Editor’s Note
After years of market adjustments, Italian high jewelry house DAMIANI is now accelerating its direct presence in China. This strategic shift to independent operations is marked by a recent wave of store openings in key cities like Shanghai, Ningbo, and Nanjing, signaling a confident new chapter for the brand in this crucial market.
After years of turbulence, the Italian high jewelry brand DAMIANI has ultimately decided to independently operate its business in the Chinese market and has begun accelerating its offline market layout.
In February 2025, DAMIANI announced the opening of two new stores at once: one in Ningbo Banshi and another in Nanjing IFC International Finance Center. Furthermore, in late December 2024, DAMIANI opened a new store on the first floor of Shanghai Grand Gateway 66, a hub for luxury brands. All three new stores feature DAMIANI’s latest global store concept.
DAMIANI originates from an Italian jewelry group of the same name and is a renowned high jewelry brand in the country. Its flagship store occupies a prime location on the famous Via Montenapoleone in central Milan, neighboring other well-known Italian luxury brands like Prada.
2024 marked DAMIANI’s centennial anniversary, prompting the brand to accelerate its offline retail expansion in Greater China. Early in 2024, DAMIANI opened boutiques in Shanghai’s Qiantan Taikoo Li and Sanya Haitang Bay Taikoo Li. Mid-year, it added another boutique in the newly opened high-end mall Wuhan SKP.
With the opening of the Shanghai Grand Gateway 66 store at the end of 2024, DAMIANI quietly withdrew from its location in Qiantan Taikoo Li.
Unlike some French and Italian high jewelry brands that have been established in China for many years, DAMIANI’s entry into the market is relatively recent, and most consumers have limited knowledge of it. Currently, the brand’s focus is on building brand awareness and capturing its core customer base. Store location selection naturally serves this goal. For DAMIANI at this stage, a mall’s reputation in the high-luxury sector, its central urban location, and sufficient foot traffic are prerequisites for opening a store.
This aligns with DAMIANI’s current strategy of selective store openings in the Chinese market. According to the brand, its strategy in the Greater China market is “selective” and “strategic.”
To date, DAMIANI has 17 sales points in Greater China, of which 7 are directly operated boutiques, all located within first-tier shopping malls.
The current domestic jewelry market is not at its “best time.” In 2024, China’s mainland luxury market collectively cooled. According to Bain & Company’s “2024 China Luxury Market Report,” the overall mainland luxury market is estimated to have declined by 18% to 20% in 2024. Notably, the jewelry category, which had previously shown resilience, is estimated to have fallen by 25% to 30%.
Some leading jewelry brands even paused or delayed new store opening plans in 2024. Bain’s report suggests that in the future Chinese mainland luxury market, brands should abandon the development mindset of “land grabbing” through expansion in an incremental market and instead focus on capturing share in the existing market.
At the report’s launch event, Weiwei Xing, Global Partner of Bain & Company’s Consumer Products and Retail practice, further explained to Jiemian News:
Bain expects China’s mainland luxury market performance in 2025 to be flat compared to 2024. During this phase, some more mature high jewelry brands in the domestic market will focus on optimizing their existing channel layouts.
Regarding the current domestic jewelry market environment, DAMIANI told Jiemian News:
DAMIANI does not carry the “historical baggage” of more mature brands in the Chinese market. Due to issues with previous partners, the brand never truly established a solid foundation domestically—though this also means it did not reap the benefits during the peak of the jewelry market around 2022.
For over a decade, DAMIANI relied on local partners to operate in China. In 2012, DAMIANI Group entered a five-year cooperation agreement with Hengdeli Group to help open boutiques in China. The agent helped open up to 12 stores in mainland China for DAMIANI, but only four remained by 2020.
While brands like Bulgari, Tiffany, and Cartier rose to prominence, DAMIANI did not stand out during this period. In July 2020, DAMIANI Jewelry Group partnered with Shanghai Yuyuan Jewelry & Fashion Group Co., Ltd. (“Yuyuan Jewelry”) to establish a joint venture in China to develop the DAMIANI and SALVINI jewelry brands. Yuyuan Jewelry held a 55% stake, and DAMIANI Jewelry Group held 45%.
In June 2021, Yuyuan Jewelry helped DAMIANI open a boutique in Shanghai IFC, which became one of Shanghai’s top-performing luxury stores by 2024. By the end of 2022, Yuyuan Jewelry had helped open two directly operated DAMIANI stores and four SALVINI stores in China.
However, this partnership also ended within three years. In 2023, the joint venture between Yuyuan Jewelry and DAMIANI Jewelry Group was quietly terminated.
Two unsuccessful partnership experiences made DAMIANI realize the importance of direct brand operation.
The key to a luxury brand’s success lies in a unique brand story, iconic cultural IP, and classic products. Unlike fashion brands that constantly generate creativity and trends, high jewelry brands emphasize unique history and enduring cultural IP. Brand jewelry designers reinterpret these core IPs year after year. Examples include Cartier’s Panther, Van Cleef & Arpels’ Alhambra and Pont des Amoureux, and Tiffany’s “Bird on a Rock.”
In the European market, DAMIANI’s Margherita and Mimosa collections are representative product lines. However, effectively introducing these iconic series, along with their craftsmanship, design philosophy, and historical stories, to Chinese consumers through marketing and communication strategies has been a longstanding challenge for DAMIANI.
Direct operation means regional marketing strategies are synchronized with the global market, and the brand can promptly receive local consumer feedback to adjust its market strategy. Changes in DAMIANI’s product communication materials and store visual identity are already evident following the shift to direct operation in China.
In addition to continuing to invest in opening boutiques, DAMIANI told Jiemian News:
The brand stated that its global jewelry projects in 2025 will also be promoted in China.