Damiani (jewelry company)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Damiani is an Italian jewelry company founded in 1924 by Enrico Grassi Damiani in Valenza, Italy. Strongly influenced by the beauty of Art Deco styles, Enrico designed and produced fine jewelry which quickly became renowned. He became the personal jeweler of influential families.
Enrico's son, Damiano Grassi Damiani began the company in 1924, and introduced new marketing and advertising strategies. Damiani, for example, was the first company to introduce Certificates of Authenticity for jewelry pieces showing the details included in the jewelry, for example, the number of carats.
The family business's Vice-President is Silvia, the granddaughter of Damiani. The company is also run by her mother, Gabriella, and her siblings, Guido and Giorgio.
[edit] Lawsuit
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston filed a $50 million lawsuit against a jewelry designer that began selling imitations of their wedding bands, which were supposedly "one of a kind". The couple claims they had an agreement with Damiani International that the company would never reproduce the wedding bands or the engagement ring (designed by Pitt). Damiani reportedly sold "Brad and Jennifer knockoffs" and sold them on the Internet and at Damiani dealerships using the couple’s images to sell the product.
That dispute has been settled and Pitt will now design a line of jewelry for the company and Aniston will model it in ads. Their wedding bands were based on an idea of Pitt’s. They were white gold and were engraved with "Jen 2000" (his) and "Brad 2000" (hers). The rings had 10 and 20 diamonds embedded in them respectively. Damiani International states, "Mr. Pitt will design an exclusive jewelry collection for Damiani, and Ms. Aniston will be featured in an international advertising campaign that will run in a number of countries throughout the world, with the exception of North America."
The statement was confirmed by Pitt’s publicist. In exchange for Pitt designing an exclusive line for the company and Aniston modeling for the ads, Damiani will stop selling copies of Pitt and Aniston’s wedding rings. It has been reported that Pitt and friends were collaborating on a clothing line, but Pitt’s camp has denied that rumor.
