A member of the World Diamond Council, one of the founders of the Kimberley Process, a successful businessman, a famous jewelry brand, the emperor of diamonds, the court jeweler to singer Madonna, all these go under one name - Maestro Roberto Coin.
In his early business activities, Roberto had a successful hotel business, but after 33 years he decided to change the occupation and enter into the fashion world. He received his jewelry knowledge from great masters.
Originally, he established a factory in Vicenza, which was manufacturing jewelry for prominent jewelry brands. Later in 1996, Roberto Coin decided to establish his own brand, which as early as 2003 turned into brand “number one” in Italy.
It was Roberto who became the author of the “cento” diamond cut featuring 100 facets (37 at the crown and 63 at the pavilion) allowing the stone to irradiate hundreds of light reflections.
Due to his single-minded focus on jewelry he turned into an often winner of jewelry contests justifiably earning a great number of outstanding international awards, such as First Basel Awards, Platinum Design Awards, Gold Trends 2000, Couture design awards, Gold Virtuosi 2nd Edition, and Oscar. His company today looks more like a Swiss bank.
At the jewelry show in Vicenza, Roberto Coin gave an interview to Rough&Polished.
What do the words “Made in Italy” mean for you?
I don’t put “Made in Italy” on my jewelry because everybody is sure that Roberto Coin is from Italy.
What does it mean, “Made in Italy”? I discuss this subject in my university lectures. “Made in Italy” means that you are sure it is a little bit better and the design is nicer than anywhere else. Logically, it means more beautiful.
But on the other hand, if you make ill-looking jewelry in Italy, you won’t be able to sell it. “Made in Italy” doesn’t make you automatically confident that it is beautiful. Some designers make really good things, but some not. What does it mean, “Made in Italy”? If you create some rubbish in Italy, will it be a better kind of rubbish than anywhere else? These are words that were mismatched.
“Made in Italy” is something that first of all was earned by jewelers who made jewelry for many years, thereby making famous the Italian quality and design. This is not a merit of the state or any association, this was done by us. In fact, “Made in Italy” is a huge world. Italy has over 2,000 years of history in arts and culture that came to this world.
Italy began to create jewelry starting from the Renaissance. During the Renaissance our country had a huge number of royal families and nobles, and each of them had the best clothes, shoes, artworks, jewelry and houses. The desire to create the best became an Italian tradition.
Today, in Italy there are over 5,000 jewelry workshops, this is something unordinary for any country. Jewelry artists from many countries learned the skill and art of jewelry making in Italy. Italy is the mother of all jewelry traditions. It is not that Italy is better than anyone else, our country has just more experience.
For example, not all of our products are 100% made in Italy; 90% of them are made in Italy, it’s an Italian product, but 10% we make abroad at our factory; the design is ours, it is produced by the Italian maestro together with foreign people, and it is not made in Italy, it is made in Bangkok, and we are honestly saying this. But our clients do not care about where it is created as long as it is Roberto Coin they like. The same production process is practiced by Bulgari - some part of their jewelry they manufacture in China.
From your point of view, is it wise to invest in expensive jewelry?
It’s a better investment than in other purchases, like, for instance, buying a car or clothes just to throw them away later. If you take jewelry that you bought 10 years ago, of course the price for gold and stones has increased, but for investments it is better to buy gold and to buy diamonds.
Some jewelers looking for new ways started to mix metals to decrease the gold component and price of a jewelry piece. What ideas do you have to counter high gold prices?
I don’t like this mix, either you go for gold or you use silver. We are jewelers, we have to use real metals and real stones. My clients expect from me gold or platinum jewelry. We have a subsidiary company by Roberto Coin, my son’s company, which makes only silver jewelry.
If gold prices will go up, I can make jewelry lighter, using less gold. Jewelry pieces will be of the same size, but they will be light-weight.
If the market is difficult we like it, if it’s impossible we love it!
Your continuous challenge to yourself is to become all the time more reactive to problems and programs and this is the only solution.
Recently, women began to look for larger stones. What were the largest diamonds in Roberto Coin jewelry?
The biggest diamond we sold was 34 carats two years ago. This year we sold a nine-carat diamond ring. Now we made a special edition of 100-carat necklace, Cento Riviera, featuring diamonds starting from 0.9 to 1 carat. 100 carats of 100-facet diamonds. The necklace was made by the order from one company, which existed for 100 years; its owner wanted to make a present for his wife. The necklace will be sold for about 5 million dollars.
What color of diamonds is in fashion now?
I can say, different country – different demand. But we only go from one standard upwards, from G to whatever. It is not a question of fashion, it is a question of pockets.
Some time ago, two people started to design and make jewelry with black and white diamonds, and these were me and De Grisogono. We started before everybody else, probably 12-15 years ago. So we were doing this for many years and there is still demand for black and white. In Hong Kong, jewelers make a lot of black and white diamond jewelry.
What you can say about pink and other fancy color diamonds?
They are very beautiful and fantastic, but we do not make any jewelry with pink diamonds. Pink diamonds are very rare and unfortunately they are not much in demand because of a very high price.
Your collections are always bringing warm emotions and it makes no difference whether you use diamonds or other precious stones. What stones do women like nowadays?
We use everything, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, almost all precious and semi-precious stones. We make 700 new models every year. I made 3,000 designs for our collections since when we started. Why? If you’ll see, other brands like to make the same things all over, all over and all over. I do not want that. I like different things and will like every woman to look different. All women have different looks, blonde, brunette, brown, and I give opportunity to my clients to find something new all the time. And this is our brand, we are not boring. If you can see our jewelry – we have different types, different sizes and different prices. I would like every woman to have different jewelry. If you have a choice – you’ll like something special.
Do you produce jewelry in one copy?
Some of the pieces are exclusive, and I make them in one copy. But some of them I make in 20,000 copies. There is no regulation.
Despite its short existence the brand is well known all over the world. In which countries have you managed to open stores?
We have brand stores in Rome, in Venice, franchises in Dubai, Moscow, Kuwait, Bahrain, and we are still opening more and more. We have over 850 retail stores worldwide. Our U.S. subsidiary, Roberto Coin Inc, is located in New York, in Fifth Avenue.
How are you trying to protect your design?
It’s really difficult today to copy Roberto Coin, because you have to copy 700 new models, so many people tell me: “One can’t afford the effort.”
Of course we can protect some rights for the design of some individual jewelry, but we cannot protect all.
Our designs are created by a team of well-chosen designers. We are constantly searching for new forms and ideas. For me, it is very important to create what has never been done before. I do not like to repeat the same designs; there is nothing worse than being a boring designer. I created my own style and vision, which are absolutely different from the others.
All Roberto Coin jewelry pieces have a small distinction, which was invented by me. According to an ancient Egyptian belief, wearing a ruby close to the skin promotes a long and healthy life. Pharaohs often bestowed ruby jewelry to their wives. All our jewelry pieces have a small ruby set on the inside allowing direct contact with the skin. This is Roberto Coin’s secret wish of happiness and prosperity to every woman who wears and loves his creation.
In the last 50 years the Italian jewelry industry grew up to 5,000 companies. What are the relations existing between well-established brands and newcomers?
In fact, at this stage to be successful in the marketplace, it is not enough just to be a jewelry designer. To become a good competitive jeweler, you must have strong computer systems to manufacture properly, and it means that you need good computers specialists; you need to have good accountants, marketing and advertising experts, as well as big finances. How can they become a new brand today, if they need this kind of things? The world has become unfair to this generation.
I am not a designer, I am a businessman which fell in love with creativity. But I am not a creator, trying to become a businessman. Today you need to be both.
If you are a good designer, you have to find a sponsor, to gain strength you need a lot of money. If the government could help such people, they could grow into a new generation of jewelers. But our government does not help.
My latest effort is to help young talents. I like helping people, to encourage other people to help others, those who need it.
Today, I support about 20 small companies. They are learning to make it for me, when they are clever enough and they know how to operate they will go on their own. At least I am giving the basic start.
Now it is part of my life - to meet important people and collect money for charity. Every year I try to spend sufficient time for this cause. I like people who have money, but only if they are smart and have a good heart.
Veronica Novoselova, Rough&Polished, from Vicenza, Italy
