Italian jewelry houses have long hired Chinese talent. The useful question is whether the contract says China or the world.
Pomellato, the Milanese colored-stone house founded by Pino Rabolini in 1967 and owned by Kering since 2013, answered that question for Yang Zi. In late July 2026 the maison named the Beijing-born actress a global brand ambassador and put her on Nudo, the clawless gemstone line that has driven everyday-luxury sales since 2001. The pictures are by Chen Man, among China’s most influential photographers. Soft status you can stack: blue topaz cushions, rose gold, diamond circles, no claws fighting the crop.
That is the Banquet read. A Chinese drama lead carrying the house’s most recognizable collection into the global feed, not a regional side seat tucked beside a European campaign.
“Yang Zi radiates the very qualities that define the Pomellato woman. Her energy and distinctive presence make her a wonderful new voice for the maison.”
Sabina Belli, chief executive officer of Pomellato
Why Nudo, Not a China-Only Capsule
Nudo (Italian for naked) holds a cushion-cut colored stone in a minimal gold bezel with no claws, the pavilion open so light deepens the color from below. Pomellato has copyrighted both the design grammar and the cut; a Classic ring still takes about four days of handwork in the Milan atelier. Rings, earrings, and pendants stack across colorways. It is jewelry built to survive a phone crop and a white shirt, which is exactly how Chen Man framed Yang: open collar, blue stones, hands near the face.
CEO Sabina Belli, who has led Pomellato since late 2015, has spent years arguing for prêt-à-porter jewelry women buy for themselves. Putting Yang on Nudo rather than a one-market exclusive keeps that argument honest. The object travels. The ambassador title travels with it.
Yang’s own résumé now carries the prestige math Italian houses want. She marked twenty years since her on-screen debut as a child actor, built a bankable adult career on dramas including Ashes of Love, Go Go Squid!, and Lost You Forever, and in June 2026 won Magnolia Best Actress at the 31st Shanghai Television Festival for Born to Be Alive, reported as the first post-1990s actress to take that prize. WWD puts her combined following across Instagram, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin above 93 million. She told Pomellato she felt a “deep emotional connection” to a house that celebrates women “unafraid to be themselves.” Both quotes are product instructions dressed as personality. Fine. The jewelry still has to clear daylight.
For how diaspora readers already use serpentine Italian jewelry grammar, see The Wrist and the Serpenti. Nudo is the softer, stackable cousin: color first, clawless, daily.
Global Seat, After a Line of Asian Castings
Pomellato has been building an Asian cast list for years. Janine Chang and Yao Chen held China-facing seats. Krystal Jung opened a Korea lane in 2023. Roy Wang, the C-pop star and former TFBoys member, took a global ambassadorship in 2025 with an Iconica campaign also shot by Chen Man. Yang’s appointment keeps the same photographer and moves the global female drama face onto the collection that actually sells soft status by the stack.
Read that sequence calmly. Regional ambassadors still matter for local retail and Weibo. Global means the campaign is meant to travel past the Chinese feed into diaspora jewelry talk and European boutique windows. Sister site Goldscene already clocked the same object in Pomellato Yang Zi global ambassador Nudo campaign 2026: watch whether the blue Nudo stack becomes Yang’s repeat carpet cuff.
If you are in Milan, the practical room is Pomellato at Via Monte Napoleone 17, with a second boutique nearby on Via San Pietro all’Orto. Ask for Nudo in blue topaz and London blue under boutique daylight; confirm hours on pomellato.com before Fashion Week crowds. Try one clawless solitaire beside a diamond-halo Nudo before you stack three blues; phone crops flatter saturation the corridor will not. The campaign is the brief. The counter is where you decide whether the naked stone still looks like itself off the phone.
