This September, Milanese jeweller Pomellato opens its first-ever solo exhibition dedicated to the provocative lens of Helmut Newton. Pomellato, Helmut Newton & the 80s runs from 18 September to 6 October at Omotesando Crossing Park in Tokyo, spotlighting the radical campaigns that redefined both jewellery and femininity in the early ’80s.
At a time when jewellery advertising leaned heavily on convention, Pomellato broke ranks. Collaborating with Newton from 1982 to 1984, the maison presented women not as ornamental figures but as protagonists—wearing chains, bangles and cascades of gemstones with an autonomy that mirrored shifting cultural tides. In stark black-and-white, Newton’s heroines lounged in bars, tossed necklaces across tables and claimed space with an unapologetic glamour that still feels electric today.
“Helmut never asked me to be beautiful—he asked me to be real,” recalls model Arielle Burgelin Dehugo, who fronted the 1984 campaign. That rawness, paired with Pomellato’s goldsmithing savoir faire—its signature Gourmette and Gate-link chains, and the woven Tessute pieces that flowed like fabric—turned the images into manifestos of liberation as much as advertisements.
Sabina Belli, CEO of Pomellato Group, calls the collaboration “a visual declaration of independence,” one that crystallised the maison’s ethos of progressive design and female empowerment. “Newton portrayed the Pomellato woman with such beautiful, challenging non-conformity. Newton was uniquely capable of representing not just the glamour of this golden age, but the profound societal change happening in women’s lives—creating visual manifestos of liberation that remain as powerful today as when they first surprised and delighted the world.”
At the exhibition, the campaigns will also be displayed alongside archival jewels, proving that they are less a nostalgic look back than a living reminder that style is political, and jewellery—when worn with intent—can be armour as much as adornment.
Pomellato, Helmut Newton & the 80s runs from 18 September to 6 October 2025 at Omotesando Crossing Park, Tokyo. Admission is free, by appointment only.
This article was first seen on GRAZIA SG.
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