Style trade authority Ilaria Icardi boasts an illustrious CV. Presently the womenswear ready-to-wear design director at Prada, Icardi started her profession at Etro and Hugo Boss in Milan, earlier than becoming a member of Tom Ford in Paris as senior womenswear designer at Yves Saint Laurent. Stints at Celine, Victoria Beckham and Bottega Veneta adopted.
All through, she has nurtured a lifelong love of jewelry. ‘My papa was a jeweller,’ Icardi says. ‘After he handed away in 2017, I all the time pushed away this legacy, and the truth that I grew up in Valenza [Italy], which is a city the place everybody does jewelry. I grew up with that heritage.’
In 2020, after shifting to Paris, one thing shifted. ‘If you do trend, you do equipment. I used to be working at manufacturers the place equipment are a part of the outfit, a part of the look. My associates saved asking me what jewelry I used to be sporting and why I wasn’t making my very own – and so I made a decision to do it, on the facet.’
Uncooked emerald and yellow gold pendant, made to order, worth on request
(Picture credit score: Mattia Parodi)
From prime, Rita ring, made to order, worth on request; Rita aquamarine and yellow gold ring, £10,030; Damaged yellow gold ring, £7,100
(Picture credit score: Mattia Parodi)
Icardi established her eponymous model along with her brother Lorenzo Icardi, a gemologist, constructing on the historical past of the household jewelry enterprise begun by their late father within the Sixties. It’s a private venture, drawing on jewelry from their father Umberto’s archive and Icardi’s personal designs. Every bit, handmade to order and crafted in Valenza, epitomises each sturdy, clear design and heritage craft.
Icardi started with a handful of items from her father’s archive, in addition to jewelry she had created in the course of the yr, deciding to launch on-line solely. ‘I really like taking part in with photographs and creating slightly little bit of content material is a part of my job. The whole lot naturally melted collectively. I ready an internet site with associates and people who work within the trade who I belief and I love. Working within the trend trade, you have got the prospect to satisfy incredible folks. I created this character, a girl whose jewelry is a part of her wardrobe. I like garments that you could put on day-after-day, and I deal with jewelry the identical manner.’
The youth of the model has given Icardi the liberty to outline a powerful DNA. ‘We’re not a model that has been consolidated for 20 years. In jewelry, you have got quite a lot of competitors from large manufacturers. In our items, the standard is there, and there’s a consistency. I am very grateful in the mean time – we’ve good outcomes and we’re pleased.’
Icardi is drawn to powerful, daring silhouettes and natural textures in 18-carat gold, eschewing perfection to give attention to natural kinds. ‘I like layering, I like contrasts – it is a very schizophrenic strategy. There isn’t a logic or intellectualism behind it. I really like gold. I really like large, uncooked, chunky jewelry. I really like jewelry from the Thirties and Forties, however later items from the Seventies, Eighties and the start of Nineties are extra me. I like unhealthy style and good style coming collectively. It’s nearly my motto.’
Umberto pearls, £5,690; Spaceman yellow gold pendant, £3,760; Security Pin yellow gold pendant, £1,310; Key yellow gold pendant, £4,550; Anna diamond and yellow gold ring, worth on request; Milanese yellow gold choker, £15,720
(Picture credit score: Mattia Parodi)
It’s a magpie intuition that interprets into an eclectic assortment of jewelry, taking form in tremendous, understated engagement rings (‘I’m a bit overwhelmed by the massive engagement ring, the massive diamond: I name mine the infant engagement for somebody who doesn’t wish to exhibit’, she says) and, on the opposite facet of the spectrum, outsized, stand-out necklaces and bracelets.
(Picture credit score: Mattia Parodi)
Within the quick time the model has been established, Icardi has rapidly garnered acclaim. Lately, her jewelry was worn by Julia Roberts in Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming movie, After the Hunt. ‘Giulia [Piersanti, the costume designer] is an effective pal of mine. We have now a really comparable aesthetic, and we help one another professionally. There’s a classicism all through. Julia Roberts is sporting the jewelry, however it would not take over the scene. It is nearly a part of her character. I am very grateful, as a result of in all my years working within the trade, folks have been beautiful and really supportive. I am nonetheless very small and my construction may be very gentle, so I wish to preserve it this fashion for every now and then, perhaps in a yr’s time, determine tips on how to transfer ahead.’
All jewelry by Ilaria Icardi
This text seems within the Wallpaper* March Type 2026 challenge, obtainable in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple Information + Subscribe to Wallpaper* in the present day
Supply: Wallpaper
