Pianegonda

The Assoluto collection by Pianegonda was the novelty designed by the brand’s creative director Betony Vernon, who chose model Anna Cleveland as its face. The collection, as the name suggests, is inspired by sidereal concepts that fly beyond infinity, but in practice it is made up of silver jewelery with soft and minimal lines, with volumes that ideally depict elementary particles and celestial bodies. A design that has been developed in many aspects: from the first jewels in silver only, to those added later with the addition of leather elements, with an echo of the punk style.

Anelli in argenta con agata — Silver rings with agate

Finally, here is a series of rings that combine silver with a series of small colored spheres. These spherical elements are made of agate available in the different colors that the gem can take on, i.e. red, black, white, blue and green, with the addition of a purple variant, which in this case however is amethyst. The stone spheres are symmetrically contrasted by an identical silver sphere. Price: 120 euros.

Betony Vernon, direttrice creativa di Pianegonda

Pianegonda still has the face of Anna Cleveland

Published on February 23, 2024

Anna Cleveland returns to wear Pianegonda jewels. The American model is the face of the new 2024 advertising campaign of the Italian brand specializing in designer silver jewellery. Anna Cleveland had already been chosen for the debut of the new sculptural collections of the brand which is part of the Bros Manifatture group designed by the artistic director Betony Vernon. The model has now been called to pose with the creations of the Assoluto collection made of silver, leather, stones, and the Assoluto Gold ones in 18 carat gold and gems, inspired by cosmic energy and the essence of the universe.

Gioielli della collezione Assoluto — Jewels from the Assoluto collection

The jewels, in addition to being designer pieces, represent symbols such as infinity, life, love and luck. The images of the new communication campaign use shots by the French photographer Guillaume Thomas, with Anna Cleveland portrayed in more or less daring poses, between refinement and sensuality.

Anna Cleveland con Assoluto Gold — Anna Cleveland with Assoluto Gold

Pianegonda Assoluto, but in leather

Published on January 24, 2024

Assoluto was the name of the first Pianegonda collection designed by the new creative director Betony Vernon. But the absolute is always relative to something. In the second collection of the high-end brand of the Bros Manifatture group, silver enters into relationship with leather. The Assoluto jewels, but in leather, manage to combine Pianegonda’s always very refined design with easier wearability, and also to temper the price, making it available to a wider audience. A bracelet from the Assoluto leather line is sold for 360-390 euros.

Bracciali a doppio giro color cuoio e blu — Double-wrap bracelets in tan and blue

The bracelets in the collection are characterized, like the others of the Italian brand, by carefully studied geometric shapes, with fluid curves. The quality of the leather appears refined and is available in different colours: black, blue, plum, natural leather, green. The bracelets are available with a single twist or two twists. The first, the single-turn ones, are also distinguished by a silver band inside the leather band.

Bracciale in argento e pelle — Silver and leather bracelet

Collana in argento e cuoio — Necklace in silver and leather

Bracciale in argento e pelle verde, misura sottile — Bracelet in silver and green leather, slim size

The rebirth of Franco P.

Published on November 17, 2023

Birth, death, rebirth. Second life. And maybe even a third and a fourth. Franco Pianegonda is a name in Italian jewelry that recalls the title of an old film: Only those who fall can rise again. From a phenomenon of the nineties, with a brand that became known not only to the Italian public, Pianegonda collided with the economic crisis of 2008, which impacted on less than impeccable company management. The flop led to a long legal aftermath, together with the sale of the brand, purchased by the Bros Manifatture group. The designer and entrepreneur, however, has chosen the path of relaunch.

Franco Pianegonda in un'immagine di qualche anno fa — Franco Pianegonda in an image from a few years ago

No longer able to use the brand that bears his name, he reopened a boutique in Vicenza, the city where he grew his business, together with four new jewelry lines under the Franco P. & Sons umbrella. The Png 68 line is aimed at younger women, with easy to wear jewellery. The number, 68, refers to the legendary year of the youth revolution. The Franco Piane line aims at a more aware public with greater spending power. In this case the jewelry also uses gold and gems. The Je t’aime now line instead occupies the space of celebratory jewels, for anniversaries or important moments. Finally, Character is a jewelry line dedicated to men.

Anello in argento della linea Character — Silver ring from the Character line

Orecchini in argento e ametiste della linea Franco Piane — Silver and amethyst earrings from the Franco Piane line

Anello in argento, oro e quarzo fumé della linea Franco Piane — Ring in silver, gold and smoky quartz from the Franco Piane line

Anello placcato oro della linea Je T'aime now — Gold-plated ring from the Je T’aime now line

Anello in argento placcato rodio della linea Png 68 — Rhodium plated silver ring from the Png 68 line

Pianegonda in Palermo

Published on November 14, 2023

Anello in argento della collezione Assoluto

Pianegonda, a designer silver jewelery brand, which is part of the Bros Manifatture group, has opened a corner inside the La Rinascente store in Palermo, in the Cordaro jewelery shop. Located in the heart of the historic La Loggia district, at 289 Via Roma, this new space represents an opportunity for lovers of the brand.

In the new corner you will be able to purchase the brand’s best-selling collections, including Assoluto, Tecum and Conversus. With this opening Pianegonda consolidates its retail development strategy, aiming to expand to important national and international locations in the coming months, an important step in the growth of the brand and in the aim of bringing the beauty of designer jewelery to an increasingly wider audience. vast.

Anna Cleveland nella campagna di Pianegonda — Anna Cleveland in the Pianegonda advertising campaign

Leather and stones for the Pianegonda Assoluto

Published on November 3, 2023

An absolute success: Pianegonda increases and multiplies the Assoluto collection, the first designed by creative director Betony Vernon. The collection, in silver like the rest of the Maison’s production, which is part of the Bros Manifatture group, is expanded with new jewels. The common thread obviously remains the one underlying the collection, presented a few months ago: the name Assoluto leads to philosophical reflections, but also to particle physics and astronomy.

In short, atoms or planets of space: inspirations that are also present in the new pieces of the collection, which should now include 46 different pieces. The precise lines of silver, softened by curved surfaces, are interspersed with spheres. But Pianegonda adds another novelty: leather elements of different colors, which in some cases offer a hint of post-punk aesthetics. Furthermore, Pianegonda jewels include hard stones such as chalcedony and opal, always mounted on silver.

Anello in argento e calcedonio — Ring in silver and chalcedony

Bracciale in pelle e argento — Leather and silver bracelet

Bracciale in pelle nera e argento — Black and silver leather bracelet

Bracciale in pelle verde e argento — Green and silver leather bracelet

Collana in pelle nera e argento — Black and silver leather necklace

The reborn silver of Maria and Luisa

Published on August 26, 2023

The name has nothing special: Maria e Luisa. The surname, however, is known to jewelry lovers: Pianegonda. The Pianegonda brand, however, due to troubled corporate events, can no longer be used by Maria Luisa Pianegonda and not even by her brother Franco, founder of the Maison specializing in silver jewelry. The Pianegonda brand is now owned by the Bros Manifatture group. But the creativity of the two brothers, who each went down a different path, was not sold. After 16 years as a marketing manager in the original Pianegonda, and after a break marked by travel, Maria Luisa got back on track with a new brand, with a name that curiously doubles her own: Maria and Luisa.

Anello Shri in argento e 8 pietre di rodolite — Shri ring in silver and 8 rhodolite stones

Also for Maria and Luisa the basic material is silver. But it is a super-worked silver, which highlights a craftsmanship of yesteryear. The jewels are worked with a burin, with scrolls, curls, folds, inlays and in some cases with the addition of large semi-precious stones, such as citrine, amethyst, smoky quartz, pink, cognac, and prasiolite, onyx, topaz. Some jewels also have small 9-karat gold inserts. Maria and Luisa’s boutique is located in Milan. Vicenza is long gone.

Orecchini in argento con elemento a rosone inciso a mano con la tecnica del bulino e catene groumette — Silver earrings with rosette element hand engraved with the burin technique and groumette chainse

Bracciale Groumette in argento e cristallo di rocca — Groumette bracelet in silver and rock crystal

Anello in argento brunito con quarzo fumé — Burnished silver ring with smoky quartz

Anello in argento brunito con ametista — Burnished silver ring with amethyst

Bracciale rolò in argento brunito — Bracelet in burnished silver

Orecchini in argento con citrino madeira — Silver earrings with madeira citrine

Collana groumette girocollo — Choker groumette necklace

Orecchini in argento intarsiato — Inlaid silver earrings

Pianegonda Conversus in silver and gold

Published on July 27, 2023

New Latin exam with Pianegonda. The brand of the Bros Manifatture group has long chosen to use words in Latin, or words that closely resemble them, for the collections of the Maison specializing in silver jewellery. A choice that hasn’t changed with the arrival of the artistic director Betony Vernon and which is confirmed with the new Conversus collection. Difficult, however, to convert the word into another language, because in Latin the name conversus can be associated with different meanings, such as swept, turned, but also clean. And perhaps this is the right key: the lines of the jewels are really clean, simple, essential. Rounded surfaces, soft weaves and rounded corners are the characteristics of the jewels in the collection.

Another specificity of the design consists in the use of silver in two versions: shiny, as in most of the pieces, but also brushed in the case of the ring. Added to this is the introduction of jewels entirely in 9 carat gold, or mixed in silver with an additional element in yellow metal, as in the case of the necklace or earrings.

Anello in argento 925‰ satinato — Ring in 925‰ satin silver

Bracciale in argento 925‰. — 925‰ silver bracelet

Collana in argento 925‰ e oro 9 kt — Necklace in 925‰ silver and 9 kt gold

The free spirit of Betony Vernon on the star of Pianegonda

Published on April 7, 2023

There are gregarious spirits, critical spirits, spirits of the times. Then, there are the free spirits. Caging them in a definition is impossible. They are composed of the same multiform matter present in the universe. Betony Vernon, design director of Pianegonda, is part of this small group of people who are many things in one. One aspect, however, is clear: she is not a woman who is satisfied. She likes to innovate, discover, create. With an ability to go beyond the boundaries established by the old rules. «But it’s not always easy, sometimes I feel like a candle in the wind», she tells jewels.com. The designer has settled in Italy, in Umbria, a couple of hours from the headquarters of Bros Manifatture in the Marche region.

If she has a free spirit, it is also her because Betony grew up in a non-traditional family in Virginia (USA): her helicopter pilot father also had a marked aptitude for artisanal and technical creativity. Her English mother was an art historian who was able to fight for civil rights in the 1960s, when it wasn’t very easy to do so. In short, an imprinting that Betony has cultivated over time and that has opened the door to a challenge to her comfort zone. Model, artist, designer, writer, sculptor, sexual anthropologist: Betony Vernon’s many lives in one follow an irregular path.

Anello maxi in argento, collezione Assoluto

Graduated in art history and goldsmithing in Virginia, the designer moved to Florence to specialize in metalworking at the Fuji Studio Art Workshop. «A beautiful city, but I needed to go further and I moved to Milan for a master’s degree at the prestigious Domus Academy», says Betony. «Architecture and design gurus such as Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini or Andrea Brandi were my teachers, the tutelary deities».

Anna Cleveland indossa la collezione Assoluto di Pianegonda

The decision to focus on design resulted in her first studio, Atelier B.V., which was followed by work for the Florentine Pampaloni and, as an interior designer, for Fornasetti. «And for Gianfranco Ferré I designed a collection of 30 pieces in gold and diamonds, on the theme of the safety pin: it was among the first fashion houses that crossed the border with jewellery». But she has also worked with Missoni, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Swarovski for jewels worn by Lady Gaga. It was in Milan that the designer discovered Pianegonda for the first time: «New, different jewellery, with an innovative design. And in silver, a metal that I love very much. I also thought that I would like to work if there was an opportunity. And the crossroads of destiny wanted it this way».

After a long parenthesis in Paris and the creation of videos, books, photographs, television programs such as The Boudoir for Mtv, sculptures and jewels, and after dealing without taboos with the theme of sensuality as a search for well-being, Betony Vernon received a phone call from Beatrice Beleggia, CEO of Bros Usa, the American branch of the Bros Manifatture group, which owns the Pianegonda brand. «I accepted with enthusiasm. The idea is to give a new identity to a historic brand. I started with colour: blue, like the sky I see from my house in Umbria», says the designer. And Betony Vernon seems the right person for her, precisely because of her interdisciplinary ability to create in different fields, which once would have been defined as Renaissance. Pianegonda, having left the Latin names of the collections on the street, perhaps not sufficiently perceptible to the general public, on the initiative of Betony has renewed the boutique in the fashion district of Milan, but also the packaging.

Assoluto, on the other hand, is the name of the first Pianegonda collection signed by Betony Vernon. Central motif: the sphere, one of the primordial forms and a design icon of the American creator. «The sphere is the center of life, of the cosmos, it represents the atom, the particle that makes up everything. It is at the same time something concrete and at the same time a symbol », explains Betony, who chose an unconventional model like Anna Cleveland for the collection.
The work for Pianegonda has just begun. Silver and gold will coexist under the stars of the designer, with simple and surprising shapes. Next stop: the new collection scheduled for autumn, in time for the appointment with Vicenzaoro.

Orecchini pendenti della collezione Assoluto

Pianegonda travels the universe with Assoluto

Published on March 9, 2023

The new Pianegonda collection is the very first signed by the new creative director Betony Vernon, called to renew the brand that is now part of the Bros Manifatture group. The collection is therefore called Absolute. Even if the inspiration of the American designer is anything but. Assoluto flies high and is inspired by the origin of the universe. A theme that fascinates astronomers and physics professors but, after all, it is also what many philosophers have wondered in the last millennia.

In any case, it is not necessary to scan the galaxies to observe the essential style of the collection, which focuses on the shape of the sphere. The 23 jewels of the Assoluto collection, in brilliant silver, all bear a sphere to indicate what is believed to be the origin of the Big Bang, of the atom, of love, you name it. As we have already written here, the face of the Assoluto collection is the American model Anna Cleveland.

Orecchini a cerchio, collezione Assoluto

The idea of communicating the manufacturing technique is commendable: Assoluto is made in investment casting and assembled and completed entirely by hand. 925 silver is protected by two microns of 999 silver, i.e. pure silver. Subsequently, a further nanoceramic antioxidant protection is applied to the jewel which increases resistance to atmospheric agents and daily use, without altering the materiality and color of the silver.

The face of Pianegonda is Anna Cleveland

Published on March 2, 2023

Bracciale e collier in argento indossati

Patricia Cleveland was an iconic model in the 60s and 70s, one of the first African-American protagonists of the fashion world. Her daughter, Anna Cleveland, is now the protagonist of the new advertising campaign by Pianegonda, a brand of the Bros Manifatture group. A communication idea linked to the launch of the new Assoluto collection, designed by creative director Betony Vernon, which we will discuss on other pages.

Anna Cleveland also has a special bond with Italy as she grew up in a small town on Lake Maggiore. Ethereal face, defined as androgynous charm (in line with the times), she has worn for Yves Saint Laurent, Bulgari, Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Lanvin, Valentino, Maison Margiela, Ferragamo. The shooting for Pianegonda was directed by Betony Vernon herself, with shots entrusted to the French photographer Guillaume Thomas.

Anna Cleveland con orecchini e collana della collezione Assoluto

Pianegonda in chains

Published on December 7, 2022

Pianegonda‘s Vinctum collection, presented in 2019, has now been updated with new pieces. The Bros Manifatture brand, in its second life, has presented a series of collections all sharing two characteristics: they are always made of silver and have a name that derives from the Latin. Even Vinctum does not escape this rule. Here is the translation: the word vinctum can be translated as “locked in chains”, conjugation of the verb vincio. And, in fact, even the new 2022 jewels in the collection use chain rings of different types.

In reality, the Pianegonda collection is among the simplest. And, even if it does not give up the search for a refined design, it is still made up of simple chains. Rings connected to each other that turn into a very metropolitan jewel. Two necklaces, earrings and a bracelet, excluding the ring, are made up of chains with elongated elements, with a very Scandinavian style. These Pianegonda jewels are also made of 925 silver worked using traditional jewelry techniques and treated with galvanic baths that guarantee their appearance over time.

The Foedus 2022 f Pianegonda

Published on November 5, 2022

From the Latin dictionary: Foedus, masculine noun that can be translated with the word kid. But that’s not all: Latin has several declensions. If we consider the meaning in the third declension (we ask forgiveness from those who have not studied the language of the ancient Romans), the meaning changes into a pact, treaty, convention, alliance between peoples, bond, bond, association, agreement between individuals, law, norm established by nature or by fate. You choose which translation is most suitable for Pianegonda’s Foedus collection. As is well known, the brand of the Bros Manifatture group chooses Latin words to name its collections.

Anello in argento della collezione Foedus

In this case, the very shape of the jewels also evokes the concept of a bond or a pact (for a marriage?). In fact, bracelets and rings are made up of silver lines that form a knot, a concrete symbol of the bond of love contracted between two people. In some models instead of the node there is a chain associated in different forms, also in this case with a reference to the concept expressed by Foedus. Lanciata nel 2021, la collezione è ora rinnovata e aggiunge all’argento spinelli rossi o neri.

New Tecum jewels with Pianegonda

Published on October 22, 2022

Pianegonda adds new pieces to the Tecum collection and presents a line for men.

Nec sine te nec tecum vive possum. Translation: I can’t live with you, nor without you. It is one of the most famous and beautiful phrases in Latin, attributed to Ovid, and usually referred to the torment of secret lovers. In this sentence the word tecum (con te) is defined by the grammar as a personal and reflexive pronoun together with the complement of company. This little digression on the Latin language serves to introduce Pianegonda‘s Tecum collection. The brand, since it was acquired by Bros Manifatture in 2015, has regularly presented collections with a name in the ancient Latin language.

Tecum is a rather large collection, over 40 pieces, which in many models uses the shape of large chains. Silver is the basic material used by Pianegonda, in a glossy or opaque version, the metal is also presented in black rhodium, or with yellow gold plating, in some cases used on the same jewel: a news in the world of the Venetian brand. Among the novelties of the collection there are also the necklace in 925 silver and bronze with blue, bronze and rose gold pvd finish, and the earrings with natural pearls.

Collana in argento e bronzo con finitura pvd blu, bronzo e oro rosa

The world is beautiful because Imperfectum with Pianegonda

Published on June 10, 2022