A JOURNEY TO VICENZA
Italian jewellery company FOPE – with a history that dates back to 1929 – has created a special brand of “everyday luxury”. And now, with its latest ‘Panorama You’ collection, personalisation is being added to this Vicenzabased family-run business’ range of iconic creations.
Tommaso Forrasso, Area Sales Manager in the Middle East and Asia Pacific of FOPE, is very proud of his family heritage. As the nephew of FOPE President Umberto Cazzola, Tommaso represents the fifth generation of the company that started out in 1929 with a goldsmith’s workshop in Vicenza, Italy (known as the ‘City of Gold’). In the 1950s, the workshop turned into a cutting-edge factory that developed revolutionary products, such as flexible metal straps for watches – used by many leading Swiss watchmakers at the time. Two decades later, the business was transformed by not only specialising in making watch straps and watch cases from gold, but also to experiment with new techniques for the creation of exquisite jewellery.
In 1985, FOPE created the Novecento mesh – an icon of the brand today. Similarly, the Flex’it line (created in 2007), went on to become a signature. The latter, a patented invention, features stretchable bracelets and rings crafted in 18-karat gold and rendered fully flexible thanks to tiny gold springs hidden between each link.
“FOPE has always been very connected to our tradition,” Tommaso explains. “We were especially well-known for the Novecento mesh chain in the beginning; it was the first three-dimensional gold chain that came out in the market. But nowadays, FOPE is more known for the Flex’it. It is a special technique that allows us to produce bracelets, rings, earrings, and necklaces
which are completely flexible – almost elastic. The 18-karat gold used is resistant but flexible at the same time, thanks to this technique.”
And now, FOPE has launched another exciting line, known as ‘Panorama You’. Tommaso explains: “First you choose the colour of the bracelet itself – white, yellow, or rose gold – and then the combination of letters. For this, you can choose the colour of the diamonds (white or black), and the colours of the letters from a choice of three golds. You will then be provided with a rendering of your design and a quotation. Because our production happens entirely in Italy, we make every piece of jewellery – be it a bracelet or ring – in around 100 days, handcrafted especially for you by our master craftsmen.”
With this latest collection, Tommaso says, FOPE is acknowledging a key element in the luxury sector: personalisation. “Today, personalisation and customisation can be seen in clothing, cars, yachts, shoes, bags – almost every luxury sector. Panorama You is all about giving customers the choice to create something very personal. It’s about legacy, because you use your own and your loved ones’ initials. In fact, jewellery very much has a legacy factor – especially jewellery from FOPE. You can find pieces that we created 30, 40 years ago that are still up to date today.”
Asked to define the unique style of FOPE jewellery, Tommaso says that it’s elegant, modern, and subtle. And he admits that technology has played a very important role in the development of product lines like Flex’it and Panorama You. “We welcome the world of cutting-edge technology in our production because it has enabled us to develop very exciting product lines. We have even developed our own design technology in-house. For the very elaborate and tiny parts – like the small gold springs used between links, and to ensure the highest quality standards – we use robots. We are on top of the technology game with our designs and techniques used, and we continue to implement new solutions to keep our jewellery modern and to continue coming up with exciting designs.”
Another important consideration for FOPE is sustainability, and the company has been a member of the Responsible Jewellery Council since 2013 – guaranteeing the quality of FOPE jewellery, as well as ethical practices being maintained throughout the production process. “We are very proud of and committed to this,” Tommaso says. “We care we about the world we live in, and consumers have become very sensitive to this aspect, too.”
And while Asia is still a relatively new market for FOPE, Tommaso is optimistic about the prospects. “We opened our first mono-brand boutique in Tokyo in June, and we are looking to open another one in Kuala Lumpur by the end of the year. In Thailand, we have been partnering with Scintilla Gioielli for nine years now, and we are very excited about working together to see this market growing even further.”