The Italian connection

In Milan, old values collide with cutting-edge fashion

While most of Italy’s finest jewelry craftsmen are based in small northern cities such as Valenza, Vicenza and Arezzo (the coral artisans of the Napoli region in the south notwithstanding), discerning shoppers head straight to the big city of Milan. A potent mix of commerce, fashion and power has cemented its reputation as a bona fide jewelry destination. Conventional wisdom says that Via Monte Napoleone is Milan’s, if not the continent’s, most elegant boulevard. Today, the crowded street borders an area known as the Quadrilatero; Via Sant’Andrea, Via della Spiga and Via Borgospesso form the rest of the squared-off block, home to Milan’s greatest concentration of fashion designers, jewelers, furriers and antiques dealers.

Photo provided courtesy of the Italian Government Tourist Board

Buccellati, founded in 1919, is the patriarch of haute Italian jewelry. Based on Via Monte Napoleone since the 1960s, the world-famous brand has cultivated a style all its own, distinguished by the use of refined techniques such as tulle, lace and honeycomb. Its retail neighbors — jewelers such as Cusi, De Vecchi and James Rivière, to name three — are, however, no slouches. The district is chock-a-block with their avant-garde, expensive offerings, from artsy jewels to stylish, of-the-moment baubles destined to adorn Europe’s glitterati. However, for all Milan’s primacy in trend-setting fashion, its iconic jewelers are old school masters, averse to trends and devoted to making things using their hands, singlehandedly preserving the classic Italian jewelry tradition for generations to come.

Passion for fashion Shoppers cruise down Via della Spiga, one of the streets bordering Milan’s famed Quadrilatero, home to a density of jewelers and fashion designers.