At last week’s VicenzaOro jewelry fair, which took over Vicenza—a UNESCO World Heritage site located about 50 miles west of Venice, in the heart of Italy’s Veneto region—the amount of gold jewelry on display was difficult to quantify.
Shopping for gold baubles at the biannual fair is like perusing furniture at High Point Market in North Carolina or browsing for books at the Frankfurt Book Fair: The selection is, well, enormous.
Even at a time when the gold price regularly tops $4,400 per ounce, plenty of exhibitors leaned into 18k gold jewels. From opulent styles inspired by ancient traditions to flexible designs made using cutting-edge technology, the new collections—three of which we highlight below—have one thing in common: They make zero apologies about their embrace of the yellow metal.
Fope
Founded in Vicenza in 1929, Fope is best known for the flexibility of its patented 18k gold mesh chains, which use its signature Flex’it technology. The brand showed new styles across a slew of collections—including the Eka and Prima pieces displayed here, all part of Fope’s Golden Now campaign for 2026.
Kinraden
Rooted in the principles of classic, minimalist Scandinavian design, Copenhagen-based Kinraden showcased its autumn-winter All Tiny Things collection at Vicenza. The line reimagines the brand’s signature silhouettes in smaller, more accessibly priced styles whose proportions have been “refined into lighter, more delicate expressions,” according to a brand statement. “Chains and bracelets become slimmer, earrings quieter, pendants more intimate—designed to be worn effortlessly on their own or layered alongside existing favorites.”
Kouzoupis
The goldsmithing tradition at Athens-based Kouzoupis has its roots in a small workshop in Istanbul founded by Antonios Kouzoupis in 1947. But the company’s design ethos reaches back much further. Take its new Byzantia collection, for example.
Composed of 18k gold, gem-set designs that recall the mysticism and sumptuousness of the Byzantine era—replete with references to the period’s mosaics and imperial iconography—the collection nevertheless reflects a contemporary sensibility. It served as the brand’s calling card in Vicenza.
“We wanted to create something that reflects our experience with Byzantine jewelry, but without simply looking to the past,” Antonios Kouzoupis, the company’s chief operating officer and grandson of the founder, tells JCK. “We took inspiration from Byzantine mosaics, imperial imagery, and sacred geometry, but then simplified and reinterpreted these elements to give the jewelry a much more contemporary feel. There are clean lines, stronger shapes, and quite subtle references to Byzantine symbolism.
“For me, what makes the collection special is this balance between our history and a more modern way of expressing it,” he adds. “We are celebrating almost 80 years of experience, but we are not trying to recreate what we have done before. We wanted Byzantia to feel like a natural evolution of our heritage—something that respects where we come from but also looks forward.”
Top: Byzantia ring in 18k gold with sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and a single diamond, $3,700; Kouzoupis
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