Rosh Mahtani started Alighieri in London in 2014, naming the label for Dante and setting herself the task of carving one piece for each canto of the Divine Comedy. She taught herself the craft, carving early pieces in wax at her own kitchen table before having them cast at Just Castings in Hatton Garden, and asking for the metal to be left rough rather than polished smooth. That choice still defines the label: gold-plated, textured, cast in recycled metal so it looks handworked rather than machine finished.

The Gone Fishing necklace pairs that texture with a cord chain, giving the pendant a looser, more layered feel than a standard link chain would. The Key of the Night necklace leans more formal, a single pendant that reads as a specific symbol rather than an abstract shape. The Collisione necklace mixes recycled silver into the gold plating for a slightly different finish. To me, a cord and pendant is the closest thing Alighieri has to a signature shape.

The hoop earrings stand out as one of the few pieces here where the label puts its textured gold on a shape other than a necklace. The Rocky Road hoop earrings keep the same hammered, unpolished finish as the necklaces, just bent into a hoop instead of hung from a pendant. The Lovers' Pact necklace stays in familiar territory, another titled pendant on a cord chain that would sit easily next to anything from the first group. The Mini Link of Wanderlust necklace is smaller and more delicate, a case for wearing several pieces together rather than one statement piece alone.

The earrings prove the label can move past its usual silhouette, but the finish is what keeps everything recognizably Alighieri.

Alighieri's whole appeal rests on that literary naming actually meaning something, and the hammered, unpolished gold backs it up by looking handmade rather than mass produced. The necklaces are the stronger half of the range, since a cord and pendant gives each title somewhere specific to sit. The hoop earrings show the label can step outside that shape while still leaning on the same rough finish to stay recognizable. None of it reads as costume jewelry despite the fantastical names, because Mahtani's metalwork is doing real, tactile work rather than just carrying a story. I would start with one titled pendant, read what it is named for, and build toward the smaller pieces once that first one earns its place.