I’ve just returned from my first trip to VicenzaOro, Italy’s biggest jewelry trade fair. My first impression as a newcomer? Bellissima! The Italians just get it right. When I wasn’t attending talks in which jewelry leaders extolled the design and quality for which the country is known, I was surveying the newest collections, whose innovative themes and shapes set the latest tone for jewelry in the U.S. and around the world.

The jungle inspires this season’s trends. Black and white merged with brown stones and pink gold for an African feel, never more beautifully than in Valente’s long chain necklace with smoky quartz.

Bejeweled creatures crawled through a multitude of collections, from Damiani’s white gold snake line to D.A.D.A.’s colored stone frog rings. Other jungle standouts: an ethnic disk necklace from Garavelli and wild, unhinged chains (calling to mind a leaf cover) from Songa.

No surprise that Roberto Coin, one of the Italian’s finest and most successful here at home, embraced the trend and put his signature spin on it; virtually every piece in his new collection incorporates jungle colors and shapes, and many feature animal print patterns.

Unfortunately, I have no images to post yet; I got so press kit happy I had to mail the huge package home- to arrive in a few days. But look for more Vicenza notes (and pictures) in next week’s JCKstyle e-newsletter and JCK’s upcoming show roundup.

JCK