La nostra storia
Il mestiere
I clienti
Milano
Early 1900s
1900
A family passion
The Russo family turns to the world of jewellery and diamonds, laying the foundations of a craft that will be handed down for generations.
The 1950s
1950
The first shop, in via San Clemente
The first Russo shop opens in Milan: a workshop making exclusive pieces for an increasingly demanding clientele.
The 1970s
1970
The diamond as an investment
An international trading network takes shape — Israeli cutting houses, Persian and Lebanese dealers — for reliable sourcing on good terms.
Today
[fr_anno]
Filippo Russo
A point of reference in the diamond trade and in the making of jewellery, for private clients, jewellers and retailers looking for the very best.
Plan
Profile
The family story
From a watchmaker’s bench to the markets of the world.
Four generations, told through the events that put them in line.
I
Where the tradition begins
The roots and the war years
The Russo family’s story in jewellery has its roots in the late nineteenth century, with great-grandfather Gennaro Russo. It was during the Second World War, though, that the feel for precision took hold: Filippo’s grandfather, Michele Russo, served in the Italian Navy with the exacting task of repairing the chronographs aboard warships.
Once discharged, with the technical skill he had gained, Michele opened a jewellery and gemstone shop in Cerignola, in the province of Foggia, and passed his love of watches and fine stones on to the next generation.
II
The move to Milan
Uncle Ruggero’s instinct
The decisive step, the one that turned a southern family business into a line of Milanese entrepreneurs, came from Filippo’s uncle, Ruggero Russo. In the mid-1950s Ruggero moved to Milan, the city that stood for Italy’s post-war boom, and opened the family’s first shop there, in via San Clemente, a few steps from piazza Fontana and the Duomo.
A few years later, once the rest of the family had joined him, Ruggero handed over the shop to take a more ambitious step: he founded a jewellery workshop. Between bench workers and travelling salesmen, by the 1980s the firm employed fifteen people and had earned a solid name in Milan’s goldsmithing trade.
III
The handover to Severo Russo
The years of travel
A tireless and far-sighted businessman, Ruggero began travelling to the world’s main centres for precious stones — from New York to Amsterdam and as far as Bangkok — buying diamonds and gemstones directly in the producing countries.
As the business grew he brought his younger brother alongside him: Severo Russo, Filippo’s father, twelve years his junior. Straight out of his studies, Severo was taken into the heart of the trade and learned every part of buying and of selecting the rarest stones.
IV
Diamonds as an investment
The turning point of the 1970s
With that international experience behind him, in the 1970s Severo Russo opened an office given over entirely to wholesale trading and consultancy in precious stones. Concentrating on diamonds, he read the market’s changing needs and established these stones as a sound and prestigious investment.
Those were the decades in which the business built its reputation, earning regard within Milan’s Jewish community as well, long established in the trade and closely tied to Israel, one of the leading players in the world diamond market.
V
The legacy Filippo took up
Three generations on the road
Between 1996 and 2000 the family story came full circle: uncle Ruggero, his father Severo and a young Filippo Russo began travelling the world together.
It was on those journeys that Filippo learned the trade first-hand, guided by his uncle and his father. Today that inheritance — of travel, of commercial instinct and of a love for gemstones — lives on in the business Filippo leads, keeper of a family tradition four generations deep.
From the family archive
Gold dust.
A craft that came from far away.
Jewellery, goldsmithing, watchmaking — and the workshop at the back, for making and for mending. This is the letterhead of Gennaro Russo’s shop in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Cerignola: the same craft the next generation would bring to Milan, a few steps from the Duomo.
Today
Technical knowledge, discretion, and technology at the forefront.
A deep knowledge of the rough, innovative cutting techniques and complete discretion towards the client make for a way of working that is appreciated day after day, and that keeps growing.
Our values
Professionalism
Discretion
Reliability
Technical expertise
The first step
Tell us what you are looking for:
we will take care of the rest.
A stone to find, a piece to imagine, a valuation to put in writing: it always starts with a conversation, in the office or over the telephone.
Book an appointment
Or let us talk it over