Spotlight on Jewelry Brand Mattia Cielo, A Celebrity Favorite For Flexible Designs

MILAN — Mattia Cielo is not your usual nepo baby. “My dad fired me three times,” he quipped over Zoom. 

The heir of Italian jeweler Cielo Venezia 1270 — a company that groups brands such as the locally popular Miluna label, in addition to Nimei, Yukiko and Kiara — the bubbly entrepreneur has split his career between working for the family business and charting his own path.

To be sure, in 2007, during one of his breaks from family duties, Cielo launched his own namesake label with the goal of rewriting the jewelry-making playbook and approach the category with a more contemporary attitude rooted in industrial design — and probably prove to his late father Sergio, founder of Cielo Venezia 1270, that he knew a thing or two about the industry in the process.

“You know, family businesses aren’t all rosy, there are also thorns,” he said. “At a certain point, I realized something was moving in the market and I embarked on this new project.”

Cielo’s own venture started by creating one-off designs for his then-girlfriend and now wife, but determined to create lightweight and comfortable constructions that could fit with her on-the-move lifestyle. He likened his approach to pret-a-porter, as he said his intention was to free jewelry from the stiffness of couture creations and adapt it to modern women, free and independent. 

“A woman has a relationship with her clothes, even the very expensive ones, which is a little more casual and personal. We need to bring that approach to this industry,” said Cielo, highlighting he didn’t want jewelry to be “devalued, but just made a little less pompous.”

To this end, he smartly bet on the high-end positioning of fine jewelry for his own brand, differing it from the more approachable ones already present in his family business’ portfolio. 

As for the creative process, Cielo always looked at art and architectural movements such as Deconstructivism, rather than seeking inspiration in the more usual sources, such as the natural world and botanical themes. Also committed to injecting a sense of dynamism into his designs, he started to expand the scope of his investigation to other industries, including the aerospace one, to bring cutting-edge technology into his Vincenza-based craftsmanship.

As the couple traveled the world, interest and demand for the pieces worn by Cielo’s partner gradually grew. So did the founder’s experiments with making jewelry flexible and lightweight, with 18-karat gold spirals with a titanium core resulting in minimal designs that graciously wrap around the neck or arms. These are often punctuated with colorful precious stones, diamonds and freshwater pearls — his family business’ forte.

“The goal was to bring an idea that was not just decorative but also rooted in design, whose essence is solving problems with form and technique,” Cielo said. “Sometimes there is the prejudice that what is fine is fragile, but these styles are so resistant with their titanium structure, so you can really play with them.

“We are consumer-oriented, so jewelry must first be wearable and spark an emotion when worn,” Cielo said. “And then there’s the lesson my father taught me: A jewel is not a jewel if it’s not forever. Even the smallest one has to last until the following generations, so you have to master the balance of being culturally contemporary and timeless at the same time.”

His slinky-like creations have earned recognition, including one from the ADI index, the most important design organization in Italy that is also behind the Compasso d’Oro award. A Mattia Cielo design was selected at the design prize in 2011, marking the first time the Oscars of Italian industrial design shortlisted a jewelry brand. Last month, the organization included the brand’s new “Rugiada Pietre” bracelet designed by Massimiliano Bonoli in its 2025 selection, highlighting the most outstanding products and projects in the contemporary Italian design landscape.

The style adds to the new Emeralds and Bubble lines, presented at The Couture Trade Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. On that occasion, the brand secured additional distribution deals, including with Dover Street Market in London, adding to a global footprint that stretches across 20 countries. 

Yet the main focus of the business remains in the U.S., its primary market accounting for nearly half of sales, which Cielo declined to disclose. His creations are available at the likes of Bergdorf Goodman and Cellini in New York, Maxfield in Los Angeles and Marissa Collections at Palm Beach, Fla., to name a few.

“Especially at the beginning, our designs resonated more with concept stores than jewelry ones, which might sound normal now but it wasn’t to be taken for granted 20 years ago,” recalled the founder, underscoring that such retailers “understood our product better because they were used to talking with consumers in design terms rather than just under the gemological aspect.”

“This gave me a great opportunity at the beginning, also to try to detach from my father. His business was mainly in Italy, while I started to go abroad…and we landed in the U.S., where we had great success,” he continued, highlighting that the strategy is to further grow in the market through partnerships with top-tier, independent luxury retailers.

After the U.S., the Mediterranean countries are key markets for Mattia Cielo’s offering, followed by the growing Asian market, with the brand available at retailers such as Boon the Shop in Seoul and Masterpiece in Hong Kong. 

The brand draws an array of women, ranging from those passionate about jewelry to young consumers not so keen on the category who have found renewed interest due to Cielo’s practical designs, or even those with arthritis, who appreciate the brand’s adaptable rings, for one.

Mattia Cielo’s designs also have a celebrity following, having been worn by the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Tracee Ellis Ross, Shay Mitchell, Hailee Steinfeld, Vanessa Hudgens, Chrissy Teigen and Halle Berry, among others. 

These placements helped boost brand awareness and determine some bestsellers, which Cielo said vary across geographies. For example, rings are popular in Europe, bracelets and hoops dominate in the U.S. and Middle East, while the Asian markets favor smaller earrings. The brand’s takes on tennis necklaces are also popular, as their flexible construction enable the style to sit better on collarbones.

While continuing to build his brand, Cielo returned to Cielo Venezia 1270 after the death of his father. He now serves as chief executive officer of the firm, flanking his mother Mara, who is president. Cielo didn’t provide specific sales figures for his brand, but said the parent company totaled 30 million euros in revenues last year.