Pomellato jewelry incorporates traditional Japanese kintsugi techniques

Pomellato has launched a captivating original capsule collection that recycles broken jewelry using the traditional Japanese repair technique of "kintsugi." This luxury recycling initiative beautifully combines the Italian fashion house's renowned jewelry-making skills with the ancient Japanese traditional technique of kintsugi.

Pomellato "Kintsugi" Collection

A novel method has been developed that reuses broken jet (black gemstone) and cacholong (white opal), which would normally be discarded, and incorporates and reinterprets the ancient Japanese technique of kintsugi to create precious jewelry.

Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa sent his beloved tea bowl, which had been chipped, to China to be repaired, but was disappointed by the poor appearance of the repaired part when it returned, so he asked a Japanese craftsman to find a better way. After much deliberation, the craftsman repaired the bowl using lacquer and gold powder, and thus the world's first Kintsugi was born.

Collaboration with a female Japanese kintsugi artist

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　Creative Director Vincenzo Castaldo explained how Kintsugi was integrated into Pomellato's Milan atelier: "I visited Japan in 2019 and deepened my knowledge of the art of Kintsugi while in Tokyo, immediately feeling an affinity with this ancient artistic spirit. I was drawn to the elegance of the Japanese way of thinking and the idea that something broken becomes more precious through this process of repair. I believe the idea of ​​celebrating damage and healing as a sign of strength is a very modern philosophy. And reusing rather than throwing away is deeply relevant to our lives and our commitment to sustainability. Milan and Tokyo are many miles apart, but we share a poetic and extraordinary vision: embracing the beauty of diversity and imperfection over artificial perfection. This inspired me to find a way to incorporate Kintsugi at Pomellato."

Appreciating the "imperfect beauty"
Pomellato Kintsugi Collection

Ring. 18K Fairmined RG with jet and black diamonds. 170 million yen (excluding tax).

Ring. 18K Fairmined RG x Cacholong x Brown Diamond. 170 million yen (excluding tax).

Pendant top. 18K Fairmined RG x Jet x Black Diamond. 110 million yen (excluding tax).

Pendant top. 18K Fairmined RG x Cacholong x Brown Diamond. 110 million yen (excluding tax).

Earrings. 18K Fairmined RG with jet and black diamonds. 200 million yen (excluding tax).

Earrings. 18K Fairmined RG with cacholong and brown diamonds. 200 million yen (excluding tax).

A unique and precious piece

　Kintsugi, which uses lacquer as an adhesive, requires advanced skill in reassembling the pieces before gluing them together. The lacquer takes several weeks to harden, and then the piece is further polished to make it flush with the surface. Finally, the artisan sprinkles gold powder on the seams and polishes them to perfection.