RESIDE WINTER 2022
EACH PIECE IS PERSONAL ILARIA ICARDI IS PAYING HOMAGE TO HER FAMILY’S FINE JEWELRY BUSINESS
fter over two decades working in couture, Ilaria Icardi pivoted A right before the pandemic. It was time,
Ilaria Icardi, shown above, recently pivoted from couture to launch her jewelry collection, following in the footsteps of her family.
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she felt, to launch her own jewelry collection that pays homage to her father, Umberto Icardi, a well-known goldsmith who died in 2016 but was renowned for Emmeti, a fine jewelry business in Valenza, Italy, that he started in the 1960s with his brothers. Emmeti manufactured pieces for such brands as Cartier and Tiffany Co. It took her a few decades to return to a business she knew so well. “I grew up breathing jewelry, but I wanted to study fashion,” says Icardi, who studied in Milan in the early 1990s before joining several fashion houses in an illustrious career that included top positions at Yves Saint Laurent under Tom Ford and five years at Celine. n 201 , she joined Victoria Beckham and served as design director until she decided to
shift to fashion consulting alongside her burgeoning jewelry business. “The time is right for me to spend time with my father’s archive and reset, redesign, and bring these jewelry memories to life,” she says. We spoke to Icardi via Zoom from her London home to discuss what it was like launching right before the pandemic, why she’s drawn to designing “bold and chunky” pieces such as her lapis lazuli signet rings and spaceman pendants, and what she hopes customers will love most about her collection. Can you tell us about starting your company right before the world shut down?
When I launched, it was four weeks before the entire pandemic started. I was like “oh my God what am I going to do now?”—this is like Thelma and ouise driving down the cliff. ut my website was already live and I was so
