Designer Gina “GiGi” Ferranti Dies

By Rob Bates | July 11, 2025

Gina “GiGi” Ferranti, an award-winning jewelry designer whose work was often inspired by her Italian heritage, as well as architecture and geometry, died of ovarian cancer on July 8. She was 59.

Born in New York City, Ferranti originally worked in fashion. For years she owned a high-end clothing accessories boutique in her home borough of Brooklyn.

“My partner and I decided to close when the neighborhood changed,” she told Bejeweled. “I had been selling some fine jewelry in the shop, which along with fashion was a true passion of mine. I decided to start courses at GIA in January of 2011, and six months later received my Graduate Gemologist degree. My first job out of school was with David Yurman.”

In 2015, Ferranti began her own jewelry business, GiGi Ferranti. GiGi was the name her nieces called her.

“My goal was to create jewelry that was chic, timeless, and wearable no matter what styles you were wearing,” she said in an interview with Pietra Communications. “You can wear my pieces with stylish sweatsuits, jeans, career blazer looks, and fancy dresses. My jewelry is not super trendy and I want women to be able to hand down to their daughters jewelry that will be enjoyed for a lifetime.”

A year after she launched her line, Ferranti won an MJSA award for professional excellence. In 2018, she received a Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA) Gem Diva award, as part of the AGTA Spectrum Awards.

Diamond manufacturer Marc Knobloch tells JCK he became fast friends with Ferranti after he met her at a WJA event.

“Our friendship grew to the point of being able to just discuss the highs and lows of life,” he says. “This included the family she loved so much, her father’s declining health and passing, as well as her ovarian cancer diagnosis she shared with me in confidence several years ago.

“Her voice, her smile, her presence, her unintentional mispronunciation of some of our mutual jewelry supplier names that made me laugh—I will miss it all and will miss her,” Knobloch adds.

Becky Stone, who runs the Instagram account Diamonds in the Library, remembered Ferranti as “bright and strong and full of love.

“The jewelry that she delighted in designing for her brand…felt so much like her personality: bold and colorful and welcoming and joyful,” Stone posted.

Ben Guttery of Third Coast Gems wrote on Instagram that Ferranti’s “light was contagious, her words uplifting, and her smile unforgettable. I’ll never forget you, my friend. Your art will live on and become heirlooms for future generations.”

Ferranti is survived by her mother, Annette, and sister, Lisa Ferranti-Sciortino.

Top: Gina “GiGi” Ferranti at the 2024 NYCJAOS in Manhattan (photo: Julio Jaime Brianso Muñoz)