Vicenzaoro Highlights, September 2025: At Vicenzaoro, the “Rebel” of Design Loved by Celebrities

Tailored suit, button-down shirt, silk clutch bag always in the breast pocket. A classic, measured elegance that goes well with the cocooned atelier on Via di Monserrato in Rome, a stone's throw from Piazza Navona. Fabio Salini's image and business card are certainly not those of an “alternative” and out-of-the-ordinary spirit, and yet, Rebel Jeweller, the title of the newly published monograph, written by jewelry historian Vivienne Becker, decidedly veers in another direction. A book celebrating 25 years of a successful career and a highly personal style that has fulfilled the dream of anyone who chooses the difficult and hard-to-predict professional path of independence: to leave an indelible mark on the evolution of an industry, or better yet, an art. Fabio Salini's introduction into the world of high jewelry came rather late at the age of 24, when he already had a geology degree in his pocket, the right provision for starting work in the family construction company. But... first came an internship at Chanel and then 6 years at Bulgari, where he was involved in purchasing, production, quality control and opening new boutiques. But not design. He therefore decided to drop everything, join his father's business, which had since also opened a base in Jordan, and only cultivate his true passion for friends and family. And it was through his cousin's chance meeting with Queen Rania that everything changed again. Rania became his first VIP client and Fabio's creations began to appear in the newspapers and on other members of the jet set. Crowned heads and Hollywood stars were bewitched by his unconventional touch, which led him to chart his own path. «From the very beginning, I have constantly rebelled against the jewelry codes of my time. While everyone was trying to build a brand, my aim was to be off the commercial routes and immediately not so easily accessible. I defined a much more powerful path, which involves not feeling in line with the direction jewelry is going and somehow wanting to “fight it.” Everyone talks about creativity and inspiration, but in reality, jewelry today is only an expression of money, a status symbol, when in fact jewelry was born as an amulet and an expression of a divine, supernatural force, a power that is certainly no less important than economic power. Then man overloaded it with different values that have nothing to do with the primal meaning of jewelry. There is now a system in force linked to appearance, to communication that becomes marketing, but which knows little about the product itself.» Salini the rebel, fights his battle with tools that are also unexpected. «My message is that if we want jewelry to be considered as a major art form and not purely decorative, we must respond to the principle of contemporary art, which is that of concept, because it is a cerebral art, which is read with intelligence and not with the retinal eye. This is what has happened since Duchamp. For example, Lucio Fontana made his revolution with a cut, but that cut meant everything. It meant going beyond two-dimensionality and depiction on canvas, and opening a way to art. I do it through evocative materials and symbols, such as corals or warthog tusks, which go back a bit to the meaning of amulet, and especially carbon, which is a very masculine, futuristic element, very far from gold. It has the sense of a highly powerful cultural revolution, as well as having eliminated every quintessentially feminine element, replaced in my pieces by chains, knots, mesh, which give my work an aspect that comes close to contemporary art, a mirror of the times in which we live, of hardships, of change.»