Antonia Miletto Gives Diamonds Her Venetian Charm

Jewellery designer Antonia Miletto takes a gondola across Venice’s Grand Canal each and every morning with her dachshund named Teo, and walks the city’s winding, slim streets to her boutique on Calle Delle Botteghe. It is an enviable commute.

It’s summer months and Venice is teeming with website visitors. It is also the time of 12 months when lots of of Miletto’s shoppers return to her keep to include a new piece to their jewelry collections. She provides a fashionable Grand Tour souvenir, recalling the city’s artistry and historical past in distinctly present-day jewelry types. She does not established 19th-century micro mosaics in the standard ornate patterns as a substitute, they are reborn in wood and all-natural diamond pendants and hung from gold torque necklaces. And a pair of chandelier earrings, in the condition of the quatrefoil ironworks that can be identified on Gothic properties throughout Venice are forged in darkened matte titanium and set with glowing diamonds.

Just after paying out many years living in the floating town, she continue to marvels at its architectural details, the cinematic light-weight at dusk, and, in spring and summer months, the sweet scent of blooming bouquets.

The spirit of Venice permeates her models in refined and poetic techniques. “Venice seems fragile, but it’s incredibly strong and resilient, like a diamond,” she claims.

There is an inherent boldness and distinction in Miletto’s jewelry layouts they are typically huge in scale, but restrained, and under no circumstances also treasured or fussy.

Miletto’s private type signifier is a spherical cognac-colored diamond that she established on a chunky burnished gold chain ring, and it seems like it could it be historic. “After so lots of several years I nonetheless like this ring,” says the designer. “The ring is both equally traditional and sporty, and it’s just as conveniently worn on a guy.”

Diamonds are crucial in Venice’s historical past, she points out. It’s believed that Venice was the initially area where by a diamond was slice, after the tough stones were shipped to the city from India. “Venice was the primary Antwerp of the planet,” mentioned Miletto, referring to Antwerp’s standing as the world’s top diamond-chopping centre.

She reimagines diamonds in modern models that have a timeless high quality. That’s what attracted Fred Leighton, the New York retailer owned by the Kwiat spouse and children, to partner with Miletto on a selection of diamond jewellery that is sold exclusively in its Madison Avenue retail store. Fred Leighton provided essential diamonds, these types of as a 9-carat pear-shaped stone, which Miletto established in a daring wooden ring. “There is an effortless glamour with diamonds and wood designs that is very attractive to our purchasers,” claims Rebecca Selva, Fred Leighton’s chief artistic officer.

“I like the duality concerning the preciousness of diamonds and the simplicity of wooden,” mentioned Miletto. “The spirit of my jewellery is placing together two distinct supplies with distinctive values. And what is extra cherished than a diamond?”

She’s drawn to the diamond’s sparkle and the way it refracts gentle, declaring: “If a jewel has the means to make us much more stunning, then almost nothing is much better than diamonds.”

Her models are built with antiquities that she collects in and all over Venice. She also sources a selection of exotic woods from about the environment, like purple wooden, ebony, Macassar, and amaranth, which she has carved into smooth, natural and organic types or textured styles by Italian artisans. Ateliers in and all-around Venice established diamonds and gemstones in her items, and then carefully complete them.

Shoppers typically appear to Miletto with a basic diamond ring, possibly their have or a family members heirloom, that they want her to redesign in her signature wood configurations. “They want a little something that is enjoyable, quick to don each and every working day, and has a small individuality,” she reported.

Even though silent luxury is having a major style instant, it’s generally been Miletto’s design. A petite blonde, she was born in Rome and has lived among Venice and New York City for practically 30 years. Due to the fact she started off her enterprise in 1997, she has been employing unconventional resources – wooden, resin and antiquities – in modern styles. Her scientific studies in gemology, jewelry design and architecture inform her parts, but Venice remains her greatest muse.