The Fine Fashion Jewelry Queen Makes Breakfast Sparkle: How Ippolita is Changing What Women Want

The treasure trove of sparkling gemstones, set in gold and silver, illuminated Zadok Master Jewelers on this morning with the particular cachet that defines the ever-popular creations of jewelry designer Ippolita Rostagno. Known simply as Ippolita, the designer had jetted in from home base in New York to schmooze and talk jewelry over coffee, mimosas and breakfast pastries.

Zadok clients and ardent fans of the collection poured over the vast trunk show of pieces that run the gamut from earrings to bracelets to bundles of chains. Bundles is the operative word here as Ippolita creates her pieces to be worn together.

“This is actually a historical mix of every single collection ever made,” she tells PaperCity. “Part of the idea of the line is that it all goes together. So you can continue to collect and to layer on season after season. So it’s really about how women would like to wear the jewelry themselves as opposed to dictating how the collections need to be worn altogether.”

Born and raised in Florence, Italy, (American mother, Italian father), Ippolita had an artistic bent from an early age. But it wasn’t until she was 36 that she launched her “fine fashion jewelry line.” It was a concept that initially stumped the big retailers for the pieces did not look like traditional fine jewelry but were far too beautifully crafted and embellished with gemstones and priced to high to be considered costume jewelry.

Now, almost 20 years later Ippolita has no explaining to do. Her designs are wildly popular.

“Today, the driving force for me is understanding what women want. It’s a strange moment right now to figure out what women want because in some ways we are so overwhelmed with information,” she says. “You know you can get anything in any form or shape and, therefore, what do you want? It creates a lot of confusion, I think.

“With that said, the appeal of gold is evergreen so I’ll continue to work on chains and handmade chains because those are really the core of where I started and what I’m interested in.”

Swooning over the beautiful turquoise pieces, we asked about her infatuation with the stone. “I’m a giant fan of turquoise and especially of elevating the perception of it to as really a gorgeous stone as it is, putting it in gold rather than in silver,” she allows. “I use turquoise from Kingman mine, which is a very, very compelling, beautiful tone of turquoise.”

Dressed in her signature black Stella McCartney pantsuit, Ippolita is dripping in monotone chains and bracelets. Yet, she is also noted for her colorful collections with such endearing names as Rock Candy, Lollipop and Wonderland.

“Color, of course,” she says. “Because part of the distinctive feature of my line is that it’s very colorful and since we cut all of our stones ourselves, it really has opened up the possibilities of what you can mix with what.

“Being guided by an esthetic choice, meaning simply by what looks good as to what is intrinsically precious, allows you to come up with very unusual mixes of colors which makes it much more unexpected and fun.”