Villa Milano: Five Generations of Milanese Goldsmiths Collected in One Book

Villa Milano, a jewellery house founded in Milan in 1876 and still run by its founder’s family, has published a book for its 150th anniversary. It is the first volume devoted to the house. Archive photographs and original drawings sit alongside accounts from long-standing clients and pictures of the workshop next to the boutique. The house is based on Via San Carpoforo, in the Brera district.

The sisters Alice and Francesca Villa, the fifth generation, now lead the company. Alice succeeded her father as creative director in 2018.

●In brief

The founder. Benvenuto Villa, a goldsmith and sculptor, opened his workshop in 1876. At the Paris Exposition of 1889 he won a gold medal for a silver cube sculpture that can be taken apart, a piece that now stands in the Brera boutique.

The techniques. In the 1920s Giuseppe Villa developed the maglia Villa, a gold mesh that gives metal the suppleness of fabric. In the 1960s Adelio Villa designed the Spray, a necklace of mismatched stones. The fourth generation, Filippo and Marco Villa, brought in new colour combinations and less conventional stones and materials.

The workshop. The house’s goldsmiths and gem-setters make every piece in-house, from the first sketch to the finished jewel. The workshop is next to the boutique, and clients can watch the work. The house moved to Brera from its long-standing address on Via Manzoni.

●Why it matters

Villa Milano has stayed in one family for 150 years and still makes its jewellery in its own workshop. The book traces how each generation added to the house’s techniques. Alice Villa reworks the house’s historic designs with new proportions and materials, so the archive also serves as the starting point for new collections.

Milan is also home to some of the largest groups in jewellery. Kering, which owns Pomellato and DoDo, describes jewellery as a strategic pillar of growth, and in September it put three women in charge of Kering Italia, Pomellato and DoDo. Villa Milano has a single boutique, with its goldsmiths working next door.

That workshop is open to clients. They can watch the goldsmiths at work next to the shop, and the boutique also redesigns family jewels for clients who want to wear an inherited piece in a new form. For many luxury clients, provenance now counts for more than prestige.

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