Vicenzaoro Highlights, January 2023: A Historic Achievement

The last take at Vicenzaoro January 2023 and the last resumé of  these five days of business and networking, which saw the city involved  in an unprecedented event. Besides the important numbers recorded at the Expo Centre’s turnstiles, in plain view to all concerned, one could not fail to notice the excitement in the air among the stands of the 1,300 exhibitors, key players with their new products at the most prosperous edition in the 70-year history of the event. In a range from fashion jewelry to haute joaillerie by world-famous brands, visitors and buyers from every continent were able to find what they were looking for in their target market, since every stage of the supply chain, from components  to semi-finished products to packaging and on to the machinery segment, especially in the T.Gold hyper-technology hub, was covered. Here, the latest  innovations in the sector found fertile ground at the Jewellery Technology Forum on Sunday 22nd, where even the digital versions of jewelry were discussed, a recently explored frontier by players of various kinds, from fast fashion to high-end. Just to mention the most striking cases, Tiffany & Co. has, for example, launched a collection of no less than 250 Non-Fungible Tokens, the NFTiff by Tiffany & Co., created in collaboration with CryptoPunk, just as Bulgari has amazed  everyone with its Beyond Wonder necklace, working on a design with no  constraints on wearability.

Additionally, Dolce & Gabbana has proposed  the Genesis Collection, consisting of just 9 digital dresses, which sold at auction for $6 million, while the decidedly more pop and affordable Sunney brand has even devised a specific  filter for the earrings in its Rubberized collection, which can be used on social networks to allow the potential buyer  to try the jewel on before buying. Phygital jewelry was also talked about on  the Vicenzaoro stage that has always been tasked with intercepting the latest trends, or rather, Trendvision Jewellery + Forecasting - IEG's independent Observatory, directed by Paola De Luca, who moderated a talk with a  more than explanatory title, “Dreamscapes - Between Reality and Fiction  pushing the boundaries of the Jewelry  Sector”. The core of the discussion regarded the experimental techniques  that create immersive works of art  through the use of artificial intelli- gence and a mention of the many “unseen universes” yet to be explored in an  increasingly frequent cross-contamination between real and virtual. The  desire for renewal has therefore also invaded a sector that, by definition, is  synonymous with tradition and manual skill, concepts that are far removed  from product dematerialization, especially if it is luxury. And yet, the new  era has already begun and is there for the future generations of master goldsmiths. So much has been spoken about this at the last few editions of Vicenzaoro and so much is being done to bring out the thousands of hidden, and perhaps somewhat forgotten, potentials of a centuries-old craft that  has changed its look. A central theme  for the industry, which also sees Vicenzaoro and IEG strongly committed  alongside the category associations.

A new air was also breathed in the freshly launched B2B TIME format,  an area specifically for the contemporary watch supply chain, that flanked  the now customary VO Vintage area, the B2C event for second-wrist and vintage jewelry enthusiasts. Italian  Exhibition Group's wide-ranging vision has, in fact, chosen, for this fourth  edition, to also focus on the most popular and youngest social profiles able to open a window on the world of vintage, which, up until yesterday, was considered somewhat “dusty” and not so “young”. And so, IEG's team of speakers and consultants included influencers from Instagram and Tik  Tok, such as 24-year-old Andrea Casalegno, who built up his profession  through his @Iamcasa profile, on the talk stage together with Alessandro  Fanciulli, Jacopo Spangaro, Joël Laplace, Lorenzo Maillard and Jasper Lijfering. All personalities to be sought  out and followed on IG in order to be updated in terms of timepieces & co. Gen Z, or a little over, at the service of the industry in forms and ways that were unimaginable until yesterday but which are worth appreciating due to their freshness and speed of appeal to the public.