Interview by Alexander Mays / alexandermays

Conceived through the joined efforts of Paola and Consuelo Coti, the Coti sisters share a unique brand of jewelry with delicate design and poignant detail. Aonie, historically one of Zeus’s nine daughters embodies the supreme ideal of art and is where the label draws its eponym. After time spent at Versace, where a stylistic vocabulary was nurtured, Paola Coti was inspired by old world ceramics, which has given the brand a cutting artisanal edge.  With consideration to traditional jewelry making practices—Aonie reinterprets them with a distinct irony. Cocinelli, the leather goods label has collaborated, utilizing bijoux to embellish bags. In the wake of HOMI, Milan’s September lifestyle and design fair…French Fries spoke to Paola.  

First, tell us a bit about your partnership…how did you guys come together?

Me and my sister Consuelo started more than ten years ago. Our brand was founded in 2008 in Milano, and in that period, I worked for luxury management and for luxury brands that wanted to invest in Italy. My sister is an architect and she worked in Paris, so we decided to start on a new adventure. Until that moment, jewelry was very traditional, and we started talking about something new…something focused more on materials and research. We started developing bijoux…a sort of costume jewelry. We started with different kinds of materials; silver for example…but now we are working a lot with diamonds and with gold.

Silver, and gold…the cornerstone of any good jeweler. I am wondering, for you guys…is there any preference between the two? What is your point of view?

For me, the choice depends on the kind of style. For some lines I prefer to use silver to give more focus. It also depends on the dimensions…if we make something very big, we use silver… and maybe for smaller pieces we use more gold. 

You were working at Versace before…How did this experience inspire your brand, and set the foundation for your label?

I started in that field, which is much more fashion, something very commercial, and it was at a period where Versace was at the maximum point for their brand. A lot of parties…the typical idea of fashion. Then I worked for Mont Blanc in Germany, and it was a completely different way of working…it was like a bank…really like a bank! At Versace, we worked in the center of Milano, at Palazzo Versace where he lived, and it was an amazing experience!  So, I think all these experiences I put into my brand because you can see different situations…a different style. You can choose your own way…you decide in which way you choose to express yourself.

Fashion, Femininity and Tradition…How do these three pillars intersect? What are your thoughts?

I think it’s like when you wake up in the morning and you open your wardrobe…in one way you want to feel more feminine, another day more conceptual, and we decide to mix these elements into our jewelry. It’s not so easy, because in a traditional way…jewelry is very similar, maybe the difference is between the stones or the way that you make it…not with the ideas. The real goal for each collection is to express something that you think about. An identity.

Do you think that there is a difference between fashion jewelry, and more everyday styles or do you think that it should be the same?

I would like that you can dress in the morning in diamonds and not just because you go to a party one night. You decide to use a pair of earrings all day, and at the end of the day you take them off. We try with our brand to do it…but It’s not so easy!

When you first started, did you know exactly what materials you wanted to use?

In the beginning, we tried to use different materials, and different techniques. For example, right now we are using a technique with ceramics. It’s very difficult to do right now, because the people that were working on it are dead, and the techniques are not passed from father to son. We have researched a lot with this technique because its something new… it’s something that nobody is doing, and we would like to identify our brand with something special. The idea is to distinguish ourselves from other brands, to speak about our identity and from a different point of view. We would like to identify Aouaine with this material.

Minimalism or Maximalism? Which concept would best represent Aouaine?

HA! Difficult question…difficult to answer. I think Aouaine is more minimalist, but in some collections it’s also nice to try to exaggerate, to create something different, to impress…and you can impress not with minimalism, but through maximization. Our starting point is minimalism but sometimes we like excess.

Do you make this assessment from the customers, from the feedback or what is the influence that drives the shift in your design aesthetic?

It’s absolutely the clients at first, and I think what you observe outside…the scenario outside our office. It’s important to see what’s happening, and try to identify the fashion, because I think it’s important to see where fashion is going.

How would you describe femininity in 2021?

I think femineity is not what you wear…not a jewel, but the way you wear something. So, my job is to try and make a woman more feminine through detail, but if my customer is not feminine at all, it will be hard work and can be quite difficult.

Ceramics, Tradition, Animals, Religion and Art Deco…five ideas that sound completely different. Is there a particular story from where you drew your inspiration…was it something you saw?

We saw many years ago an old vintage ceramic with the Madonna. It was love at first sight, so we bought a stock and we started working on it, and we started presenting a collection focused on Madonna. When you go to the south of Italy, these old ladies’ wear the Madonna in a particular way…they are very feminine. It’s a religious sign but dressed in a feminine way. When we started with the Madonna collection, we tried to find someone making these kinds of artisanal pieces, that’s why we started looking for someone in Italy…which we couldn’t find. I saw this little pendant…a pendant with two sides. On one side you have a Madonna, and on the other side you have a name. The name was in Portuguese, so I started my research in Portugal because in Italy I couldn’t find someone that was able to remake that kind of medallion with ceramic. In the end I found this old lady making the material in Portugal, and we started working with this woman for our first collection.

The evil eye necklace…I thought this necklace was interesting. I’m wondering if you’re customers have a particular reaction to it…it’s almost like iconography. What are your thoughts?

Before the Pandemic, we noticed that a lot of people were looking for signs…good luck signs. We researched all these kinds of signs, one of them was the eye. We have also made a heart…the sacro coure (the sacred heart), like the church. Or for example the pepperoncino (the pepper), which from the south of Italy means good luck. We started working on all kinds of signs and in some cultures the eye means good luck, and so we proposed it.

Regarding different cultures, do you try to take care which signs you use…are there some that you try to avoid?

We obviously pay attention to what we want to communicate. The key to reading our brand is irony, because we put a lot of irony into everything. It’s a feeling…we don’t want to enter specific arguments like religion, or politics or something like that.

As a brand it must be challenging to navigate cultural appropriation…

We don’t like to be extremist, so some choices come easier than others.

What do you think the future looks like for your brand? Do you have any goals, or collaborations on the horizon?

Yes, I love working with different brands very much. I would like to collaborate in different fields, not only in jewelry, or fashion. We create a lot for Coccinelle, the Italian bag maker. The jewelry they use is bijoux, and was completely designed by us, but it’s very nice to try and reinterpret another concept, another philosophy, another brand and maybe enter in a field that you don’t know. It’s a sort of exercise to reinterpret, and to have your vision about something completely different. So that’s why in the next years we want to create a new collaboration, and of course to try to expand the market…not only in Europe but also in the US. I think there is a good feeling about my brand in the US, so I would like to try to develop that market.

Finally, when you put on jewelry…do you think that there is a part of your soul that is invested in it?

Absolutely! I think when I dress with jewels, for example earrings from my grandmother, it reaches my upbringing, my memories…maybe something my grandma gave me when I was younger as a birthday gift. I remember exactly in which situation someone gave me jewels, maybe when I did my degree. Every jewel has a particular meaning, and this meaning is always regarding the period of the moment that you receive it, or you give it to someone, and that is why we try to create jewelry with a meaning with someone you can remember, with someone you can give for a birthday. I like to connect a meaning to jewels.

AONIE will be exhibiting at HOMI FASHION&JEWELS 2021 / 18 - 20 September 2021.

HOMI F&J EXHIBITION, a dedication to sustainability, craftsmanship, design and manufacturing with the ultimate accuracy. HOMI F&J explores a cultural challenge, is sustainability a utopian fantasy or a possibility? 

Just as Milan once transformed the production into fashion, today it deals with the new challenge to transform the luxury industry into an industry with positive impacts. Transparency, intellectual fairness and human respect are the civil needs that every company must learn and appreciate.

The project comes to life in Rho Fiera Milano from the 18th to 20th of September 2021. The focus will be on a new definition of sustainability, natural materials, short supply chains and recyclability.