The buzziest jewellery brands of 2025 are overseen by designers who cut their teeth at luxury fashion houses. Here, Vogue introduces the need-to-know quartet.
Ilaria Icardi
Whichever way you look at it, Ilaria Icardi’s fashion credentials are seriously impressive. Her career has seen her work with the likes of Tom Ford at Yves Saint Laurent, Phoebe Philo at Céline, and Victoria Beckham, and she currently holds the illustrious position of design director for ready-to-wear at Prada. In addition, the Italian now runs her namesake jewellery range – building on a family business her late father established in the 1970s (her brother is a gemologist). “For me, jewellery is part of the process when I design at Prada; its power lies in how you wear it.” Her eponymous brand is an eclectic one, with Icardi producing mainly yellow-gold designs that are directional yet work for everyday wear. There’s a perfect gold hoop, yes, but there’s also a ram’s head ring, a gold key pendant, a cocktail ring that feels Borgia-esque, a safety pin pendant… “I like things that clash,” she explains. “For instance, I’ll make a tiny pinky ring with a diamond baguette and a bold signet ring.”
Marco Panconesi
Marco Panconesi comes from a family of craftsmen: his grandfather was an avid woodworker “and taught me to respect materials”, while his cousin introduced him to “artistic techniques like gold leafing and wax sculpting”. His studies at Polimoda saw him focus on knitwear and design, but when he left in 2011 and began working with Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy, he says he “became fascinated with jewellery. I realised it connected to my interest in architecture and objects, elements I was drawn to even before my studies.” He went on to work on the accessories side of other major houses including Balenciaga and Fendi and now juggles his own line alongside his role as design director at Swarovski. “Every house has its own language, and I found it challenging and exciting to interpret it through my own perspective.” That said, he also had “ideas for jewellery that I wanted to save for myself” – one of them being his Upside Down hoop, “a simple, everyday piece that can be worn down or cuffed up”, he says. “I’m intrigued by the idea of movement and how jewellery can become part of the body, moving with the wearer.” He’s already expanded into handbags, and fine jewellery will be next.
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Raphaele Canot
Property and copyright law were Raphaele Canot’s unusual route into jewellery. During her studies, she landed an internship on the legal team at Cartier. She enjoyed it so much that she did a master’s in luxury marketing – which took her straight back to the jewellery house, where she ended up as studio director. She decamped to De Beers in the Noughties, before deciding the time had finally come to branch out on her own. “I realised designer jewellery was developing and very rapidly growing for women – including self-purchasing.” She’s a firm believer in “daily diamonds”: “Diamonds can be fun. We’re not always in the mood for gravitas; sometimes we want to be free-spirited.” In practice, that means her pieces often take the form of classic styles with a twist. Take her signature Set Free diamonds, in which the stones are liberated from their usual metal settings, above left.
Lucas Bauer
After doing a fashion internship at Marc Jacobs’s Louis Vuitton straight out of university, Lucas Bauer stayed on at the French house when Nicolas Ghesquière took over, quickly making a name for himself. Working on accessories for the runway collections was like being in a “fantastic special bubble”, he says, but he quickly realised that his heart belonged to jewellery. His label, which launched in 2022, is steeped in “our connection to nature and all living beings. I’ve been working on forms that mimic tentacles and algae, a sort of vocabulary of organic shapes inspired by the origins of life… I’m from Marseille, so for me the sea is always a source of inspiration.” There’s a spikiness to the elegance of his pieces; his chokers, rings, and cuffs, in particular, recall thorns (or, indeed, tentacles), while earrings resemble fish hooks.
