The Chicest Place to Be During Milan Fashion Week Is This Jewelry Shop
Wait, was that Mrs. Prada?
It is impossible, it seems, for a person to walk by Gioielleria Pennisi in Milan and not stop and stare into the windows. I stood on Via Manzoni one morning in between fashion shows and observed them one by one: she was pulled in by the 19th-century lava cameo necklace, he by the 1940s Retro period chunky gold bracelets, she by the amethyst and citrine one, she by the Art Deco diamond chandelier earrings, he by the black and white shell cameo brooch—or maybe it was the entire set, in the original fitted box.
“Was it always like this?” I ask Emanuele Pennisi, the third-generation scion of the family business. “The last ten years,” he tells me, “changed everything. There are no rules anymore—when you can wear jewelry, who can wear jewelry.” This aesthetic independence has led many to Via Manzoni, 29, where Emanuele’s grandfather, Giovanni, opened a gallery for his eclectic collection of jewels in 1970. He was from a family of goldsmiths and was himself a stone dealer, but always, too, a collector. Born in Catania, he had inherited that region’s taste and eye for carving and craftsmanship, for unusual materials like tortoiseshell and coral, for symbols and history.
That spirit remains, fifty years later. And though, as his grandson notes, more people have an eye for the unusual, the sale is not the motivation here. (Though, to be sure, this is a store, not an exhibit. Their website lists prices clearly.)
Emanuele points to a necklace in the vitrine: Sicilian, late 18th-century, a recent acquisition. “That might stay here for years. I buy it because I like it, and I know what it is. But then one day, suddenly everyone will want 18th-century Sicilian jewelry. It comes in waves.” Case in point: though his grandfather once filled the store with Art Deco to meet the demand for it, Emanuele says requests for classic platinum and diamond Art Deco bracelets had waned a bit in recent years. “And then, the singer Ghali wore two from us and something changed,” he says. “There are waves of certain aesthetics.”
One exception: 19th-century diamond chandelier earrings, a style Pennisi is known for. “There is no wave for that. It’s more a steady stream. Everyone wants them, always,” Emanuele says. I tried on a pair and can attest to that.
Emanuele, too, is a fan of the period. “In this store, we always have a glimpse into the 19th century, the eclectic century, when each country had its own distinct style of jewelry.” Individual and independent style is valued here, and Pennisi’s most famous (known) clients—including Miuccia Prada, who wrote the foreword for the family history book that came out last year, as well as the late editor Franca Sozzani, the legendary Manuela Pavesi, Roger Vivier creative director Gherardo Felloni, Fear of God designer Gerry Lorenzo—are all famed for theirs.
On a recent visit I sat down and asked Emanuele to show me the earliest piece they had in the gallery. Out came a pair of 18th-century garnet girandole earrings. “Queen Anne influenced the trend for these,” he tells me, adding that though these are the earliest in the store that morning, the family archives hold pieces from as far back as the 16th century—and earlier. There were also the 18th-century earrings with diamonds and exceedingly rare, completely untreated emeralds that the Queen of Italy might have given her lady in waiting. We looked more closely at the 19th-century lava cameos, souvenirs from the Grand Tour that had so captivated the woman in the window, and that full set of black and white shell cameos. There were classic, but exquisite and surprising Art Deco period pieces like a coral and matte rock crystal watch, a Cartier fringe necklace, a diamond brooch with dainty flowers carved from coral and malachite, and a white onyx and diamond lapel pin. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen white onyx,” I say. “Maybe not,” says Pennisi, proudly.
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