Other people's love stories

For Vikki George, the dream of returning family jewellery business Roccabella to Cashel Street never died. She spent the intervening years honing her design skills, and this year the dream came true.

The unassuming storefront gives way to an expansive interior where privacy screens protect the intimate undertaking of jewellery design from the suits-andshoppers foot traffic outside. An angled window reaches into the sky, dropping sunlight onto the wooden table in the middle of Roccabella’s front room – a space that would look completely at home in Milan.

The table is a key visual and philosophical part of the design. Diamond rings, earrings and necklaces sparkle on shelves, but there is no cabinet to lean over and stare down into. The experience is conversational; people sit down face-to-face and talk with Vikki.

She’s in love with the building, and knew it was Roccabella’s destination the first time she saw it. “The architects didn’t know, but they were building this for us,” she says. “Finally it feels like we’re back home.”

From 1999 until 2011, Vikki’s mum Margaret George ran the original Roccabella store, which earned a reputation as a Christchurch jewellery destination. As a recently-retired linen retailer with a boredom problem, Margaret took over the store and set about learning the art of sourcing quality items. She went on buying missions to Europe and picked

‘IT’S ABOUT THE CUSTOMER, AND THE JEWELLERY THAT WILL BE A TANGIBLE MEMORY OF A BIG EVENT IN THEIR LIFE.’ up quality items from a jewellery fair in Sydney. Unconstrained by the traditions of New Zealand jewellery, Margaret offered Christchurchians the new, the colourful and the interesting. And it was a huge success. Her golden rule was quality and longevity – if a piece wasn’t good enough to give to a family member, it wasn’t good enough to sell. One of the store’s most popular features was its range of Hearts On Fire jewels, a selection of the world’s most perfectly-cut diamonds. Hearts On Fire is an exclusive brand that only works with trusted jewellers.

Vikki was her mother’s first Roccabella employee, coming home from Australia to be there for opening day. And now she’s at the helm, designing bespoke jewellery and sourcing collections with Roccabella’s signature style.

The business was devastated by the Canterbury earthquakes, and neither woman

thought it would ever return. “It wasn’t that we didn’t want to come back. We couldn’t. This new store is the dream realised,” Vikki says.

Some of the most important jewellery she has designed was in the intervening years while living in Auckland. One woman commissioned several pieces, coming to Vikki’s home and planning designs around her table. These moments would become the inspiration for the table at the centre of Roccabella. The pieces kept the spark alive for Vikki, and the dream of recreating Roccabella never quite died.

Last October, she took a trip south to see Margaret. Sitting on the deck in the sun, Vikki popped the question: “Why don’t we just go back?” With her mum’s backing, Vikki called Hearts On Fire the next morning to see if the diamond jewellery supplier still wanted to work with them. By that night, Hearts On Fire had called back, and it was all on.

With self-taught designer Vikki in charge, Roccabella has a huge focus on her bespoke jewellery. As a child she would use fabric offcuts from her mother’s linen store to make elaborate outfits, and later took a shine to professionally designing rings, brooches and other precious items.

The Roccabella design experience begins as a conversation with Vikki. She’ll tell you it’s easy to design jewellery if you listen to what the customer says, but it’s clear that’s because she’s so good at it. Those who know her will tell you Vikki’s greatest asset is her ability to really hear what people want and turn their ideas into a sketch, a design, a dazzling piece of jewellery.

Vikki says her style is beautiful, functional and harmonious. “But at the end of the day it’s not about me, it’s about the customer, and the jewellery that will be a tangible memory of a big event in their life. I want the piece of jewellery to be the best. I want it to be everything the person dreamed of and more.

“I tell other people’s love stories.” roccabella.co.nz