VO+: The Forty Years Book
Forty years of history of jewelry in five chapters from the 80s to today, with a look to the future, summa of ideas and suggestions that have marked an era.
Recounting forty years of jewelry history in a few pages is a challenge that VO+ has accepted and interpreted through the words of sector experts and consultants, jewelry historians and collaborators who have dug out the most significant and representative ideas of each decade from their personal and professional “drawer of memories”. This was how “The Book” came about: five chapters summarizing suggestions, curiosities, creative ideas and interpretations of what the world of jewelry has been able to offer from the 1980s to present day, including a thought for the future. What legacy has it left behind? How did each decade contribute to making jewelry the way we perceive it today? Phenomena, styles and trends that not only marked an era, but laid the foundations for influencing the next one, sometimes triggering a transgenerational loop that has all the signs of “historical ebbs and flows”, aesthetics and profession
1980-1990: The turning point
The opulent, exaggerated, ostentatious 1980s. In a decade remembered as the era of maximalism, many other factors contributed to revolutionizing the world of jewelry. Joel Arthur Rosenthal, a.k.a. Jar, Alexandre Reza, Bulgari were just some of the key players in a period of enormous creativity and diversification that laid the foundations for style obsessions still ongoing today
1990-2000: Between new wave, fashion and design
In a reversal of trend, the minimalist style captured mainstream attention in a decade that nevertheless remained fertile to the rationale of various youth subcultures and became particularly sensitive to musical influences. Technology and innovation began to contaminate jewelry tradition, defining new cornerstones in the aesthetic imagination.
2000-2010: The new dawn in the east
The power of evolution instilled its energy into the early years of the new millennium, dominated by a mixture of styles in the jewelry industry with a combination of artistic and multicultural elements and an increased interest in jewelry production ethics, which found its embryonic core in London and then spread across the world.
2010-2020: Go big or go home
The rules of luxury changed and with them those associated with the world of jewelry, which had always been an emblematic expression of exclusivity. In the age of gender fluidity, generations such as Gen Z deviated from the classic style path towards new horizons in which elements, concepts and different worlds began to coexist harmoniously, marking the end of obsolete codes.
The future: Preserve, create, inspire culture
The future of jewelry, between what to save and what to leave behind today for tomorrow, which essential tools to keep, how technology and craftsmanship should coexist and what vision to adopt to remain creative and stand out. We asked some leading sector experts, who live in daily confrontation with those who are building the future of jewelry, for their critical, analytical, authoritative and stimulating opinions.
