“In a way, it’s like when you’re looking for a partner,” Castaldo continues, describing the creative foundation he and Cortecci have laid out over their past 20 or so years at the house. “Maybe when you meet someone, you say, OK, this could be the right one. It’s the same path, the same process. You have to find your own something, create something special.”

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Palpable joy best describes the philosophy this creative duo has for the brand, as well as their experimental, free-spirited approach to jewellery design – the driving force behind Pomellato’s Free Gems campaign. Castaldo and Cortecci ooze with the youthful energy of creatives who are just getting started in their careers, rather than the long-time veterans of the craft and trade they actually are. Together, the pair has pioneered a new chapter for Pomellato classics like the ever-popular Nudo and Sabbia lines, and launched the house’s first-ever high jewellery collection.

Castaldo likens venturing into the world of high jewellery to a “workout for creativity” when reflecting on the opportunity to launch the brand’s first collection back in 2020. Four years later, Castaldo and Cortecci are now working on their fifth. “We are quite young – teenagers,” Castaldo laughs. “High jewellery is an opportunity to play with creativity in a very free way, because you don’t have any constriction of limit in terms of stones – you can even use one of a kind. You don’t have any limit or specific target to reach.”

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Be it high jewellery or fine jewellery, the duo’s creative ethos remains ever-eclectic and ever-changing. “Freedom is a very important attitude for the team,” Castaldo says about the selection of stones, which are the centrepieces of all Pomellato pieces – “free gems”, so to speak. It helps that this attitude is deeply embedded in Pomellato’s brand identity, equal parts modern and timeless. “That’s my mantra: that the high jewellery has to be wearable and very contemporary,” just like the brand’s ready-to-wear pieces.

“This is a kind of mosaic, or puzzle,” Castaldo continues, talking me through the thought process behind some of Pomellato’s greatest hits. “So you have to find the perfect match in terms of colour, size, and it’s very challenging because you have to have strong expertise to find the final effect.”

The greatest way to discover Pomellato jewellery, however, is by touch. “You even have this kind of mosaic of the surface,” says Cortecci. “You can see that it’s not flat, it’s irregular. We have to do something different in a different way. The feeling, you know, it’s something different. We don’t like perfection.”

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This tactile beauty is what separates Pomellato from anything else on the jewellery market. “How does it fit?” Castaldo asks. “For me, a very important point that sometimes nobody is taking seriously in consideration is the fitting of the jewels, the weight, how it feels.”

Castaldo even describes the shine and sparkle of the gems he and Cortecci use by referring to this sensory feeling, which he likens to the Pomellato touch. “Freedom has to be free of mind, free in putting together different sizes of different stones, like diamond, for example. Our irregular pavé is a testimony [to that] … We like to create a kind of vibration of colours. Our perfection is imperfection – organic.”

That may explain why creative freedom is inherent to understanding the Pomellato customer, as well – knowledgeable, confident and discerning with the freedom of choice. Cortecci says 75 per cent of their customers purchase by themselves.

“By women. For themselves!” Castaldo exclaims. “I think you always have a kind of sentimental bond with the jewels. It’s not like a bag, it’s not like a pair of shoes. So when you buy a jewel, there is a reason behind it. In my opinion, a sentimental reason. Maybe a celebration, maybe a kind of gift that [she] can bring to herself. You don’t buy a ring or a chain just for aspirational purchasing.”

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Castaldo likens this enduring relationship Pomellato develops with its clients to the timelessness of its designs. “If you buy a bag, you buy a bag for six months, for a season. You know that probably next season it won’t be the same. In high jewellery, you really want to infuse in the jewel something that can make sense forever.”

Indeed, as Castaldo explains, the best of Pomellato gems have resonated for generations, speaking to a sense of style that doesn’t fade with time. “Nudo, for example, was created in 2001. And it’s still perfect,” he says. “It wasn’t created by me. It was designed by the creative director that I started to work with. But Nudo, in a certain way, is the manifesto of Pomellato, that celebrates colours. It’s still so perfect, so minimal, so balanced, that it seemed to be designed yesterday. When you create something like that, it’s a contemporary piece. It’s always contemporary.”

This long-standing reputation for cutting-edge, contemporary jewellery continues to be the true essence of Pomellato’s timelessness. Despite the creative constricts of preserving the house’s legacy while navigating through different cultures, emerging trends and new competitors in the market, Castaldo and Cortecci embrace these limits as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. “The way you use your limit, even in life, you have to be smart and clever, using your limits in the right way,” Castaldo says.