Ferré And Damiani Present New Jewelry Collection

By Margarita Nahapetyan

Italian fashion brand Gianfranco Ferré announced this week that it would be creating a new collection of fine jewelry in partnership with jeweler Damiani. In the past two years, the Ferré fashion house suffered the death of its founder and a period of major set-backs and even bankruptcy.

Ferré's new creative designers Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi will design the pieces in gold, silver with diamonds and other gemstones in collaboration with with Damiani, which will be producing them. The collection is mainly aimed at women, however, it will also feature some male pieces as well, with the range consisting of four main "themes" inspired by the late founding designer's style, notably the 'Signature Pin' - a safety pin Gianfranco Ferré used to carry.

Known to everyone as "the architect of fashion," Gianfranco Ferré had never designed a full jewelry collection himself but he liked to wear this safety pin on his tie for big fashion runways as some kind of a lucky charm. The inspiration for the new jewelry collection is being drawn from the designer's own archives, including the signature pin.

Parts of the new fine jewelry collection will debut at Ferré's fashion shows for the spring/summer 2010 season. And the complete line of jewelry pieces, starting with silver and finishing with precious metals and stones, will be presented at a later date and will be sold at both Ferré stores all across the world and Rocca boutiques, owned by Damiani.

"The crisis is a moment of truth for whoever creates fashion and it is an occasion to clean up and reveal the qualities of the brand," Tommaso Aquilano said. For the consumer, the financial downturn implies fewer purchases but much more importance of quality and design, he added.

The Ferré brand is owned by fashion firm IT Holding, which also owns the Malo and Extè brands and operates under license the Just Cavalli, C'N'C Costume National, Galliano, VJC Versace and Versace Sport labels through its subsidiary Ittierre SpA. IT Holdong sought bankruptcy protection from creditors earlier this year and was placed under special administration. Ferré executives stress out that the bankruptcy filing has not have any negative impact on operations.

Andrea Ciccoli, one of the IT Holding's three commissioners overseeing the changes in the brand, welcomed the creative process behind the new collection. According to her, this is a project which is great for two reasons. In the first place, it is born out of a strong creative idea and therefore a strong management team that stands behind the Ferré brand, she said, and, in the second place, "it falls within a program of rebooting and relaunching the Ferré group, which, with this partnership with the Damiani group, continues to show itself to be a brand with an important history and a big future."

Prices for the jewellery will start at 500 euros ($700), however some items from the new collection will sell for as much as 10,000 euros ($14,000).