Driven by a strong sense of creativity, Vincenzo Castaldo is always in quest for new harmonies that enrich Pomellato’s distinctive style. After taking over the creative realms of Pomellato in 2015, he enhanced the brand’s unconventional and modern style while expressing his passion for fashion through jewels that speak to the contemporary woman.

With the launch of the brand’s first high jewelry collection, Castaldo takes Azyaamode and its readers on a journey to its charming creative world.

Gioia Di Pomellato is the House’s first high jewelry collection. What was the challenges you faced while creating it?

La Gioia wasn’t born with the intention of creating a conservative and traditional High Jewelry Collection, let’s say in a classic style. The precise purpose was to celebrate our own story and find our own voice, our way to interpret High Jewelry. The most challenging aspect was to align La Gioia with Pomellato’s prêt-à-porter philosophy, and the final result is a lively precious collection with a playful attitude.     

How were you able to stay true to Pomellato’s spirit through high jewelry pieces?  

With La Gioia we are writing a new chapter of Pomellato’s story in our own style, with the opportunity to update and evolve the house’s distinctive codes whilst honoring our roots. Coherence is very important: you can explore, for sure, but in a loyal way to the approach and the mind-set of the brand. You never have to betray your spirit and your own style. Pomellato has a very strong identity and we have gained absolute confidence in what we do and established our legitimacy in a field that requires extensive experience and profound craftsmanship. Therefore, we could mix our know-how with an out-of-the-ordinary creative expression, sublimating the Brand’s aesthetic codes.     

Tell us about the gems that make these jewels a true expression of joy.

In La Gioia di Pomellato, it was crucial to celebrate our approach and make it even more seductive and powerful. The choice of a gemstone is often driven by the vibration of its color that gives you emotions and can infuse a jewel with a special aesthetic vision.
With this in mind, we looked for colors in the same way an artist searches on his palette and we chose gemstones that could express the chromatic richness that exists in nature: the lush greens of tsavorites and demantoid garnets, the light blues of aquamarines and Paraiba tourmalines like the waves in the ocean, the night blue of tanzanite and the marvelous colors of the sunset that are found in spinels and purple sapphires.

The Gourmette Caméléon, which is a work of art and one of my favorite pieces, is a kind of manifesto: the diversity of origins and shades of all the gemstones embody the concept of true joyful preciousness.

What inspired you while creating La Gioia di Pomellato?  

Inspiration can be found in very strange places. Art, design, fashion … can be very inspiring but it can be more about a color, an attitude or a trend. I used to say that the very important thing is the way you observe what’s around because observing is different than seeing. Practicing this kind of exercise, anything in life can be inspiring: an unexpected shape or a combination of elements can give you the sparkle… but it remains very difficult to describe. Working on La Gioia, the inspiration also came from our own story: from sensual volumes to our never-ending love for chains and passion for color, all blending with a sense of freedom and superb craftsmanship.

How would you describe the collection and what makes it a true embodiment of the modern woman?  

I wanted to create a new relationship between the jewel and the woman who wears it, a relationship that is more dynamic and contemporary.

As a precious interpretation of our prêt-à-porter philosophy, our High Jewelry Collection, La Gioia di Pomellato, is not intimidating. All its pieces are special, some of them with a red-carpet attitude, but La Gioia always gives a woman the freedom to interpret it with her style and personality, and our Nudo Bavarole, for example, can also be amazing with a white shirt and a pair of jeans.    

Who is the woman you had in mind while bringing this exquisite collection to life?  

A woman who enjoys a free, joyful approach to jewelry, who appreciates an interpretation of jewels that is outside the schemes and the conventional rules.

A woman who loves a vision of high jewelry that is more contemporary… more of a jam session than a string quartet.

This collection is a new chapter in Pomellato’s journey. What’s next for the House? 

With La Gioia, I like to say that we have broken the ice, it’s a very important step that allowed us to subvert the rules and find the right tone of voice for us within the High Jewelry world, it will be difficult to give up the kind of freedom it granted us.                            What’s next? So much! 2021 will reveal lots of surprises, so stay tuned! 

Article Written by Mirella Haddad