Damiani: One Hundred Years of Italianess

Damiani’s 100 X 100 Italiani exhibition is more than a tribute to a century of Italian craftsmanship, style and traditions; for Silvia Damiani, it’s also a celebration of family, unity and passion. 

Silvia Damiani, third-generation member of the Damiani family and the vice-president of its namesake jewellery brand is proudly Italian – and not just so; she’s proudly an Italian from Valenza, the Piedmontese town that’s known as the country’s jewellery capital. “It’s where my grandfather started his craft. It’s where we were born,” she says. “In fact, we went back to check our history and found that our family name has been there since the 1600s.” 

In fact, Damiani’s story has always been one of a family, its members united through everything from personal tragedy to shared passion and ambitious goals. The journey starts with founder Enrico Damiani, Silvia’s grandfather, whose skills as a master goldsmith made him one of the most sought-after jewellers of his time, frequently called upon by the nobility to create bespoke, one-of-a-kind masterpieces. 

As inspiring as her grandfather was, Silvia’s greatest hero is her father, Damiano. “Our grandfather was a very, very fine artisan, but my father was the person who was really the visionary,” she enthuses. “He envisioned Damiani as a brand. And to think that my father started working in the company in 1955 when he was 21. My grandfather died that same year. My father had the strength to keep the traditions of his father and to build up his company. It was something that he also taught me and my brothers.”

Under Damiano’s guidance, Damiani thrived. He had the business nous to introduce industrialisation and commercial expansion to the company, heavily investing in design and technical innovation, and pioneering a way for Damiani to prosper and expand, not just as a jeweller but a jewellery brand. “My father was one of the first people in Italy to believe in jewellery as a brand and also to create distinctive designs,” says Silvia. “With him, Damiani became a very desirable jewellery brand all over the world.”

But tragedy struck in 1996; when Silvia was not even 30 years old and her brothers even younger, they lost their father. The three children had already joined the company at that time: Silvia dealt with the purchase of pearls and the company’s communications, Giorgio managed exports and Guido became the sales manager for the whole of Italy. 

“In just a few hours we’d lost our leader, so facing that was hard,” Silvia recalls. “But already at that point we’d decided to follow his path, which helped a lot. So we joined forces. We rolled up our sleeves and went to work, doing what my father did in the past. It sounds tragic, but it made us more united.”

Today, Guido is Damiani’s president, while Silvia and Giorgio are vice-presidents. They’d grown up with jewels, seen their parents working at the atelier as long as they could remember, and knew intrinsically that tradition had to be respected and maintained, and the family name protected. 

“We learned never to compromise with quality and craftsmanship,” says Silvia. “And quality of course is in the stones and in all the details of our product. Damiani isn’t just a brand name, it’s also the name of our grandfather, of our parents, of ourselves and our children. We’re responsible for the past but also for the future. What we leave to the future generation has to be something valuable that they can also continue to build up.”

This fourth generation consists of Silvia’s 20-year-old son, Giorgio’s son and daughter, aged 20 and 19, and Guido’s four children, two boys and two girls whose ages range from 8 to 14. “We made a speech to the whole family when the two eldest turned 18 and said they’d never be obligated to continue but we’d like to know how they felt about it,” recalls Silvia. “They were interested but they’re still too young, of course. But when we celebrated the 100th anniversary in Milan with a gala dinner in March, we had all the children with us. We decided that it was important to have them with us at the event so they could see and be proud of what we’ve achieved. And to start to understand this responsibility that awaits them.”

And if Damiani’s 100th Anniversary Collection is anything to go by, the future is bright for the next generation of the Damiani family. The 100 X 100 Italiani exhibition is a celebration of the brand’s first century, and a proud showcase of its authentic Italian heritage in the historic commune of Valenza, representing 100 years of goldsmithing artistry through 100 masterpieces of the goldsmith’s art.

The collection took two years to complete, with a selection of stones coming straight from the family trove. “Giorgio was in charge of putting together the beautiful selection of incredible precious stones,” says Silvia. “We have diamonds and rubies and sapphires, but also stones that aren’t so common. We have a beautiful, super-rare cobalt spinel and fantastic paparadscha sapphires and rubellites. Giorgio sourced some stones, but there are also some from our private collection, from my grandfather and my father, which we decided to make available for the anniversary.” 

The 100 pieces represent a summa of Damiani’s 100-year history, shaped by the family values that Silvia has so passionately retold, and crafted with the mastery, creativity and passion that’s so intrinsic to Valenza, the home of Italian high jewellery-making. “For this collection, we decided on the most iconic Damiani collections,” says Silvia. “The Margherita, symbolising our creativity, the Mimosa, symbolising our mastery, and our Belle Époque, symbolising our history.

“And then we have the Fantasy Cut, where the stones lead the design, but with a twist. We’ve reinvented the classical designs in the Damiani style, which is why we call it the Fantasy Cut, in the sense that we’ve added our fantasy touch to these classical designs.” 

A beautiful example is the extraordinary Fantasy Cut Damiani Green Treasure of Muzo, a deceivingly simple diamond chain set with a truly majestic Muzo emerald of almost 64 carats with an intense green colour. Silvia points out the delicate straight inclusions within the stone that give the illusion of a lush rainforest. The pendant can even be removed and worn in a variety of ways, adding to its versatile quality. 

Then there’s the enchanting Margherita Desert Garden necklace, a tribute to the beauty of nature and the enchanting colours of a desert sunrise. The floral composition is an excellent demonstration of Italian craftsmanship, adorned with a 20-carat drop-cut fancy diamond in an exceptional deep brown-yellow hue.

And lastly, the mesmerising Mimosa pieces. Damiani successfully captures three-dimensionality in a chaotic flurry of stones of different sizes and cuts, each cluster of stones hold a sumptuous stone, selected for its size and colour – peridots for their fresh field green, amethysts for their mysterious violet, rubies for their fire.

These are but some of the highlights in this massive centennial collection. As an independent family brand, there’s not much more Silvia would ask for. “It’s one of the biggest privileges in life to have a passion for what you do, and to have a family brand that’s still under the family. We’ll never trade it for anything else.” 

This article was first published in Prestige Hong Kong