The Power of Made in Italy

Buccellati, Pomellato, Mattioli, Vhernier. Andrea Broggian’s professional and personal timeline links together some of the most signifcant names in Italian jewelry over the last fifty years


  • andrea broggian, ceo of the maison

    andrea broggian, ceo of the maison

«Gianmaria Buccellati was a fabulous ‘one man show’. Whether it involved designing, explaining, selling or planning the future of his company. A splendid personality that incorporated not only a designer but also an equally extraordinary entrepreneur. I still remember when I saw him win over a customer by designing an item of jewelry on a napkin in a restaurant. He was a born charmer, able to insert a witty comment, in Milanese dialect and with a displacing yet winning manner, into complex reasoning. The incarnation of a true leader who, from behind that enormous desk in his Milan office, day by day added another brick towards success with one eye always on international development. At a time, during the ‘80s and early ‘90s, when the Italian market was extremely strong. And yet, with unique and farsighted vision, he ew to New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo. He never su ered from jet lag when he returned from a trip: he would sit at his desk and casually face a full day of meetings and encounters. An authentic powerhouse. At the Italian Gemological Institute, which he had actually founded in 1973, I had the good fortune to meet Pino Rabolini– founder and soul of Pomellato up until it was sold to Kering - another extraordinary example of entrepreneurship. The opposite to GB in terms of leadership style, although both Milanese to the core, he was an exceptional example for me. Firstly due to his rigor and absolute coherence, his capacity to always know precisely where to go and how to get there, with tenacity, even in times of unexpected di culty and crisis. But without ever losing sight of the objective. His is a rm hand and he was well aware that, if the difficult and rather crazy idea of creating a brand were to be successful, the strategy needed to be double-checked every day, with relentless consistency. And Pino always knew what his objective was: to create a jewelry brand within the concept of ready-to-wear; with the ability to strike up extraordinary partnerships like the one with Sergio Silvestris, one of the jewelry’s greatest Italian creative directors. Graduating in law, he was working for an advertising agency when Rabolin ‘sni ed him out’: when it comes to intuition....

  • calla, vhernier

    calla, vhernier

  • pomellato

    pomellato

  • mattioli

    mattioli

  • buccellati

    buccellati

The engineer (Luciano Mattiolied.), on the other hand, is the incarnation of a top manager. Brilliant, fast, concrete. But madly passionate about manufacture. A poet of production. Meetings with him belong in a manual: fast, concise, effective, pragmatic. After a long career as part 1972 of Pirelli’s top management, Luciano was able to adapt himself to a business he knew nothing about. He bought Marchisio 1860, a historical manufacturing company in Turin, and within a few years, had brought it back to signi cant business levels until he sold it to the Richemont Group, luxury’s absolute benchmark, which subsequently turned it into the workshop for its most prestigious brand. Thanks to the fundamental stimulus and entrepreneurial skill of 2013 his daughter Licia, Luciano did not rest on his laurels. Instead he founded Mattioli, and, in a short time, besides constantly developing the company’s own brand, he also sealed new and increasing partnerships with top brands in the jewelry world. A striking growth. I take my hat o to him! I learned an essential rule from him: in management, anything that can’t be measured, doesn’t exist. However, with Carlo (Carlo Traglio, President and, with his brother Maurizio, co-owner of Vhernier, ed.), I found myself face to face with a pure esthete. Carlo has the magical gift of being able to recognize beauty before everyone else. He has a true talent for taste, proportions, the detail that makes the di erence. He re-discovered Vhernier, which was only known to insiders. He dusted it over and gave the brand a new shine, putting his creative touch even into doing business, taking the company to become one of the key players on the international jewelry scene. He can be visionary under any profile, so much so that her ‘forges ahead’ along his road without taking much notice of the various market trends or signals. Almost a fool’s game for a world that is increasingly dominated by marketing. From him I understood that sometimes, reasoning only through numbers and measures can lead to losing the most important essence and overall vision of a problem. A brand’s road is long and arduous: coherence, distinction and determination must never bow to compromise. Perhaps because, now more than ever, being in the shoes of a businessman takes courage. A courage supported by a thirst for culture, curiosity, humility, the desire to constantly learn. These are perhaps the characteristics that the four great people with whom I have had, and still have, the pleasure to work have in common. Men who, in the past, and even now here at Vhernier, have known how to reap the importance of that artisan lifeblood that has always stood out in made in Italy. And which is still the key factor among the strong points of our companies, the foundation of their identity and recognizability. Words that now sound like grueling challenges in a saturated market that runs on bites and likes, but which, if knowingly transmitted, will become the ‘details’ that will even be able to attract and convince the new generations.»

  • carlo traglio, president of vernier

    carlo traglio, president of vernier

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