Francesco Cosentino from a famous Italian jewellery group, Leading Italian Jewels, is a chief designer of two high-end brands Stefan Hafner and Nouvelle Bague. During the recent Vicenzaoro Winter in January, Cosentino shared with us the relationship between him and the brands, his design philosophy and unique collections.
Stefan Hafner and Nouvelle Bague are two completely different brands with their own unique characteristics. The former is mainly composed of white gold, diamonds and coloured gemstones, expressing sophisticated elegance, timeless value and peculiarity in its construction while the latter is mainly made of gold, diamonds and enamels, in addition to its playfully colours, outlining how precious and elegant the Italian traditional brand is.
Here comes to a challenge: one designer, at the same time, is managing two individual brands. Cosentino explained: ‘It is easy for me to manage them as they are two very distinctive brands. One is elegant while one is playful. They are just like representing my personalities, constituting parts of my life.’
‘I like to do something that makes women feel beautiful and special,’ Consentino disclosed his design philosophy. Take Stefan Hafner as an example, he expressed that women were just like graceful princesses when wearing the jewellery.
In January Vicenza fair, he introduced his new collection Angelica, offering us necklace, bracelet, rings and earrings in white gold, diamonds and rubies. The collection, as Consentino told, is to pay homage to ethereal and pure feminine beauty. ‘As always, I am inspired by the world of flowers and nature. That’s why floral design recurs in the brand and it implies beloved as the core value,’ he said.
Besides Angelica, Consentino turned the spotlight to another acclaimed collection, Promise. ‘It is my favourite collection because people can understand the meaning behind it. Take the ring in white gold, diamonds and rubies as an example, it features a central stone cut to a heart shape, implying the message of love. More importantly, the ring from Promise has been awarded the ‘Couture 2011 Design Awards’ in the ‘Bridal Awards’ section in Las Vegas for me!’ he told us.
Nouvelle Bague conveys its elegance, as well as to express colourful and playful elements from its jewellery. In its latest collection Hammam della Rosa, it delivers an oriental feel and a playful mood by the use of bright coloured enamels. Consentino said, ‘Compared with Stefan Hafner, the brand is quite suitable to be worn in daily life.’
For future plans, he said: ‘I am now preparing the collections for 2014. I am thinking a new philosophy for Stefan Hafner while for Nouvelle Bague, I will add some new colours in its jewellery. Colour blocking will be applied in Nouvelle Bague. I will put two strong opposite colours together for a contrastive feel, for example, green plus black.’
When it comes to his future goals, he said that he would keep taking care of the two brands, as well as doing his best to win the next Conture award. At last, We asked Consentino, “As an Italian designer, how do you think of the term ‘Made in Italy’?” He concluded: “To me, ‘Made in Italy’ implies high quality, craftsmanship and care of details. This term means a lot to me as it translates my creativity to my jewellery. It also highlights that I follow every part of the jewellery production, making sure that I stay close to every part of it. People thus understand what I want to do.”
The article was published on Hong Kong Jewellery Magazine Mar 2013 edition.
