Aliita

Aliita

Aliita was founded in Milan in 2015 by Cynthia Vilchez Castiglioni, who grew up in Maracaibo in Venezuela and studied fashion marketing at IED before working at Vionnet, Miu Miu and Jil Sander. The name is both an anagram of Italia and a Wayuu word for an important object, after the Guajiro people of Zulia where she was raised.

Jewelry

The casita, a little house charm, was the first piece Vilchez made and it is still the signature. She designed it around family and motherhood rather than as a motif exercise, which is why it reads as sincere instead of twee. Everything is named in Spanish, so you get a Miau bracelet and a Rombo hoop.

More Jewelry

The production is narrow on purpose: made in Italy, almost all of it in nine-karat yellow gold with a few pieces in white. Vilchez came to jewellery sideways, through fashion marketing at IED and merchandising and sales jobs at Vionnet, Miu Miu and Jil Sander, plus summer goldsmithing courses. She is also Consuelo Castiglioni's daughter-in-law, which puts Marni in the family.

Our honest take

This is playful fine jewellery that has never chased a red carpet, and there is no awards trail to report because jewellery labels are not eligible for most of them. Buy the casita or one of the animal charms, which are the pieces with an actual point of view. Everything else is competent and less memorable.