Milan-born, London-based jewellery designer Vanessa Pederzani creates beautiful, unusual and effervescent fine jewellery.

In-keeping with her whimsical and vibrant personality, she enjoys designing imaginative pieces and takes inspiration from female empowerment.

Born into a family of jewellers and training in Milan, Pederzani has always had a huge passion for jewels, seeing a “fairytale” magic in them. Her Vanessa Pederzani jewellery collections have been sold all around the world, and she continues to inject new creativity into every piece.

Join us in hearing a little bit more behind the designer, her Italian background and her love of jewels. Take five minutes with Vanessa Pederzani.

Tell us about your brand.

“My brand motto is: elegant, yet daring, jewellery. The idea is to design contemporary jewels that are a bit edgy, keeping a stylish, well-proportioned, timeless style and a traditional manufacture.”

What inspires your designs?

“I am inspired by everything that motivates, raises self-confidence and makes women become more daring in their personal choices in order not to conform with their breeding if they don’t like it.”

What made you want to become a jewellery designer?

“I am the third generation of an Italian jewellery family, so I was almost born into my father’s jewellery safe. Since I was a very little girl, my favourite game was to open the boutique safe drawers, and play at being Diamantina, the Queen of the Magical Shining Kingdom. I got into the business after graduating at the Italian Gemological Institute in Milan, investing my first salary into sapphire beads, I and kept imagining stories from my Magical Shining Kingdom. Then I stopped believing in fairytales, and became the opposite, starting my own brand.”

How are your jewels are made?

“I spend a lot of time searching for the right theme that fits my brand identity, then I hand draw all my pieces as crazy sketches. After a week, I reconsider them and choose the ones I will develop further. I am not personally making them. I have a couple of goldsmiths from very different backgrounds that help me develop my ideas using different techniques.”

Tell us about your latest collection.

“My latest collection is The Beautiful Warrior, which is inspired by my favourite fiction character, Olivia Pope from [TV show] Scandal, and is all about women and life’s challenges and how to face them. At the end of the day we are all warriors, and I like the idea that wearing one of those pieces can help women remind themselves to fight for their rights, dreams and equality.”

What are you working on now?

“My next project, which is still a work in progress, will be a capsule collection inspired by the sweetest words my four-year-old son once told me. There is a big project behind it, but I can’t tell more.”