Marco Bicego 18 K Gold

In its refreshing mix of traditional Italian craftsmanship and contemporary fashion sensibility, Marco Bicego’s style is unmistakable in the world of fine jewelry. The designer, whose pieces have been worn by former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and actresses such as Kate Winslet, was born into a family of goldsmiths in Vicenza, Italy. His eponymous brand took shape at his father Giuseppe Bicego’s atelier, where young Marco would spend every summer observing craftsmen and learning to make pieces by hand. He introduced his first collection in 2000.

Each necklace, bracelet, ring and earring is made at Bicego’s headquarters in Northern Italy’s Veneto region. A typical Marco Bicego piece is made of 18-karat gold that is smelted in-house, is unusual in its shape and texture and is designed to be perfect for layering. Some of the atelier’s signature techniques include the integration of gemstones such as emeralds, sapphires and tourmalines faceted with an exclusive rose cut and iconic line engraving on gold. This texturing is done by a bulino tool, an ancient hand-carving tool that leaves hundreds of lines on the metal’s surface, giving the piece a fine, brushed texture and a delicate sheen. The hand-twisted coil technique is another classic, one that lends necklaces and bangles a distinctly handmade, liquid-like appearance.

Marco Bicego jewelry is meant to be lived in — dressed up with a cocktail dress or worn casually with a T-shirt. This versatility, combined with artisanal techniques, makes a Bicego piece inimitable. The founder’s unconventional collections are named after his journeys to cities such as Cairo, Jaipur and Marrakech — he finds inspiration in his travels and, most importantly, in the person who wears his jewelry. “Every jewel is entirely handmade,” Bicego has said. “It is unique, like the woman who wears it.”

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Rooted in centuries of history of adornment dating back to the ancient world, modern jewelry reimagines traditional techniques, forms and materials for expressive new pieces. As opposed to contemporary jewelry, which responds to the moment in which it was created, modern jewelry often describes designs from the 20th to 21st centuries that reflect movements and trends in visual culture.

Modern jewelry emerged from the 19th-century shift away from jewelry indicating rank or social status. The Industrial Revolution allowed machine-made jewelry using electric gold plating, metal alloys and imitation stones, making beautiful jewelry widely accessible. Although mass production deemphasized the materials of the jewelry, the vision of the designer remained important, something that would be furthered in the 1960s with what’s known as the “critique of preciousness.”

A design fair called the “Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes” brought global attention to the Art Deco style in 1925 and gathered a mix of jewelry artists alongside master jewelers like Van Cleef & Arpels, Mauboussin and Boucheron. Art Deco designs from Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels unconventionally mixed gemstones like placing rock crystals next to diamonds while borrowing motifs from eclectic sources including Asian lacquer and Persian carpets. Among Cartier’s foremost design preoccupations at the time were high-contrast color combinations and crisp, geometric forms and patterns. In the early 20th century, modernist jewelers like Margaret De Patta and artists such as Alexander Calder — who is better known for his kinetic sculptures than his provocative jewelry — explored sculptural metalwork in which geometric shapes and lines were preferred over elaborate ornamentation.

Many of the innovations in modern jewelry were propelled by women designers such as Wendy Ramshaw, who used paper to craft her accessories in the 1960s. During the 1970s, Elsa Peretti created day-to-night pieces for Tiffany & Co. while designers like Lea Stein experimented with layering plastic, a material that had been employed in jewelry since the mid-19th century and had expanded into Bakelite, acrylics and other unique materials.

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