Courtesy Faraone Mennella
The queries came rapidly subsequent the loss of life of jeweler Roberto Faraone Mennella, from cancer, at age 48. “Are you likely to shut? How will you continue on?” And they came, says Amedeo Scognamiglio, his partner in existence and company, “from all people. And I understand. I normally wanted Roberto to be at the heart of the manufacturer and have the spotlight, but we labored on all the things jointly. The enterprise could go on, but how?”
Faraone Mennella, the jewellery brand the childhood friends founded jointly in 2001, was a collaboration that would produce some of the era’s most acknowledged items, including the Stella gold url earrings created renowned by Sexual intercourse and the Town. The brand name has a couple shops about the entire world, all made by Roberto, but the keep at the coronary heart of the tale is the a person on By way of Fuorlovado on Capri.
The island is in which the two guys, acknowledged by a lot of in jewellery circles as “the boys,” hosted their yearly Fourth of July celebration and used time with their fiercely loyal consumers. “Seeing Roberto and Amedeo on Capri was like observing mates with whom you decide on up suitable the place you left off, no issue how significantly time has passed,” says philanthropist and entrepreneur Hope Smith. “We would go on morning hikes, swim in the sea, acquire boats to not known dining establishments.” Hospitality was as essential as the aesthetic.
But the aesthetic, in the jewellery and the store style, was sturdy and crystal clear: a signature pale gray and white palette, a tasteful chandelier, and jewels, in the two yellow gold and colorful cabochon stones, displayed lovingly in circular vitrines. “I was concerned to adjust just about anything, for sentimental good reasons,” Scognamiglio claims. “But all through the lockdown I spent time with our mate the architect Marialaura Rossiello Irvine, who had gone by way of a related experience when her spouse died. At initial she also was worried to contact Roberto’s operate, but she realized that if we did not it would flip into a mausoleum. If I was to proceed, it would have to be an evolution. It could not just cease at the minute Roberto died.”
The pair worked alongside one another to retain Faraone Mennella’s spirit while also making it possible for it to evolve. The pale grey details turned a gentle blue. Rossiello Irvine built a new mosaic reminiscent of Amalfi Coastline pathways to use in the course of. In lots of ways the improvements are subtle, other than for one particular: the light installation in the window. “My dream
was to make the Stella earring iconic,” Scognamiglio suggests, “so Marialaura claimed, ‘Let’s make it a large gentle.’ ”
According to Scognamiglio, two times before he died, his companion questioned if persons definitely recognized what they experienced finished with jewelry. “For some reason, he felt as if nobody noticed. This is my way to make him see that did not transpire,” he states. “We did a single-of-a-sort pieces, tiaras, and million-dollar necklaces, but perhaps we have been shy about expressing our core. This earring made us who we are. I nevertheless see women going for walks on Capri with the earrings and the Stella necklace they purchased yrs in the past.”
And the jewelry will continue to appear. Scognamiglio will emphasize their signature gold pieces and use the trove of drawings Roberto still left to develop new types. A documentary is in the functions, much too, to explain to their tale, which options a sequence of possibility encounters—with Neiman Marcus, with Patricia Field—that don’t look probable in today’s natural environment. There will also be a celebration on Capri. Complete disclosure: I will be there, wearing the Stella earrings I bought 15 several years ago in Nina Griscom’s keep on Lexington Avenue and put on quickly thereafter for supper with “the boys.”
You see, there is a quote from me about Roberto in the window of the retail outlet on Capri. I hope one particular day you can go by and read through it.
This story appears in the November 2021 problem of Town & Nation.
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