Gazza Ladra

Gazza Ladra

Sunny Setton De Poortere, a Franco-American former documentary film producer and tour manager, built Gazza Ladra in New York after a stranger's necklace on an Italian piazza earned her the nickname a real magpie, gazza ladra in Italian. The label takes that literally: talismanic gold jewelry drawing on symbols from across cultures, from the eye of Horus to sun and moon charms, handcrafted in Manhattan's diamond district.

Jewelry

De Poortere had no formal jewelry training when she started, she learned at the bench alongside a master jeweler and later took night classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and that hands-on route shows in pieces built around meaning rather than pure ornament. Eyes, phoenixes and recycling-symbol pendants sit next to gold and gemstone signature pieces, all handmade in New York's diamond district.

Our honest take

A magpie is a fitting mascot for a designer who describes her own process as gleaning influences from everywhere she has traveled, and the collection does read like a well-edited hoard rather than a single tidy theme. It works because the talismanic framing gives even a maximalist mix of motifs a reason to sit together on one body.