Vernissage Project: fine, dreamlike and natural science-inspired jewellery

Founded in 2007 by llenia Corti in collaboration with Matteo Mena, Vernissage Project is the Milan-based fine jewellery brand we wish we had discovered a long time ago.

Inspired by entomology and botany, the artists have created a series of stunning, meticulous and detailed reproductions of a magic world – to wear.

Black flies camouflaged between leaves and twigs, deer with white horns stuck in the branches of trees, small flying animals frozen on candid roses are the salients of this brand.

Each item of jewellery is a crystallisation of a moment: small insects and little sections of their universe are captured and fixed in an eternal pose, made vital by the glitter of metal.

Rings, bracelets and necklaces are frames of gold and silver filigrees, in whose coils are trapped diamonds, agate stones, jades, amethysts and pearl fragments.

In the Vernissage Project’s creations you can breathe the rarefied atmosphere of a dawn in the woods or that of any dusty natural science museum with its cartouches of illustrations and collection of glass cases.

The dualism between childlike freedom and the adult world is the point where you can meet this aesthetic which represents the magic and the enchantment of small things.

 

The Torpor collection is about the sleepy mood of winter lethargy awaiting rebirth, and is my favourite nostalgic, dreamlike and evocative as it is.

Vernissage produces its products in Italy according to the traditional rules of high jewellery and craftsmanship.

Each jewel is hand-modelled and finely hand-carved down to the cuts and the settings for the stones. The collection is made of unique pieces – reproducible, but never identical.

I recommend a visit to their website where you can find an incredible number of videos and images of installations and performances, which testify to their interest in the experimentation with all the other visual arts.

The brand is a guest of the MFW Vogue Talent Corner event as the next big thing in fashion and Italian jewellery.

You can find it in London here.

Laura De Vittori