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Giulio Manfredi Designer to the World
Jan 6, 1995 12:07 PM
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The message is joy. The medium is precious jewels and
valuable metals. The creator is Giulio Manfredi, Italian based
jewelry designer who shares his joie de vivre through his jewelry.
"The world can be a very hard place. You must give joy and
happiness," says Manfredi while sitting in his Madison Avenue salon in
New York City surrounded by his creations. Glass cubicles line the
walls each holding a select few pieces, in uncluttered museum style,
so that the personality of each work is accentuated. The jewelry is
showcased against a neutral background of texture and lit to gallery
perfection to highlight the detail of each piece. Growing up
in a family of floraculturists in Italy Manfredi always thought that
he would be a musician. But, while vacationing in Europe, he stopped
in Amsterdam and fell in love with diamonds. When he returned to
Italy, Manfredi had decided to become a jewelry designer. His family
bought him a jewelry shop and for six years he learned his craft. He
studied gemology, he went to England for a design class, and he
practiced his techniques. His first collection was shown in Paris and
immediately accepted. Twenty-one years ago he started his
factory with a manager, an architect,and a painter. Today he employs
110 people, 70 of whom work in his factory in Varese, Italy and the
company tallies up to $35 million in retail sales annually. In
addition to the New York location, Manfredi has salons in Zurich,
Milan, Frankfurt and Tokyo. There are also Manfredi franchises and
exclusive boutiques limited to one prestigious jewelry store in major
cities throughout the world. "In the beginning the name
Manfredi meant that the people recognized the work because it's good.
Later you need to do promotion. You must find journalists and
television. But you cannot force it, if the journalist doesn't like
the collection, then that person can't write about it," says Manfredi
on the importance of developing a name. A recognized name
goes beyond promotion, for some customers name recognition counts as a
way of validating their own taste; for others a name doesn't matter,
itUs the design that counts. "I prefer the person who has a
strong personality and chooses things because they are beautiful and
real. Sometimes people donUt have enough courage to try something so
they need the reassurance of a name. I like to bring out the wearers
personality with a piece," says Manfredi. Manfredi designs two
collections a year and there is a two-fold creative process to his
work. During the initial phase of creating, he believes in being wild
and free to flow naturally. But, he also believes that there must be
strong balance in design and after an idea is developed he goes to
work with his hands in an environment where he can concentrate on
refining the design. "My work is inspired by women, music,
architecture and the Renaissance. When you see a woman she has many
colors and she has form. A woman has the perfect figure of a
triangle. When I go to a concert and listen to music it transfers me
to water, sky, stars and love. The world turns for love that is what
is most beautiful and important," says Manfredi Important
enough for him to design the magic baton for the Young Musicians
Foundation of California. Additionally, each year for the past six
years he has crafted an orchestra conductorUs baton of gold, silver
and diamonds presented to outstanding figures in the music world.
Recipients include Henry Mancini and Dudley Moore. When
Manfredi started his line, he was one of the pioneers in combining
diamonds and color gemstones. He selects stones for his collections
based on the season and the times during which it debuts. He takes
into account colors that will be important in the coming years and
while the pieces with those stones may initially seem avant garde,
they become more successful over the next few years. "I like
diamonds and color stones. Color stones are not semiprecious they are
precious. I think I was the first to put tourmaline and diamond or
rhodolite and diamond together. I began with these combinations.
People were shocked. They thought I was putting down precious stones,
but then they saw the jewelry and accepted it. When there is beauty
people catch it all over the world," explains Manfredi.
Culture is very important to Manfredi. His factory is housed
in a 15th century "Conventino" that he restored with the permission
and guidance of the Italian Fine Arts Commission. In 1992 he was
commissioned by the Italian ministry of Cultural Affairs to create
reproduction jewel sculptures for the exhibition "Con Gli Occhi Di
Piero, Abiti et Gilielli Nelle Opere di Piero della Francesca"--
through the eyes of Piero della Francesca--one of the most famous
renaissance painters. It took two years to complete the 12 piece
collection. Additionally, Manfredi developed several other pieces--
with a modern twist--inspired by the paintings of Piero della
Francesca. Both collections are now traveling to museums around the
world and are currently in Taiwan. When the tour is over the
collection will end up in Piero della Francesca Museum outside of
Florence, Italy. "To get the right mind set, I worked with
many historians. I studied history and did research. I had to think
about what he did when he was alive," says Manfredi. Also in
conjunction with the Italian government, Manfredi hosts a one month
study program for jewelry design students, who come from all over the
world for the course. Through former new York first lady Matilda
CuomoUs Due Case Una Tradizione, a program that encourages exchanges
between Italy and the United States, New York's Fashion Institute of
Technology has participated in the program for the past few years. A
student is selected from the jewelry design department to spend a
month in Italy studying at the Manfredi factory. The course
is comprised of four parts: A week in the design studio with Manfredi,
learning the process of how to design a collection and how to find
materials; a second week is spent in the factory learning technology
and what it takes to transform a piece from paper to reality. A third
week is spent in the commercial office where selling and filling
orders takes place. The final week is spent at the Manfredi salon in
Italy learning about management and display, client relations and
stocking product. New York based fine jewelry designer/goldsmith and
former FIT student Michael Baggio was selected to go to Italy as part
of the program while he was still in school. "It was a good
learning experience of going through concept to prototype to retail
and marketing. I came up with a line of jewelry that I designed and I
was actually able to create a piece to the model stage," says Baggio
who currently works with Michael Bondanza, Inc. and also designs lines
for various diamond dealers. The Manfredi company is so
successful that students throughout Europe study the organization for
its concepts in corporate identity, marketing and image as well as how
to create an entity and spread throughout the world.
"Manfredi can create and successfully market a look that's
his. You see a piece of Manfredi and you know it's his. The specific
concept of having a factory and retail stores gives me something to
shoot for. I have a vision from being there of what I want my factory
to be," comments Baggio. Baggio also believes that he learned
a lot more about his craft much faster from participating in the
mentorship. The people at all levels of the factory were open and
answered all of his questions in great detail. "You get
information that people donUt usually get in a field thatUs so hard to
get into. People usually have trade secrets and you usually wouldnUt
be exposed to them so early," says Baggio. When the students
arrive they are always very excited and maybe even a little cocky
according to Manfredi, but he notes that when they leave the students
often feel that they have a lot to learn. RWhen they leave
they are a little afraid of what the reality is, so I send them a
letter telling them that they have talent," says Manfredi.
Manfredi has designed for many years and during that time the
essence of his design has stayed the same, while the collections
continue to evolve. "I think you must learn everything. And
if you have talent you grow up and you can perfect the design. the
basic design stays, but you change your feeling and your power of
creation. You can discard and keep the best more easily as the years
go by,S says Manfredi, who notes that while he likes fashion, fabrics
and color none of that influences his work much, but he does wish that
the media would treat jewelry more like it does apparel. "I
would like jewelry to be the same as fashion. In fashion you know
what the fabric is and what's going on. The media doesn't give
jewelry as much attention. Mostly the press pays attention to a
store. With clothing fashion they show life and joy, it should be the
same for jewelry," says Manfredi. There is much variation
from designer to designer and Manfredi believes that his line is
distinguished by the quality of the materials used and the details in
his craftsmanship. Beyond the aesthetic value he feels that the
respect he gives other people in the world influences his work.
"I come from the flower, from what is natural, my creating is
free. We have wonderful technology at my company and we have cultured
people in this craft. The people like to do what they do. We have
wonderful communication, we talk about what weUre doing. This is the
difference, when you have a group who follows you and understands the
concept. The work at Manfredi is not only handmade, it comes from the
head and the heart," says Manfredi.
For the future Manfredi hopes to see the jewelry industry
become more design and designer oriented, to give more diversity to
the jewelry market and to create more excitement in the industry
overall. He believes that nondesigner pieces are less interesting and
therefore less likely to be worn as well as being less valuable; he
feels that if design is added to gold and stones the value is
multiplied many times. "I hope the industry goes more into
design, but I don't think designers will have more influence soon.
Gold and stones give us an opportunity to do great things so I hope
the designer will become more prominent. Most people in the industry
donUt understand design. When you buy designer jewelry it becomes more
valuable," concludes Manfredi.
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Tags:
Collections, Government, Jewelry, United States
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