Ugo Correani is one of fashion jewelry’s best-kept secrets. For two decades, starting in 1973, the Rome-born designer worked behind the scenes from his humble Milan atelier for some of the industry’s biggest names, including Chanel, Versace, Valentino and Christian Lacroix. Correani designed the opulent pearl-draped jewelry for Karl Lagerfeld’s very first haute couture collection at Chanel in 1983 and collaborated with Lagerfeld at Chloé. But his most fruitful collaboration was with Gianni Versace, who he met in the 1970s when Versace was a mere guppy in the fashion fishpond. The Versace-Correani relationship produced an explosive alchemy, both on the stage at Milan’s La Scala theater (where the duo produced costumes and jewelry for several plays, including Evita, André Malraux and Salomé in the mid 1980s) as well as on Milan’s catwalks. From blinged-out colored crystal studs and hand-mounted rhinestones to Byzantine-inspired gold metal coin disks and more sober black and silver metal, Correani interpreted Versace’s fearless style into refined, witty and meticulously produced costume jewelry.
When Correani died in 1992, he was not known beyond the circles of fashion insiders and his tight-knit collaborators. He had no heirs, his archive disappeared, and his legacy and story were largely lost. Coupled with his small production runs, the designer’s work has today become notoriously hard to track down. In a stroke of vintage luck, La DoubleJ stumbled across the contents of Correani’s old studio and is now creaking open the door to a rare offering from his own label as well as his work for his many fashion clients. Some pieces are prototypes, and some do not bear the final logo of the fashion house for which they might later have been produced—but this does not undermine their value. “In the 1970s and 80s most Italian jewelry designers did not sign their work—the logos and marks came later,” explains jewelry historian Deanna Farneti Cera, who certified the authenticity of every piece in the LaDoubleJ collection.” But all of these pieces were in fact found inside Ugo Correani’s own Milan atelier.” In fact, their mere existence is a happy miracle.
DoubleJ has curated 20 extraordinary Correani pieces exclusively for mytheresa.com, while a larger selection is available for sale on our website. Despite a few small flaws reflecting their age, most of these collector-worthy pieces have never been worn, are impeccably crafted, eye-poppingly fabulous, and unlike anything else you have in your jewelry box. We hope you go as nuts for Ugo as we have!
– J.J. Martin
