Editor’s Note
This article discusses MadaLuxe Group’s acquisition of a majority stake in the fine jewelry house Ippolita.
MadaLuxe Group, a diversified bicoastal company involved in distributing luxury goods and investing in fashion technologies, has acquired a majority stake in Ippolita, the New York-based fine jewelry house.
Ippolita is known for its 18-karat gold and sterling silver collections, expressive designs, vibrant colors, sculptural shapes, artisanal techniques and distinct hand-hammered metals and proprietary stone-cutting techniques. The brand blends contemporary art with Italian craftsmanship, and has an international following.
Founder Ippolita Rostagno will continue in her role as chief creative officer, overseeing all aspects of design, MadaLuxe indicated in its disclosure to WWD.
One possibility would be to open additional Ippolita stores. Currently, Ippolita has just one store which is on Madison Avenue, though there were stores in Milan and Chicago that closed.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Ippolita is sold at upscale retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, as well as independent high-end specialty stores across the country including Halls Kansas City, London Jewelers, Reeds Jewelers and many others.
According to the brand’s website, Rostagno was born and raised in the hills of Florence. She studied sculpture and ceramics at the Istituto D’Arte in Florence and considers herself “an artist first and a designer second.”
In 1982, she moved from Italy to Los Angeles, where she started an alternative dance company. In 1986, she moved to New York, where she began working in sculpture and designing jewelry for retailers. She launched the Ippolita fine jewelry brand in 1999 and debuted it at Bergdorf Goodman, which now is a division of Saks Global. In 2012, Rostagno opened the Ippolita flagship store at 796 Madison Avenue, which in 2023 relocated to 721 Madison Avenue. Ippolita also operates an e-commerce website.
In 2010, the New York- and California-based MadaLuxe, founded by Freede and his mother Sandy Sholl, launched as a distributor of luxury goods to off-price retailers and luxury timepieces from Ferragamo, Versace and other designer brands to casinos, jewelry shops and stores such as Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. The company opened a few of its own off-price stores but those were permanently closed during the pandemic. The MadaLuxe Group’s primary business continues as a distributor of luxury fashion and lifestyle brands spanning ready-to-wear, leather goods, footwear, accessories, timepieces and home categories. The company has offices in New York City, Los Angeles and Seal Beach, Calif.
In 2020, MadaLuxe formed MLG Ventures with a mission to invest in fashion technology companies. MLG Ventures has minority stakes in Psykhe AI, a personalization platform for e-commerce that utilizes machine learning and psychology to customize product recommendations to each user’s personality profile.
Other minority investments are in Reflaunt, a business-to-business resale platform, and Codeboxx, a “boot camp” teaching coding and technology skills with a focus on women, people of color and veterans.
In addition, Sholl owns Zelig, a technology that allows shoppers to mix and match thousands of items in real-time and create their own personalized digital closets. Zelig has a partnership with Revolve. Unlike apps that place clothes on a scanned body, Zelig accurately simulates how garments behave, how fabrics drape, how proportions change on tall versus petite frames and how textures layer together.