Vhernier Balloon Earrings

Vhernier has a progressive approach to modern jewelry rooted in patience with meticulous attention to detail. The Italian brand was founded in 1984 in Valenza, a historic jewelry city, as a goldsmith’s workshop. It crafts timeless rings, earrings, bracelets and other fine pieces. 

Carlo Traglio, a former bottler and distributor for Coca-Cola, was a passionate collector of Vhernier jewelry before, in 2001, he acquired the company. Angela Camurati, Vhernier’s co-founder and design lead, insisted on two conditions: first, that the design philosophy could not change. The second condition was that the company would stay in Valenza.

Vhernier continues to be boldly different, and that is as true in their designs as their production methods. In the same town as jewelry giants BVLGARI, Fope and Damiani, Vhernier has workshops specializing in various aspects of its creations. Pieces travel from goldsmiths, to gem setters, to polishers before reaching a quality control headquarters.

Vhernier’s most iconic piece, the Calla necklace, took years of conceptualizing to perfect a cone-shaped design that has remained largely unchanged since its inception. The conical motif is adaptable and provides a consistency across necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Calla necklaces have been released in titanium, ebony and platinum, bringing this enduring favorite into the 21st century.

The exclusive Vhernier Bridge bracelet is another exemplary piece with smooth sides and precise edges which feature hidden diamonds and gemstones between sections. Each Bridge bracelet takes 45 days to create, with the company producing around eight per year.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of Vhernier rings, bracelets, earrings and more.

In the United States, ear piercing didn’t really become popular until the 1950s and ‘60s, but our desire for a dazzling pair of vintage earrings has deeper roots than that. In fact, wearing earrings actually goes back thousands of years, and you can find many tangible connections between now and then in how we continue to talk about these treasured accessories.

Women wore ornamental earrings — studs and hoops at the very least — in Ancient Egypt, which is home to mines that are among the earliest sources of emeralds in the world. Emerald earrings are highly prized today, and their quality lies in their rich, saturated color. The highest-quality emeralds are green or bluish-green. Earrings worn by the affluent in early Roman civilizations were set with precious stones such as diamonds and pearls, and a clean-looking pop of pearl on the front of the lobe is as timeless as ever. Hoop earrings are imbued with symbolism and cultural significance for many, and on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Ancient Near Eastern Art Gallery is a pair of simple gold hoops from Mesopotamia dating to between 2600 and 2500 B.C.

Today, ear piercing is very popular all over the world, and, as a result, it is difficult to overstate how much everyone pines for a good pair of earrings — modernist drop earrings, glamorous Victorian hoops, geometrically complex chandelier earrings, you name it. Sure, jewelry trends and the fashion darlings of social media come and go, but earrings have a staying power that seems impenetrable: The still-strong love affair between British royals and Cartier earrings is more than a century old, glossy 1970s hoops from legacy houses such as Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels remain the statement makers they’ve always been and although people have been stacking earrings for many moons, the allure of an expertly mismatched stack of charms and studs still feels fresh and new.

While there is no shortage of modern earring designs to choose from, the classics, like coral earrings, Art Deco–style earrings and diamond drop earrings are still heavy hitters. On 1stDibs, find a wide range of antique, new and vintage earrings today.