Maman et Sophie Nude: Gemstones With No Setting at All

Search Maman et Sophie Nude from London, Amsterdam or Munich and you land on a handful of thin product listings and very little explanation. The name is not a colour and it is not a marketing adjective: in this Florentine house nude describes a way of mounting a gemstone — or rather, of not mounting it at all. This is what the line actually is, how the pieces are built, what they cost at the time of writing, and how one reaches a European address from Italy.

What makes a Maman et Sophie Nude piece different

A conventional gemstone sits inside metal. A claw setting grips it, a bezel wraps it, a pavé buries it in a field of gold — and in every one of those solutions part of the stone is covered by the thing that holds it. The Nude line does the opposite. The product sheets put it plainly: the stones are completely suspended and free of any setting. Each gem is drilled and threaded so that it hangs on the chain itself, turning as the wearer moves, lit from behind as well as from the front.

The practical consequence is that you see the whole stone, including the pavilion — the pointed underside that a closed setting normally hides. A rhodolite garnet or a tanzanite read as deeper and more saturated this way, because the light goes through the stone instead of stopping at a wall of metal. It also means the gold is doing almost nothing decorative: an 18-carat yellow gold chain, a lobster clasp, a small pierced Maman heart at the end, and that is the entire structure.

Three Maman et Sophie Nude pieces to start from

All three are chokers, all three are 18-carat yellow gold, and all three adjust — which matters more than it sounds, because a choker that cannot be lengthened is a choker that fits one neck.

• GCNUD3RTP — three drops, one rhodolite, one tanzanite, one peridot. Adjustable at 36, 38,5 and 42 cm. 342 € as we write.
• GCNUD5BWTZ — three tanzanites and two brown diamonds suspended in the void, adjustable at 37, 38,5 and 41 cm. 659 €.
• GCNUD9MX — the loud one: nine multicoloured stones along the chain, same three lengths. 698 €.

If you want to try the idea before committing to a necklace, the ORNUD91TZ single earring is the same construction at 155 € — and single earrings are how this house prefers to be worn anyway, one side dressed and the other bare.

Adjustable, which is why it travels well

Each necklace carries three rings, and the clasp simply moves to the one you want. Worn at 36-37 cm it sits tight at the base of the throat; at 41-42 cm it drops to the collarbone and works over a shirt. For a gift bought at distance this is the whole argument: you are not guessing a neck measurement, you are buying three lengths in one piece.

What arrives in the box

The pieces are made in Italy and ship in the maker's own box with its warranty card. Gold weight and stone selection vary slightly from piece to piece, as they do in anything made by hand; what does not vary is the carat, stamped on the clasp.

Ordering from Italy: what a European buyer actually gets

Cicala Gioiellerie is a jeweller in Genoa, on the Italian riviera. We opened in 1950, we still sell out of a real boutique with a goldsmith's bench behind it, and sending a parcel to Paris, Munich, Vienna or Rotterdam is ordinary Tuesday work. Inside the European Union the mechanics are simpler than most people expect.

• No customs, no clearance fee, no paperwork. Italy and the rest of the Union are one customs territory: the parcel travels as if it came from a shop in your own city.
• VAT is already in the price and is calculated at checkout against the delivery address. Nothing is added at the door, and nothing is hidden before it.
• Insured, tracked, and packed anonymously. Nothing printed on the box says what is inside. The exact delivery cost appears before you pay — see shipping and costs — and Europe is quoted at two to seven working days.
• Two years of legal warranty of conformity, valid across the Union wherever you live, on top of the maker's own warranty card that travels in the box: warranty page.
• Fourteen days to change your mind under the returns policy, with card, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay or bank transfer at checkout.
• A workshop, not a warehouse. What we sell we also repair, in our own workshop — and we answer e-mail in English.

See the Maman et Sophie collection →

Frequently asked questions

Does nude mean the stone is unset?

Yes. In this line the gemstones are drilled and suspended on the gold chain itself, with no claws or bezel around them, so the whole stone stays visible — the product sheets describe them as completely free of any setting.

Which gold is used?

18-carat yellow gold, stamped. The chains, the clasps and the small pierced Maman heart at the end of each necklace are all 18kt.

Can the necklace length be changed?

Every Nude choker carries three rings: the clasp moves between them. The models in this article run 36 to 42 cm depending on the reference.

How much do they cost?

At the time of writing, from 155 € for a single earring to 698 € for the nine-stone choker. Prices move with the gold market, so the product page is always the current figure.

Is delivery to Germany, France or the Netherlands complicated?

No. It is an intra-EU parcel: no customs, no clearance fee, VAT already calculated at checkout, insured and tracked, two to seven working days.