overwhelming that stones are rarely needed to add more bling. But when Pianegonda does use big stones, it does so with panache, such as with a globular three-dimensional quartz (about a centimeter in diameter) perched above a raised ring setting, or a huge topaz block set inside a wide, wheel-like ring.

Franco Pianegonda eventually ventured into using yellow gold a few years after opening shop. Recently, he introduced the use of leather when he came up with his first collection for men. Instead of just settling for the usual cufflinks and ID bracelet, Franco Pianegonda gives men the same props as he does women – the men’s collection is as extensive as the women’s. The number of style-hounding men is growing all across Europe, as well as in Asia, where Pianegonda is next intending to make its mark. After successful showings in Japan and Dubai, the brand is opening a sizable free-standing outlet in Hong Kong.

Manila is the fashion jewelry brand’s fourth Asian market, one that seems very promising. Marketing executive Julien Lepeu revealed that on the brand’s first day in Manila, while Pianegonda was just setting up at Silver Vault in Rustan’s, a woman came in, promptly fell in love with the unique jewelry, and proceeded to buy nine pieces.

I bet that customer would describe her style as "classically modern."

Pianegonda is available at the Silver Vault, Rustan’s.