Source: Vogue
Ilaria Icardi, a fashion designer by trade, cut her teeth at Yves Saint Laurent, under Stefano Pilati and Tom Ford. Here, Ilaria Icardi speaks to Vogue
One of the coolest women working in jewellery has been hiding in plain sight. Ilaria Icardi, a fashion designer by trade, cut her teeth at Yves Saint Laurent, under Stefano Pilati and Tom Ford, before Phoebe Philo plucked her from the atelier floor to work at Céline. When the house changed hands, it was Victoria Beckham who came knocking, subsequently employing Icardi to infuse her namesake brand with the refined effortlessness adored by Philophiles.
Jewellery, however, always held a place in Icardi’s heart. Her late father, Umberto Icardi, was also a quiet master of design. The goldsmith – who supplied pieces to Cartier and Tiffany & Co., as well as a number of private clients – enlisted Ilaria’s brother, Lorenzo, to join the family company, but Ilaria had her sights set on Milan, where she studied, and then Paris. When Umberto died in 2016, it felt like there was unfinished business, and so she carved out her own brand with her gemologist sibling lending a hand. Ilaria, although based in London, produces all her new heirlooms in Valenza, the small town where she grew up.
Close-knit craftsmanship is at the core of Ilaria Icardi, the brand, but from the outside, the styling is as cool girl as you can get. Each deliciously extravagant white-gold, diamond and coral pendant, gold and lapis lazuli signet ring, and 18kt yellow gold chain adorned with characterful trinkets is paired with the kind of breezy, but sleek pieces that made her famous in the first place. “The II aesthetic is raw and essential, with references to classicism; it’s genderless yet emotional,” says Icardi, who maintains the relaxed attitude is rooted in her own fluid approach to design: “It’s quite an organic process without too much planning.”
There is an art to executing Icardi’s innate chicness. “It’s all in the mix,” says the creative, who was pairing high and low, new and old, masculine and feminine, way before the Olsens stole fashion hearts with The Row. “It’s about having staple pieces that you always wear and matching them with new pieces; so expensive with vintage.” Eclecticism also comes from chopping and changing eras and not being wedded to a particular look. “From the ’70s raw and bulky style, to heavier more brutalist pieces, it’s this good taste/bad taste formula that I have always liked,” she shares.
The 77 link chain with a diamond plaquette best represents the harmonious clash of Icardi’s world. The necklace is “the essence of Ilaria Icardi now, but also very much my father’s essence,” she says of continuing the family tradition and aesthetic. “I collect ideas in very unexpected ways, from adapting the past and resetting it into new designs, or designing something from scratch.”
The best answer to “who are you wearing?” this party season is, of course, “vintage” – not only in terms of sustainability, but because of the unattainability of it – and failing that, “Ilaria Icardi”. Get your order in for a 77 link chain now; each piece takes a few weeks to hand craft in Valenza, exactly as Ilaria’s father would have wanted.
