Pomellato brings bold gold jewelry to Palais de Tokyo exhibition

At Palais de Tokyo, Pomellato will use its first Paris exhibition to make a sharp argument about where gold jewelry is headed, and where it came from. The show, titled Pomellato, Le Joaillier Révolutionnaire, will run from June 24 to July 20, free with reservation, and it will read less like a museum tribute than a living archive of the house’s most durable ideas: saturated color, sculptural gold and pieces meant to be worn every day.

Curated by Alba Cappellieri, professor and head of jewelry design at Politecnico di Milano, the exhibition will unfold as an immersive journey through jewelry, photography and design. Pomellato is bringing together heritage creations, contemporary collections and the visual codes that shaped its identity, with work by Gian Paolo Barbieri, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Horst P. Horst, Albert Watson, Lord Snowdon, Michel Comte and Javier Vallhonrat. That photographic lineage matters. Pomellato has always understood that jewelry is not only made, it is staged, and the brand’s archive shows how a ring or necklace can carry the same force as a portrait.

The Paris presentation will also clarify why Pomellato’s language now feels so current. Founded in Milan in 1967 by Pino Rabolini, whose family worked in goldsmithing, the house emerged in an era of social change and women’s emancipation. Its easy-to-wear jewelry and bold colored gemstones gave it an immediate edge, and that balance of polish and ease now looks strikingly modern. Today’s commercial gold jewelry is full of the same ideas: rounded volumes, tactile surfaces, colored stones used as punctuation rather than surplus and silhouettes that can move from day to night without losing their sense of presence.

Pomellato’s milestones underline that shift from niche Milanese design to global luxury language. The house joined Kering in 2013, Sabina Belli became chief executive in 2015, and the brand achieved 100% responsible gold sourcing in 2018. In 2020, it launched its first high-jewelry collection, La Gioia di Pomellato, a 165-piece line in 18-karat gold with 50 gemstone varieties. The Nudo collection, with its patented 57-facet irregular cut, remains one of the clearest examples of Pomellato’s influence: color framed by gold, not buried by it.

Pomellato first tested this museum-scale narrative in Tokyo in 2022, with a show focused on Milanese design and craftsmanship. Paris will widen that conversation, and the timing is apt. The house that once sold independence through gold is now helping define the mainstream look of gold jewelry itself.