Italy’s Vendorafa Celebrates 70 Years With Series Inspired By Its Archives

By Emili Vesilind | June 23, 2021

Italian fine jewelry brand Vendorafa is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year with a new limited-edition collection, entitled Vendorafa70, that pays homage to the many decades the brand’s been in business.

Creative director Daniela Lombardi dove into the company’s archives to choose one collection from each decade, which she used as a jumping-off point to design seven new pieces. Once designed, each new piece was created in an edition of 10 that were hand-numbered and have been documented and photographed for posterity by the maison.

An unnamed percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the collection will benefit the Intelligent Hands Foundation in Valenza, Italy, which educates and trains master goldsmiths.

“I looked at the collections from each decade to find…extraordinary moments, a great success or signature [element], and collections that marked a key part of our identity or left a certain impression,” Lombardi tells JCK. “Each new piece involved the study of the size, scale, detail, or concept.”

The retro collections she iterated on were Margherite (1950s), Fireworks (1960s), Pebbles (1970s), Foglie (1980s), Hula-Hoop (1990s), Segno (2000s), and Bamboo (2010s).

Fireworks70 Vendorafa — *The Fireworks70 brooch, price on request, is “a tribute to the baroque era and its festive, decadent spirit,” says Lombardi.*

Bamboo70 Vendorafa — *The Bamboo70 cuff, price on request, represents the bamboo tree’s “growth, volume strength, and sustainability,” says Lombardi.*

Vendorafa CEO Augusto Ungarelli tells JCK the anniversary is a particularly sweet one for the jewelry house, which, like so many other luxury goods makers, has struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The 70th means more to us at Vendorafa than ever before—and certainly more than we could have imagined just a few short years ago,” he explains. “When our business, industry, health, and security were at risk, we were all forced to look within ourselves for incredible strength and resiliency to push through.”

But the brand is “finally seeing movement in sales and a strong trajectory, particularly in the U.S. market where our trunk shows, limited events, and retail sales are showing positive movement.”

Vendorafa, which was acquired in 2020 by the Pedemonte Group, differentiates itself in the market by creating pieces that require a high degree of hand skills; they couldn’t be made with machinery alone. The atelier employees roughly 80 artisans, many of whom are second-generation goldsmith masters and specialty craftspeople.

Margherite70 Vendorafa — *The Margherite70 necklace (see its sketch at top), price on request*

Foglie70 Sketches Vendorafa — *Sketches of the Foglie70 curved leaf bracelet, price on request, which was 100% made by hand over 100 hours*

Ungarelli adds, “After such an awful time for our industry globally, we are all looking to celebrate milestones, and for us personally we have been thrilled to get back to our best work—creating emblematic pieces representing adaptations of nature and symbols and representing the magic of the world around us.”