"Everything is very substantial, so you really make a statement when you wear a piece, " explains Hollywood stylist Petra Flannery, who is as likely to finish off one of her A-list young actors' outfits with a Pomellato flourish as she is to wear her own weighty gold band she bought in Rome in her early twenties.

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After waiting for about 40 minutes at a Ginza gold shop, Akemi Nakamura, a 50-year-old mother of two, sold gold accessories that she bought 20 years ago.

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She bought herself clothes, even small bits of gold jewelry.

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