Prada launches its first-ever fine jewellery collection, Eternal Gold, an iconic take on fine jewellery pieces with a strong focus on sustainability. In a truly Prada fashion, the collection innovates and breaks the conventions of traditional high-end jewellery collections. Prada revolutionises the sustainable luxury jewellery market with the use of new technologies such as blockchain. The collection features bold sculptural pieces that perfectly communicate Prada’s DNA and position Prada as a pioneer in sustainable luxury.
The Eternal Gold collection includes 48 pieces featuring 100% certified sustainable gold and traceable diamonds, all made in Italy. The collection was developed by the new jewellery director, Timothy Iwata, who joined Prada last year after a career at Cartier. While developing this collection, Iwata wanted to draw inspiration from the archetypes of classical fine jewellery, reinterpreting them in the context of Prada’s DNA. This collection highlights the avant-garde aesthetic of Prada, playing with proportions, exaggerating silhouettes, and creating bold yet minimal pieces. It is romantic, with big gold hearts, features Victorian elements, seen with the velvet ribbon chokers, and even is genderless, with most pieces being also for men. The iconic Prada triangle logo is present throughout each piece, from inflated triangle charms to chains with triangular links and the triangle logo as the head of serpent bracelets and rings. While most pieces are available to buy in select Prada stores and online, certain bolder and more special pieces can only be purchased through special orders. This is only the start for Prada, as they plan to have a new jewellery collection yearly while maintaining certain neo-classic and everlasting pieces.
Arguably the most interesting aspect of this fine jewellery collection is that the pieces are designed with a future in mind. This collection puts a strong emphasis on sustainability, with each piece being registered by the Responsible Jewellery Council. The collection is made of 100% certified recycled gold coming from industrial gold and post-consumer precious objects. Furthermore, each piece is traceable through a chip, to prove authenticity. The chip also allows the customer to trace every step of the supply chain, thanks to the Aura Consortium Blockchain technology. The journey of the pieces is accessible to the clients and increases transparency. Even diamonds smaller than 0.5 carats are traceable from the mining to the cutting to the final product. This is a fairly new concept allegedly introduced by Prada. This promotes the eternal essence of the collection as with the increased transparency and trusted authentication, the pieces are meant to be passed down through generations. Moreover, this amount of traceability allows Prada to ensure sufficient labour safety and lower environmental impact. This approach to jewellery is a natural step for Prada, as they continue to pioneer sustainable practices in the luxury industry.
As Prada launches this truly sustainable collection, will we soon be seeing other luxury fine jewellery houses following this movement? For example, Cartier is as well an investor in the Aura Consortium Blockchain technology, so we can expect a similar move on their part. It will be interesting to follow Prada’s journey as they enter the fine jewellery space and see how they will be positioned compared to more well established houses in this field.