The Biagio Interview

As soon as he walks into the room you know he has arrived, dressed in a black suit, upright starched pink shirt and a Louis Vuitton case. He welcomes you with a good handshake and open smile. When he sits down you see the jeweller – a sparkling diamond pavé-set bangle peeping from under the suit and a huge diamond ring.

He is in a relaxed mood; it is January and Christmas has come and gone. “It was a good Christmas – better than I anticipated. I am always cautious at the outset and so delighted when customers visit, both new and loyal ones. There’s a real buzz in the shops.”

Biagio Patalano, 41, is a creative jeweller and diamond specialist. We are in his Bicester store, a stone’s throw from Bicester Village, where he started in 1989 at the height of the recession, next door to a well-known high street jeweller. He now has three retail outlets: Bicester, Thame and online at Biagiothejewellers.com.

“I started out with a vision to set up a shop where people could see a vast selection of jewellery styles of the kind that they would normally only find in London or Europe. The European designs were so strong and no-one else was representing them. I travelled extensively and still do, meeting and buying from the best craftsman exhibiting in Las Vegas, Basle in Switzerland and Italy.”

What I instantly recognise is his passion and real determination to find the best jewellery designs and workmanship from around the world for his customers in Oxfordshire. But why? Can you not buy in the UK or have international people come to see you?

“We do buy some pieces in the UK but it’s so hard to get exclusivity and I do not want to be selling what’s in the windows of hundreds of other stores. We are visited now by international companies with whom we have built up strong relationships.”

His red carpet connections do not go unnoticed. He’s on first name terms with both his customers and global jewellers such as Giorgio Armani, and attends charity balls along with A-list celebrities. Hatton Gardens’ finest designers make his bespoke jewellery. At the last private members club social function he went to, he persuaded all the bankers to let their hair down by taking off their ties! It’s clear he has a reputation far beyond Oxfordshire. His extended family still live on Ischia, an island in the Gulf of Naples and his Italian heritage defines him. “For me, family is everything, everything. I love to cook and it’s common for us to celebrate with at least 30 around the Christmas table.”

“I am an Italian romantic at heart,” he says with a smile and chuckle. “I love to see couples get engaged and all the excitement and anticipation that surrounds them. Everyone is so different and their story so personal – this is what I am passionate about when they come to us for their engagement ring. I want to give them the best diamond I can, without compromise, which is why I handpick our diamonds in Antwerp. I know they are the best.”

“The bespoke side of the business has seen strong growth; people want to choose their diamond, with the knowledge of its provenance, and come with ideas for the setting. We make bespoke jewellery for anything between £150 and £30,000.”

His involvement with people’s lives really seems to touch them, illustrated by the fact that they return just for a visit or to celebrate another happy occasion. Biagio and his team were even invited to the wedding of one customer, for whom they had pulled out all the stops to create bespoke wedding rings at very short notice.

I ask him how competitive the jewellery industry is. “Yes it’s always going to be competitive and we have to make sure our service and team, together with the jewellery, are at the top of their game. We recently introduced the Biagio jewellery business onto the web, so that people can buy from us at any time and new customers beyond Oxfordshire can access the Biagio experience.”

He seems to cause a stir with his brand. The black glossy bags customers receive their jewellery in have been copied more than once, so now he has them made in South America.

The rise of gold in the commodities market has been much reported. “The price of gold has been quite challenging as it’s more expensive now to create rings and buy jewellery, so we source carefully, hold prices where we can and are very mindful of value for money. We look to other metals such as palladium, part of the platinum family, to give people alternatives. Palladium looks and feels like platinum and is priced competitively. Silver is very popular with our customers so we’re always on the lookout for up-and-coming silver designers.”

And so he leaves our interview, on his way to Basle to buy for next Christmas, while at the same time planning the in-store wedding event for March, happily bringing jewellery and people together in the Biagio community. I’m sure he’ll be touching lives in this special way for another 20 years.