The 61st edition of the Venice Biennale opened just over a week ago (see our picks for what to see) and has already caused a stir with collectors and critics alike. Amid the distinct complexities of the 2026 edition, it’s also the first time in the institution’s storied history that it has appointed an exclusive partner. Bulgari, the Roman jewellery maison, is no stranger to cultural patronage, having restored ancient monuments such as the Eternal City’s Spanish Steps and partnered with contemporary art institutions like the MAXXI in Rome and New York’s Whitney Museum. Following the launch of the Fondazione Bulgari in 2024, the maison’s latest role as exclusive partner will continue through to 2030, marking a long-term commitment to the city's artistic legacy.

‘The maison did a lot of these activities before the inauguration of the foundation,’ managing director, Matteo Morbidi, told Wallpaper*. ‘It's not something new, it's just been formalised to manage the work we started many years ago.’ Debuting with two exhibition initiatives, the foundation establishes a presence that bridges the Biennale proper and the city’s historic heart of San Marco. Significantly, the foundation has chosen to work with artists who were already linked to the maison through previous residencies and awards. ‘It’s very important that if we begin a collaboration with an artist, that we are able to support them long term,’ Morbidi added.

The first of the foundation’s two exhibitions takes place at the new, purpose-built Bulgari pavilion within the Giardini, where Canadian artist Lotus L. Kang has created a deeply poetic, site-specific installation titled The Face of Desire Is Loss. Working through themes of transition, cycles of generation, exhaustion and repair, the New York-based artist channels her own Korean heritage to expand the specific into something universal. The show's title borrows from a line in Lara Mimosa Montes’s poetry book Thresholes, an exploration of how structural gaps and voids can become generative sites of strength. It’s an idea that physically manifests the moment you approach the pavilion and notice a large, cast bronze lotus root outside. The root's porous architecture – where its voids lend it the structural capacity to bear a thousand times its own weight – echoes through the exhibition's skeleton. Suspended above the show are industrial ‘superjoists’ that match the root's form, functioning as an incredibly light yet strong framework from which Kang hangs large sheets of unfixed photographic film that chemically change their colours over time, continuously absorbing the light and atmosphere around them.

Suspended alongside these films (or what Lang refers to as ‘skins’) are overhead sculptures of cast aluminum tatami mats and fiberglass-and-plaster kelp knots. The mats act as devices that record sedimentary traces of life, like mattresses collecting the invisible history of the bodies that sleep, love, and convalesce upon them. A Super 8 film loop shot in South Korea plays on a wrapped monitor, capturing Korean mudflats where coastal and land ecosystems overlap. Kang operates entirely within these fluid, permeable boundaries: turning living seaweed inert through casting, while making a still photograph reactive and alive. A choreographed lighting score, synchronised to a rhythm inspired by contemporary Korean poet Kim Hyesoon, cycles the pavilion through the distinct light of dawn, noon, and dusk. Nearby, 49 bottles of spirits sit quietly around the space – a poignant nod to the 49 days a soul hovers in a liminal state before reincarnation in Buddhist tradition, anchoring the entire show in cycles of death and rebirth.

A twenty-minute walk from the Giardini, Bulgari stages its official collateral event in the majestic Salone Sansovino of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana on San Marco Square. ‘We first selected the location, then presented this to the artists and asked if they would like to respond to it,’ explained Morbidi. ‘We never want to impose something on the artists, but instead give them total freedom of creation.’ Here, Monia Ben Hamouda and Lara Favaretto confront concepts of language and knowledge in radically different ways.

In the library’s vestibule, Monia Ben Hamouda – the latest recipient of the MAXXI Bulgari Prize and a former fellow at the American Academy in Rome – presents Fragments of Fire Worship. Her monolithic, neon wall sculptures introduce a searing, restless energy to the historic venue. As the daughter of a calligrapher, Ben Hamouda treats language as a physical gesture, creating an expressive though nonexistent alphabet out of script-like marks. The use of orange neon also subtly references Marciana's multiple close calls with obliterating fires, positioning language as a similarly ambivalent force that both reveals and destroys.

Stepping into the main salon, Lara Favaretto’s Momentary Monument – The Library approaches language as a completed form: the book. Acting as a library within a library, the installation consists of a bespoke shelving unit which stretches the length of the hall and is stacked with donated books. Prior to the exhibition, a custom software randomly paired titles with unique images from Favaretto’s personal archive and printed them inside each tome. By scattering these images randomly inside books that themselves contain marginalia, annotations and other traces of use, Favaretto subverts the idea of permanent preservation, proving that even recorded knowledge is fragile and constantly shifting. This is mirrored formally, where visitors are encouraged to take a book home, transforming the installation over time as shelves gradually empty. ‘It’s really a work about the conservation of memory,’ Morbidi notes of the dialogue between the artists and the setting. ‘That’s something really important for the future generation. It's a reflection on time, on heritage.’

For the foundation, their role as exclusive partner demands a familiar approach of exchange rather than imposition. ‘We had a very delicate approach with Venice. It's a very fragile environment and we wanted to be in conversation with that,’ Morbidi added. By championing creative freedom and honouring the unique fabric of the city, the Maison is establishing a thoughtful new blueprint for luxury patronage – one that acts as a guardian of cultural heritage while nurturing the next generation of contemporary artists.

Shrinking an horological icon isn’t as simple as it sounds, but Bulgari makes it look easy with the new Octo Finissimo 37mm, a smaller take on the Octo that rethinks the model from the inside out.

At Watches and Wonders 2026, Bulgari marks its second outing to the Geneva trade fair, arriving with a confident line-up of grail-worthy timepieces – the new Octo Finissimo 37mm among them.

'This has been something the market has long been asking for,' says Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, the Roman maison’s product creation executive director, of the new model. 'I remember we first started talking about it three or four years ago. Today, the Octo Finissimo is very well known among watch collectors, but we quite often receive comments like, “I love the watch, but it’s too big for my wrist.”’

Reducing the case size was anything but straightforward, however. 'If we want to make a smaller one, we are obliged to develop a brand-new movement, because there is no chance to use the existing Octo movement in a smaller size,' Stigliani explains. The result is the new calibre BVF 100, an ultra-thin automatic movement measuring just 2.35mm in height and delivering a hefty 72-hour power reserve. 'Today, we understand that it is more difficult to make a small watch than a big one. It is more difficult to make a smaller movement, and even more difficult to make one with greater power reserve.'

Only two components of the original movement – the platinum rotor and balance wheel – have been carried over, while the rest have been entirely re-engineered. 'If the original Octo Finissimo was the best watch we could imagine 15 years ago, the 37mm is the best watch we can produce today in our facilities,' says Stigliani.

Visually, the design remains largely unchanged. 'The watch must remain immediately recognisable,' says Stigliani. Instead, the focus falls on reworked proportions and wearability, with the new 37mm case featuring a slightly thicker profile and a reworked bracelet, now composed of two components with a new push-button clasp.

The 37mm is not positioned as a women’s-only timepiece. 'It was important to avoid positioning it as a “smaller” or “female” version. That would have been a mistake,' says Stigliani. Instead, it’s intended to run as a parallel line alongside the 40mm range, one that opens the door to new materials and configurations.

'The goal was not simply to make another version of the Octo Finissimo,' adds Stigliani, 'but to create a completely new watch.'

bulgari.com

The 25th edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie Geneve (GPHG) took place on 13 November 2025 at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, a former power plant in the centre of Geneva. The grand prize, or ‘Aiguille d’Or’, was awarded to Breguet, for its faithful reproduction in wristwatch form of a 1796 pocket watch created by company founder and ‘father of modern watchmaking’, Abraham-Louis Breguet. Singled out for the purity of its classically simple design, incorporating a grand feu enamelled dial and a single, blued hand, the latest incarnation of a historic ‘souscription’ (subscription) model – the means by which early watchmakers were able to fund their work – celebrates 270 years since the founding of the brand.

In a similar vein, the Chronometry prize – celebrating excellence in timekeeping – was awarded to a recreation of Zenith’s Calibre 135, the most awarded movement in the history of chronometers. Represented this year as the ‘GFJ’ to mark the 160th anniversary of the company’s founding by Georges Favre-Jacot, the winning watch features a 39mm case with a striking lapis lazuli dial surrounded by a ‘brick’ guilloché motif inspired by the façade of the manufacture in Le Locle.

Among the other winners were Anton Suhanov, who took the Revelation prize for his tabletop world timer tourbillon clock; Audemars Piguet, recognised for the latest iteration of its Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, fitted with the new, fully crown-set Cailbre 7138; and Bulgari, which won a further prize for its groundbreaking series of Finissimo models, this time in the Tourbillon category.

Other prizes were distributed between Chopard (which took two, for Ladies Compilation and Sports), and Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta, both dial names recently revived under the auspices of the Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, honoured in the Time-Only and Ladies’ categories respectively.

The Special Jury Prize honoured Alain Dominique Perrin, president of the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, for his visionary role in promoting high-quality watchmaking.

All 90 of the nominated timepieces, including the 19 winners, are on display at the Geneva Musée d'Art et d'Histoire until 16 November 2025.

The 2025 GPHG winners

‘Aiguille d’Or’ Grand Prix : Breguet, Classique Souscription 2025

Chronometry Prize: Zenith, G.F.J. Calibre 135

Horological Revelation Prize: Anton Suhanov, St Petersburg Easter Egg Tourbillon Clock

Audacity Prize: Fam Al Hut, Möbius

Iconic Watch Prize: Audemars Piguet, Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar

Mechanical Exception Watch Prize: Greubel Forsey, Nano Foudroyante

Chronograph Watch Prize: Angelus, Chronographe Télémètre Yellow Gold

Tourbillon Watch Prize: Bulgari, Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon

Sports Watch Prize: Chopard, Alpine Eagle 41 SL Cadence 8HF

Men’s Complication Watch Prize: Bovet 1822, Récital 30

Men’s Watch Prize: Urban Jürgensen, UJ-2: Double wheel natural escapement

Time Only Watch Prize: Daniel Roth, Extra Plat Rose Gold

Jewellery Watch Prize: Dior Montres, La D de Dior Buisson Couture

Artistic Crafts Watch Prize: Voutilainen, 28GML SOUYOU

Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize: Chopard, Imperiale Four Seasons

Ladies’ Watch Prize: Gérald Genta, Gentissima Oursin Fire Opal

‘Petite Aiguille’ Watch Prize: MAD Editions, MAD2 Green

Challenge Watch Prize: Dennison, Natural Stone Tiger Eye In Gold

Mechanical Clock Prize: L’Épée 1839, Albatross L’Épée 1839 X MB&F

Special Jury Prize: Alain Dominique Perrin

For the last five years, founder of the MQBMBQ residency Jordan Anderson has been welcoming artists to Tuscany, pairing Black queer artists with established mentors in a cultural programme which has been supported by brands including Jean Paul Gaultier, Bulgari and Loro Piana.

To mark the anniversary, Anderson has done things a little differently this year. ‘We felt a deep desire to create something different and gentler,’ he says. ‘Rather than centring urgency or the pressure to produce, we wanted to honour rest, creative exchange, and radical imagination – it is a rare chance for Black queer artists to slow down, breathe, and simply exist in a world that so often demands their everything.’

Rather than the traditional four-week programme, four artists, selected by a curatorial board, were invited for a week-long retreat at the beautiful Turchese villa designed by Italian architect Oreste Martelli Castaldi. Artists Justen Leroy, Precious Okoyomon, YAV and Elliot Jerome Brown Jr. were encouraged to balance rest and creative work in the day, and share a text or piece of inspiration over dinner each evening.

Anderson was keen to work with the artists, who each brought something entirely distinct to the group. ‘Precious’ practice was one of the first that came to mind when we visited the space. Their profound relationship with the natural world, its entanglements with history, time, and race felt in perfect dialogue with a house nestled deep in the woods. Justen’s exploration of Black sound and sonic environments resonated powerfully in Tuscany, where the soundscape of cicadas, rustling trees, distant bells felt like a collaborator of its own.’

Yaav’s relationship with movement also appealed to Anderson. ‘His ability to speak through the body and to explore how we interact with architecture added an embodied, responsive layer to the space. Watching his physical language unfold within the structure made the house feel alive. And Elliott’s approach to photography felt like a natural extension of the residency itself: quiet, observant, tender. His practice, which navigates intimacy, fiction, and form, felt like a beautiful way to hold and document the nuance of being in this kind of shared space.’

Ultimately, the retreat is a chance to spark creativity through relaxation, pause and resetting, emphasising the importance of slowing down. ‘We were intentional about placing this experience outside the confines of an institutional residency,’ adds Anderson. ‘Choosing instead a space that was not only spectacular in itself, but also one they could fully inhabit, reshape, and claim as their own.’

What is a statement watch? From big brand power to small-sized independent watchmaking, making a statement is increasingly in the mind of the wearer - whether that's going bold with size, or demonstrating a savvy technical nous or apprciation of avant-garde style. We’ve drawn together a few recent releases that put understatement to one side and embrace the potential of a watch to catch the eye and start conversation.

Titanium watches have long had the edge over stainless steel when it comes to strength, weight and resilience. Now the material is also chosen by watchmakers for its aesthetic properties or as a conceptual statement, as they pair its inherent lightness with some of the most advanced horological developments available. These are some of our favourite titanium watches of recent times.

Drawing on an eclectic roster of references, high jewellery this year unites historical techniques with rainbows of precious stones. Whether cutting sharp geometrical silhouettes or undulating forms, a bold high jewellery accoutrement calls for statement clothes. Clashing patterns, oversized collars and billowing tops - here are the best partners for a very special collection.

A version of this article appears in the April 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on international newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

For the uninitiated, Bulgari's Italian savoir-faire seems an unlikely match with the futurist tech of MB&F, Switzerland’s flag bearer for independent watchmaking. But the recently released and reimagined Serpenti is, in fact, the second collaborative effort.

Originally debuted in the 1940s, the Bulgari Serpenti range is inspired by the snake. Early designs featured coiled bracelets with concealed, or ‘mystery’, dials, leaning heavily on the brand’s Italian heritage. The 1960s introduced the twisted flex of the Tubogas technique, and in 2023, the Bulgari Serpenti Tubogas Infinity offered a sleek celebration of the Serpenti range's 75th anniversary with gem-set splendour. Fast-forward to January 2025, and Bulgari finally unveiled the Serpenti Tubogas and Seduttori models with mechanical movements within their snake-like heads. With a stronger focus on the actual watch within the serpent, Bulgari now offers a normal bracelet with a scale-like pattern and several models, including double-twirl rose-gold bracelets and diamond-set extravagance.

But despite the Serpenti’s evolution as a timeless calling card for Bulgari, there has not been a model for men, until now. The Bvlgari x MB&F Serpenti incorporates MB&F's micro-engineering, visible through a sapphire rear crystal and four sapphire windows. The movement appears like an engine in a racing car, its immensely large 14mm balance slowly oscillating.

It is a collaborative effort in which the flowing lines of Buonamassa Stigliani’s pen are clearly present. The case is quite large compared to its luxuriously decorated Italo-Swiss spirit animal, at 39mm x 53mm lug to lug. But through an ingenious move, twin crowns double as pivot points for articulated lugs, and the watch will sit comfortably on the wrist with its fabric strap.

Time is viewed on aluminium domed discs within the right and left front apertures, with bright colours matched by bridgework in the rear. The striated window will remind many of a louvred window to a mid-mounted V12 engine, and each strap matches the coloured detail. Max Busser and his scientist-watchmakers developed the manual-winding MB&F in-house movement with its 45-hour power reserve.

The appeal of brands like MB&F lies in the delicate juxtaposition of traditional details, like a hand-bevelled edge on a movement bridge with cutting-edge futurism. This is encapsulated in the body created by Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, where another duality comes to the fore, in a reference to both the serpent and the aerodynamic traits of a racing car.

The Bulgari x MB&F Serpenti is being offered in three editions, each limited to 33 pieces in a choice of metals, in rose gold or titanium.

The Bulgari x MB&F Serpenti starts at CHF 132,000, mbandf.com

The snake is a symbol that transcends times, places and cultures. Its universal significance is reflected in Bulgari’s serpent motif, which it has employed in various manifestations since 1948. ‘Serpenti Infinito’, which has been a travelling exhibition since 2023 (the 75th anniversary of Bulgari’s Serpenti), explores some of these manifestations.

In its latest iteration, the exhibition launched in Shanghai at the start of January 2025 to coincide with Lunar New Year, and will show until 16 February. To celebrate this chapter of the exhibition, a new work, Infinito: AI Data Sculpture by Turkish artist Refik Anadol, was unveiled.

Elsewhere, the exhibition features 28 artworks by 19 Chinese and international artists, 11 of which were created for the occasion. These are displayed alongside a selection of Bulgari’s Serpenti creations, including watches and jewellery from Bulgari Heritage and some unreleased, one-of-a-kind pieces.

The exhibition unfolds in three chapters: the first, Crafting Serpents in History, focuses on the mythology of the snake which, in Chinese culture, symbolises good luck, wealth and vitality.

These meanings have inspired the Serpenti collection ever since Bulgari launched its first snake-themed jewellery-watch in 1948. Since then, the emblem has undergone many transformations – an evolution narrated via pieces from the Heritage Collection, ranging from the Tubogas jewellery-watches of the 1960s to a five-coil Pallini bracelet-watch, created in 1955. These are shown alongside traditional artworks such as ink paintings from artist Qiu Anxiong.

The second chapter of the exhibition is called Snakes in the Arts. In art, snakes have symbolised wisdom, protection and power, expressed through ceramics, glass, stone, sculpture, painting, sound and video, as expressed in calligrapher Xu Bing's Square Word Calligraphy: Serpenti and filmmaker Luka Yuanyuan Yang's Ring of Life.

The third part of the exhibition, Contemporary Transformations, thinks about how the snake exists across cultures, times and places, and into the future. This chapter explores contemporary representations of the serpent: the ‘data sculptures’ of Refik Anadol use machine learning, while Utopic Arabia's Serpenti Odyssey comprises computer-generated artworks.

Contemporary manifestations also take shape through Bulgari high jewellery creations, unveiled exclusively for the exhibition. The Serpenti Infinito necklace, bracelet and brooch are set with onyx elements, buff-top rubies and pavé diamonds. A 140.53-carat rubellite is set at the heart of the Serpenti Rubellite Crown necklace, held by a pavé-set prong. The Serpenti Emerald Nimbus necklace in white gold, meanwhile, features a 12.73-carat emerald from Zambia.

This is not just an exhibition about jewels: it is an exploration of how Bulgari taps into timeless emblems, and how wearable symbols garner meaning.

‘Serpenti Infinito’ is at Zhangyuan, Shanghai, until 16 February 2025, bulgari.com

LVMH's Watch Week has become something of an institution, with the group’s stable of brands combining to own the airwaves, ahead of shows such as Geneva’s Watches and Wonders (where most of the brands still take part). It’s also an opportunity to get a first sight of the watch trends that will dominate the year ahead (check back to LVMH Watch Week 2024).

Last year was a tough year for the industry as a whole, thanks to the usual array of geo-economic headwinds not to mention the tail end of the Covid hangover. That said, LVMH has reasons to be cheerful as brands all had positive developments to report. Keep an eye on this frequently updated guide for all the news from LVMH Watch Week 2025, kicking off 21 January in New York (moved from Los Angeles due to the LA fires) and with a European leg in Paris.

LVMH Watch Week 2025

Tag Heuer

Clearly, the biggest news for 2025 is TAG Heuer’s new status as Official Timekeeper for F1. The watchmaker is nothing if not a motorsport brand, and with the new status comes a new Formula 1 Chronograph collection. Designed to capture the spirit of extreme engineering that the cars represent, the Formula 1 chronographs feature titanium cases, aluminium and forged carbon bezels, hands and hour markers coated in NAC ceramic. In a suitably 80’s manner, the black dials and cases are contrasted with pops of bright colour not just on the dial but on the crown and edges of the straps.

See Tag Heuer's new collections at LVMH watch week

Zenith

One of the more surprising launches of Watch Week is Zenith’s Chronomaster Sport Rainbow in white gold. It brings together one of Zenith’s most enduring legacy designs and the name of one of the brand’s most sought-after watches but whereas the 1997 Rainbow was almost purely monochrome (bar three sectors on the minute counter), the 2025 watch is set with 50 baguette-cut diamonds, spinels and sapphires that create a rainbow spectrum around the dial and on the hour markers.

Tiffany & Co

This year sees the most comprehensive watch collection from Tiffany & Co since the 2021 acquisition, with the most characteristically Tiffany design being the Jean Schlumberger inspired piece. Derived from a 1959 design, the watch dial features a rotating ring decorated with a cross-stitch motif in 18k yellow gold and is set with 707 diamonds totalling more than 6.5 carats. Heritage and modernity unite in the piece, with the cross-stitch motif inspired by Schlumberger's origins from a family of Alsatian textile manufacturers.

Bulgari

2025 is the Year of the Snake, so no real surprise that Bulgari lead off with an update for the Serpenti, the mid-Century design that’s most distinctively Bulgari. For the first time, the Serpenti gets an automatic movement designed specifically for the case shape and is released in both Sedutorri (where the case is integrated with a serpent scaled bracelet) and Tubogas (the open ended, double-wrap bracelet) forms. “More than an icon: a signature” says Fabrizio Bounamassa Stigliani, Bulgari’s Executive Director of Watch Design. If Cleopatra wore a watch ..

Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton’s redefined Tambour case meets the brand’s unique Spin Time complication in the Tambour Taiko. Inspired by the old mechanical displays used at airports and train stations, the Spin Time was the first movement designed for Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps and, for the first time, sits on top of Louis Vuitton in-house movements, including a world timer and a central tourbillon.

Hublot

Hublot’s cascade of launches starts with a Big Bang Tourbillon cased in emerald-green Saxem, a sapphire like material that’s enhanced with rare thulium and holmium, that give it an enhanced brilliance. There is also the return of the Meca-10 in a more compact 42mm case in the typically Hublot material mix of King Gold, Titanium and Frosted Carbon. Inspired by Meccano-type construction systems, the MECA-10 is an exercise in creative micromechanical design.

See all of Hublot's new collections at LVMH Watch Week 2025

Just south of the Colosseum in Rome is the Terme di Caracalla, a vast complex of Roman baths where, in the time of antiquity, residents of the city – up to 1,600 at a time – would lounge in the thermal spas, lavishly decorated with marble and gleaming glass mosaics. It is from here that the Greek fashion designer Mary Katrantzou, who was recently installed as creative director of leather goods and accessories for Bvlgari, drew inspiration for her first collection for the Roman jewellery house, which debuted last month in Paris.

‘I wanted to create something emblematic and deeply connected to Bvlgari’s Roman roots,’ explains Katrantzou, who notes that the baths were considered ‘one of the seven wonders of ancient Rome’ thanks to their rich interiors and dramatic architecture. In particular, it was the fan-shaped designs found on the floors of the baths’ western entrance palestra – composed from a combination of granite, marble and porphyry – which particularly fascinated Katrantzou, an expanse of preserved mosaics that previously inspired Bvlgari’s ‘Divas Dream’ jewellery collection, in 2016.

Mary Katrantzou’s ‘Calla’ collection for Bulgari

Kantrantzou’s own relationship with Bvlgari dates back to 2019. That year, she hosted an opulent couture show for her eponymous label at the Temple of Poseidon, which sits on the shores of Cape Sounion in her native Greece. Bvlgari would loan jewellery for the occasion, and later drafted Katrantzou to create a perfume with nose Alberto Morillas inspired by the scents of her Greek garden (in particular, the gardenia tree). She also took part part in the ‘Serpenti Forever’ collaborative project, which saw various designers reinterpret the house‘s most famous emblem in 2021 (Katrantzou’s capsule collection comprised a series of handbags, a precursor to her current role).

The new collection is called ‘Calla’, a reference to both the Terme di Caracalla and the calla lily, which also served as inspiration, as well as the way ‘calla’ translates from Greek as ‘magnificent beauty’. Katrantzou describes the ‘Calla’ fan motif as one of ‘sensual curves... feminine, versatile and with a compelling universality’, while noting its similarity to the leaf of the ginkgo tree, ‘a symbol of ‘strength and resilience’. Here, the reappearing motif adorns the Serpentine Duo handbag in either a scale-like crystal iteration or quilted matelassé leather, while the flap-pocket Serpenti Sugarloaf bag has larger calla-shaped matelassé quilting, and is completed with a serpent’s head fastening. Joining the pair is the glimmering crystal-covered ‘Ginkgo’ clutch, crafted from nappa leather and moulded metal in the shape of a ginkgo leaf.

‘By translating the feeling of the mosaics into these accessories, we create a tangible connection to Bvlgari’s heritage, while also [trying to create] a fresh, modern identity for the brand,’ says Katrantzou. The colour palette, meanwhile, draws on the colours of the Roman baths, as well as the more vibrant hues for which Bvlgari is best known. ‘It includes rich emerald green, deep amethyst, shimmering gold, and soft pearl white elements,’ says Katrantzou. ‘It’s very Roman, very Bvlgari.’

As for translating the house’s codes into accessories – Bvlgari’s jewellery is often vivacious in design, epitomised by the late Elizabeth Taylor, perhaps the house’s highest-profile client – Katrantzou says it ‘comes from exploring the rich heritage of the brand and pushing beyond it. I aim to find that subtle, almost imperceptible space between tradition and craftsmanship,’ she continues, noting that each handbag is entirely handmade in the house’s Florence atelier, while Bvlgari’s expertise in metalwork leads to near unparalleled clasps, chains and fastenings. ‘I find inspiration in the incredible engineering behind Bvlgari jewellery... unlike typical leather goods, where hardware is often secondary.’

As for the differences – or similarities – between creating a fashion collection or accessories, Katrantzou says both are rooted in ‘storytelling and craftsmanship’. That said, she does admit a shift in thinking: ‘accessories do go beyond the seasonal scope of fashion. You are creating forever pieces, investment items that need to express the wearer’s identity.’ She settles on wanting her accessories to feel like wearing a piece of jewellery. ‘A bag is an extension of the woman wearing it and we want to bring beauty to her everyday life.’

The ‘Calla’ collection, designed by Mary Katrantzou for Bvlgari, is available from bulgari.com

Bulgari’s partnership with guitar maker Fender, marking the 70th anniversary of the Stratocaster, sticks out for being a little outside the usual – Fender’s rock and roll glamour being in a very different key than the architectural allure of, say, Tadao Ando, whose limited-edition Serpenti Tubogas watch for Bulgari was revealed earlier in 2024. Look a little closer, though, and the partnership with Fender has more to it than sharing a little stardust.

The legendary status of the Stratocaster can be explained in listing its players, from Buddy Holly through Jimi Hendrix, Johhny Marr and on to the likes of H.E.R, but its durability lies in the constant evolution and endless variation in details of pickups and fingerboards that keep attracting new generations. Add the emergence of a collector culture around the guitar (see Fender’s Stratocaster with Saint Laurent) and booming customisation business (rocket-fuelled by Fender’s Japanese subsidiary) and the fit looks entirely natural.

The collaboration with Bulgari includes not just a watch design but also a custom Stratocaster. Made by Fender’s California-based Custom Shop, it uses an ash body with rosewood for the fingerboard, and maple for the neck, with the body finished in 1950s sunburst. Matched with metal volume and tone, it controls a design that goes nicely with the watch Bulgari chose for the collaboration, the Aluminium GMT, a 1990s design with a unique combination of aluminium and rubber that was brought back a few years ago to popular acclaim.

The Fender Limited Edition watch picks up on the sunburst body with a dial using a matching colour palette, fading from a golden-brown sunburst at the centre of the dial to a darker edge, highlighted with a cream and brown GMT scale inside the bezel. Bulgari says that the hour markers were designed to mimic the frets on the guitar.

There will be 1,200 Bulgari Aluminium GMT x Fender Limited Edition watches made, with 70 of them being offered alongside the custom guitar, and there will be a further 140 watches with a bespoke guitar-style case.

bulgari.com

As Geneva Watch Days 2024 opens its doors today (29 August – 2 September), we are on the ground ready for the annual event, which swaps the dazzle of Watches and Wonders 2024 for a close-knit celebration of the watchmaking craft.

Originally meant to be a pandemic stop-gap, instigated by then-Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, Geneva Watch Days is fast outgrowing its status as a temporary fix, morphing into one of the prime events on the calendar while keeping its intimate appeal. A fascinating mix of top-tier brands and exquisite independents front the quiet spectacle that's framed by an extended Swiss summer, and these are the brands you should visit if you’re in town.

Geneva Watch Days 2024: the new watches to know

Laurent Ferrier Serie Atèlier VI

Award-winning independent Laurent Ferrier has a portfolio that offers an ever-growing audience a curated alternative to the big brands. With a focused line of timeless wristwear and sports watches, the traditional GWD release of a Serie Atèlier this year has a delicate blend of the two set in 18ct gold. The series VI sees Ferrier meld the minimal splendour of the Classic Microrotor with the elaborate date window design of the Sport Auto, setting a spectacular scene rendered in brushed gold.

laurentferrier.ch

Girard-Perregaux Three Bridges Tourbillon

Trust us, there is also wrist normality to be seen at Geneva Watch Days. But the most impressive releases are halo releases from brands like Girard-Perregaux, with this enticing version of its Three Flying Bridges, this time boasting a tourbillon. With its trademark transparent glamour, the eponymous bridges affix the entire gear train, barrel and tourbillon, appearing to float within an 18ct pink gold case. A 44mm measurement might seem broad these days, but this amphitheatre of gears surely deserves an ample stage. In an unusual move, the bridges are PVD-coated black, matching a textured rubber strap, leaving enticing polished edges of pink gold to catch the light.

girard-perregaux.com

Alpina Extreme Skeleton

The Geneva Watch Days is also about more accessible brands, with the Alpiner Extreme being an entry ticket to intricate open-worked charm in a sturdy steel suit. The broad-shouldered sports watch from Alpina comes with a monochrome charm all of its own, with a grey and steel dial that plays with textures to good effect. A visible gold-toned balance wheel and red seconds hand counterbalance offer two discreet pops of colour within a compact 39mm case size.

alpinawatches.com

Armin Strom Dual Time GMT

The lengthy name indicates a charming complexity, and though white gold has an air of stealth wealth, this 25-piece limited edition is flamboyance personified. A travel-practical GMT function with a colourful extra pointer and a 24-hour bezel is functional, but here it is displayed with the visual drama of twin movements. Two textured sky-blue dials offset below the centre line make sense if your life is split between living and working in two separate time zones, while celebrating the equal importance of work and leisure.

arminstrom.com

Bulgari Serpenti Pallini

With Bulgari instigating this vibrant event, it seems only fitting to bookend this story with the wild splendour of the Serpenti Pallini. Bulgari has already marked its watchmaking strengths by almost yearly besting its Thinnest Watch record with the Octo Finissimo. But there is a vibrant side to the brand, where the Serpenti vigorously embraces Bulgari's Roman past as a top jeweller with insouciant style. Somehow, it also manages to include a watch hidden within the diamond-encrusted jaws of a serpent with emerald eyes.

bulgari.com

When watch houses reinvent their iconic designs in jewelled form, the results can be sublime, joyous, and downright outrageous. We single out five classic watch designs that have been given a precious spin for 2024.

Jewelled watches for 2024

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak

Its reputation was forged in pure, gleaming steel, yet the Royal Oak’s super-clean lines take surprisingly well to a gem-set guise. But then, as one of the original super-thin mechanisms, this superstar watch – it was the first design to use steel like precious metal – has a naturally slender profile, allowing for the added volume that precious-stone setting dictates. Audemars Piguet has been involved in the business of jewelled timepieces since the late 19th century, when it provided mechanisms for houses such as Cartier and Tiffany & Co. Having established an in-house jewellery studio in 1980, it has developed a jewelled-watch style all its own. This year’s Royal Oak automatic variation is a fine example: a combination of 861 baguette-cut black sapphires, intense and light tsavorites and smoky quartz combine to create a moody camouflage effect.

audemarspiguet.com

Bulgari Octo Roma

Secret watches, timepieces with a jewelled dial cap and so designed to look like a bracelet, were originally created for women in the 1920s, who, keen to keep a social diary on track, might discreetly consult their watch without insulting their host. Today, watch brands increasingly use them as a form of storytelling, with fantastical narratives all the better to display in-house jewellery design and setting skills. And, when it comes to crafting fables around the intricate technological skills that jewelled watches require, Bulgari is a master. This year’s high-jewellery Fenice Octo Roma Secret Watch is made possible by the impossibly thin BVL 268SK Octo Roma movement. It allows for an intricate mechanical skeletonised dial and the decorative dial cover. Here, it is a phoenix rising up across the sizeable 44mm dial in a precious sweep of blue sapphires, aquamarines, and a tourmaline Paraiba.

bulgari.com

Patek Philippe Aquanaut Luce

While the 1976 Nautilus design is currently Patek Philippe’s most sought-after sports-luxe design, the Aquanaut, a more casual variation launched 20 years later, in 1996, gets my vote. Probably because its streamlined profile and casual rubber bracelet, reflecting the checkerboard pattern of the dial, is less boardroom CEO and more St Tropez weekender. This year’s high-jewellery model boosts the gem factor with a beautifully considered combination of two setting techniques: rectangular baguettes and snow-setting, where variously sized smaller brilliant-cut white diamonds are tightly clustered into a glinting surface. Here, their addition softens the stark lines of the 72 baguette-cut blue sapphires and 38 baguette-cut diamonds, creating a rich jewel for the wrist and a glamorous promise of surf-bound, summer pursuits.

patek.com

Piaget Polo

The watchmaker-jeweller is celebrating its 150th birthday this year, and the star of the party is the Piaget Polo designed by Yves Piaget in 1979. Yves was a dedicated art lover who counted Andy Warhol as a friend, and there’s something of a Howard Hodgkin influence in his original watch design, where the watch case, bracelet and sleek gadroon decoration were fully integrated in a sublimely pure combination of the jeweller’s and watchmaker's crafts. The Polo was ‘carved, link by link from a single block of 18ct gold’, according to an ad campaign at the time and is, you might argue, the original sports-luxe watch. In the intervening 45 years, it has been redesigned almost beyond recognition, but some elements remain, including its super-skinny form, which lends itself to this celebratory deep-red ruby iteration with baguette-cut rubies and diamonds. The skeleton dial is also a recurring Piaget motif. However, at a whopping 49mm wide, this version of the Piaget Polo is out of bounds for slender wrists.

piaget.com

Rolex Daytona

Two new, jewelled versions of Rolex’s 1963 Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona are launched this year, each incorporating mother-of-pearl dials and markers. The luminous coating found in molluscs, such as oyster shells, has long been a favourite dial material for watch houses, because it can be cut into super-thin sheets. Profile volume is a prime consideration in watch design, and Rolex has been using mother-of-pearl as a decorative material for years. Both new Daytonas have white-gold cases, and the first features the slick, black Oysterflex bracelet with white mother-of-pearl dial and chrono subdials in black. The metal bracelet edition, however, sees the details reversed, with a black mother-of-pearl dial and white mother-of-pearl counters. Thirty-six brilliant-cut diamonds circle each dial, while the chunky diamond dial markers add a sporty frisson.

rolex.com

A host of new dark watches are embracing inky black hues. High-profile watch brands turning to the dark side include Bulgari, with its gleaming Serpenti Seduttori, which offsets a monochromatic palette with diamond-speckled rose gold; and Tag Heuer, whose use of retro shading and darker tones lend elegance across the board.

Audemars Piguet's shadowy dial is a textured foil for an all-black look, while Gucci's embossed dial riffs off contrasts.

Omega and Tudor let bright indexes do the talking, as does Bell & Ross, which adds a clean, skeletonised dial.

For Montblanc, a moonphase stays true to the inky midnight theme, while Chanel adds jewelled references with a chic secret dial.

Discover the best dark watches

A version of this article appears in the May 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print from 11 April, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

The BAFTA 2024 ceremony takes place in London this Sunday 18 February. To celebrate, Bulgari, the event’s official watch and jewellery partner, is displaying a cache of its heritage pieces, some of the most legendary jewels in film history, at its Bond Street boutique. Gislain Aucremanne, heritage curator at the jewellery house, tells us of the stories and screen stars behind these dazzling designs.

Bulgari’s cinematic past on show for BAFTA 2024

The David di Donatello Award

In 1956, Bulgari was asked to design the trophy for Italy’s Academy of Italian Cinema Awards (AICA), the David di Donatello. The recipient of its first edition was Gina Lollobridiga (pictured top), who took the Best Actress gong for her performance as the peasant-girl-turned-opera-diva in Robert Z Leonard's 1955 film, Beautiful but Dangerous. 'The design is a miniaturised reproduction of Donatello's David sculpture, now preserved in Florence,' Aucremanne says. 'The original artwork was finished in gold and so is this. Bulgari mounted the figure on a block of beautiful green malachite, which suits his stance, that says: "You may be a little person but in the end you can be victorious and do great things". So there's a beautiful message there, too. I like its journey from ancient fine-art sculpture to a symbol of the art of cinema today.'

Elizabeth Taylor's break-up jewel

‘This jewel is beautiful in daytime in natural light and amazing at night, shimmering as if with electrical light,’ says Aucremanne. ‘There are many images of Elizabeth Taylor wearing this, sometimes as a brooch on the lapel, and also worn in her hair. It was a gift from her husband at the time, Eddie Fisher, and most probably the last he gave her. It was 1962 and Taylor was filming Cleopatra in Rome. Her affair with Richard Burton just went public, and legend has it that Fisher sent Taylor the invoice for the piece. I'm not sure it's an elegant thing to send a bill, but I think he was furious at the time. Some of the bigger flowers in the spray are entremble, which means they trembled and shimmered, catching the light as she moved (they are set on little springs). It's an absolutely gorgeous piece and it particularly reflects Taylor's tastes.’

Anna Magnani's diamond bombe

'In Italy, and Rome in particular, Anna Magnani was a huge star and the Italian public loved her. They felt very close to Ms Magnani, as they related to the gritty roles she played, and would call out nicknames to her in the streets, as if she was a character they knew. She was a nice person, a strong personality, and she loved coming to Bulgari to select her jewels,' says Aucremanne.

'Anna Magnani's taste is very much reflected in this ring, which is very bombe, voluminous and curvy, and she loved to wear it on her pinky. She had a very strong attitude to the way she wore her jewels. Here, you have a beautiful circle of diamonds, with the baguettes giving a sense of geometry, an industrial touch, even. '

Elizabeth Taylor's ‘Boom’ Necklace-cum-bracelet

'This necklace was selected by Elizabeth Taylor for her role in Joseph Losey's 1968 film Boom,’ says Aucremanne. It’s detachable, so can be worn as two bracelets. And that’s how she wore it in the movie. Here, you really have a sense of volume, which is very true to the Bulgari style. There’s also a strong rhythm between the randomness of the motifs, the proportions, the symmetry, geometry, all of which are synonymous with the house.'

Anna Magnani's architectural black-pearl brooch

'Ms Magnani's pearl brooch has a geometric boldness and volume, and what makes it compelling is the opposing architectural elements created by the different-cut stones, namely the baguette-cut and the round. That the stones are set on different levels and directions gives an almost hypnotic draw. When worn under film lights, this pearl brooch would have created interesting light reflections around the actor, both from the brilliant white stones and sheeny black pearl.'

Gina Lollabrigida and Claudia Cardinale’s kaleidoscopic gems

'This set is from the late 1950s, and now we really see the colour, what we term the Italian School of jewellery, moving away from mainly white stones to something more Italian,’ says Aucremanne. ‘The diamonds are mixed with coloured gemstones in a design that could have looked very chaotic, yet has a strong sense of order. Everything you see on the left is mirroring what you have on the right, which sounds easy, but it's not. Look at the earrings – the blue stones on the left of one earring [and repeated on the right of the other]. I think these things make everything more Bulgari, you know, along with the raised rounded, or cabochon, stones.'

Jennifer Aniston and Mila Jovovich’s 1930s showstopper

'This is a 1930s piece. You could call it art deco, but it's Roman art deco. The dimension of the circular diamonds is very important. The way they alternate with rectangular, large baguette-cut diamonds and the gradation of the motifs from big to smaller has a rhythm all its own. [The necklace] has been worn by stars including Claudia Cardinale, Jessica Chastain, Mila Jovovich and Jennifer Aniston. Working with platinum is incredible work, and the craftsmen who can do this are what we term as mani intelligente, intelligent hands. It's a 1930s necklace yet it's been worn over so many eras, and I think that is the definition of a timeless piece.’

The jewellery will be on display at Bulgari’s Bond Street store, London, until 20 February 2024, bulgari.com

The coiled shape of Bulgari’s Serpenti watches, necklaces, rings and bracelets has been a symbol of the Roman jewellery house since the collection was first fashioned in the 1940s, and now, 75 years later, Serpenti is being taken on a world tour to celebrate this milestone. With earlier stops in Shanghai and Seoul, the house’s artistic initiative Serpenti Factory and its ‘75 Years of Infinite Tales’ exhibition (11 October to 19 November 2023) has now opened in Milan, beneath the city’s monumental Arco della Pace in Sempione Park. ‘Milan is a very special city for us,’ Bulgari creative director Lucia Silvestri tells Wallpaper*. ‘There are so there many artists here. Rome may be the eternal city, but Milan is international.’

Bulgari exhibition reimagines Serpenti in Milan

Rather than simply stage a retrospective of Serpenti’s history – though stunning archive pieces and the latest designs are indeed on display – Bulgari has taken a step further by commissioning six artists to interpret Serpenti in a range of mediums. ‘Our mission is to maintain the DNA of the brand through creativity and innovation, with new materials and new craft,’ says Silvestri. ‘We chose these six artists because we wanted to see how they could explain our history with different eyes. It’s been so interesting to see all the interpretations.’

Each of the six artists put their own spin on the theme: Roman artist Quayola (whose LG OLED collaboration is at Frieze London 2023) devised a robotic performance that creates live sculptures based on algorithmic variations; Israeli-American artist Daniel Rozin built a responsive wall installation inspired by Serpenti’s golden scales; Catherine Mercier exhibited two cast bronze snakes; Fabrizio ‘Bixio’ Braghieri painted a series of watercolours incorporating the motif; and Milanese sculptor Filippo Salerni wrapped the Arco della Pace with a snaking, site-specific installation. 

A highlight, however, is Canadian artist Sougwen Chung’s contribution, which tapped into their research into AI, machine learning and VR technology to create a sculpture inspired by Serpenti’s twisting form. ‘My technique uses virtual reality to create a form of additive sculpture,’ Chung explains. To create the piece – which resembles cords of metal twisted into the abstracted shape of a snake – they wrote a piece of software that would allow them to build it in virtual reality, utilising a VR headset and motion-capture suit to track their movements in space. ‘It takes the data inputs from VR and uses them to create the sculpture, which is then 3D-printed and plated in chrome. It was almost like recording time and space.’ 

In addition to the 3D-printed sculpture, which hangs suspended in a small room whose walls and ceiling were covered with screens, Chung created an animation that swirled around the room, giving the impression that viewers have landed in the centre of a digital landscape. ‘I’m also a performance artist,’ Chung explains. ‘It’s sort of the central tenet of what I do. I created an avatar of myself in 3D to share that process, which is the immersive installation around the final sculpture.’

In addition to the installations, several exquisite archive Serpenti pieces are featured in the exhibition. Amongst them is a rare enamelled Serpenti Parure necklace from the 1960s, which takes the form of the ouroboros, the mythical snake that devours its own tail, and is one of less than 100 made. However, according to Silvestri, more than anything, the collaboration with contemporary artists has given her the opportunity to reflect on the house’s past 75 years. ‘Their work,’ she says, ‘allowed us to see Bulgari and Serpenti through a new set of eyes.’

Bulgari exhibition ‘75 Years of Infinite Tales’ in Milan runs from 11 October to 19 November 2023

bulgari.com

Bulgari Hotel Roma has finally opened its doors in the Eternal City. A homecoming for the fashion house, which was founded in Rome nearly 140 years ago, the new flagship is the ninth in Bulgari Hotels & Resorts' growing collection – following the opening of Bulgari Hotel Tokyo earlier in 2023 – and sets the bar for the brand’s ultra-luxury offering.

Located in the city’s Campo Marzio district, a short stroll from Via del Corso, the hotel is set adjacent to the Piazza Augusto Imperatore and the Mausoleum of Augustus – the founder of the Roman Empire – and occupies the former headquarters for the Italian Social Security Agency, an imposing rationalist building, designed by the architect Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo in the 1930s.

Step inside Bulgari Hotel Roma

Like the other Bulgari properties, the design has been spearheaded by Milan-based ACPV Architects (Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel), who have taken their cues from the history of the area to create a sumptuous offering that smartly balances the sober architecture of the building – and its original details like the mosaic façade, beautiful staircases and internal and external frescoes – while encapsulating the story of the Bulgari brand. 

On arrival, the impressive 5m-tall foyer is anchored by an original Roman sculpture of the emperor Augustus in Pentelic marble, which is illuminated by a large Barovier & Toso handblown Murano glass chandelier, which features 25 lamps. These are positioned to match the eight points of the star, set into the floor in antique black marble. Elsewhere on the ground floor, the public spaces are filled with thoughtful details, from the floor design in the cosy lounge, which nods to the 1930s parquet of the Bulgari store in via Condotti, to the original Gio Ponti trumpet vases, and the bookshelves in the library designed by Franco Albini for Cassina in 1956.

Raising the bar for luxury accommodation in the city, all of the 114 guest rooms – which either overlook the Piazza or the charming Via della Frezza – have been inspired by emperor Augustus’ love of marble as well as the Bulgari brand’s history of colour in its jewellery (it created a one-of-a-kind necklace to mark the Bulgari Roma's announcement back in 2020). This is most evident in the bathrooms, each of which is revealed in four palettes of coloured marble: yellow from the Middle East, red from Sudan, and green and white from Brazil. Each bathroom is elevated by a decorative mosaic medallion above the bath, which reproduces the designs of vintage Bulgari brooches, while the marble colour sets the tone for the rest of the room, extending throughout the furnishings including the bedheads and the 1962 Arco di Flos lamps by designer Achille Castiglioni. 

The prime spot, however, is the Bulgari Suite. Unfolding over 300 sq m, the sprawling retreat is lined with ten windows that overlook the Mausoleum of Augustus and shed beams of sunlight onto Flexform and Maxalto furnishings, silk wall fabrics by Rubelli, and an impressive bathtub carved from a single block of arabesque Corchia marble.

On the food front, the hotel has tapped Niko Romito of three Michelin-starred restaurant Reale, as well as Bulgari’s head of culinary experiences, to bring his vision to the hotel’s dining outlets. At Il Caffé, a space inspired by Belle Époque cafés with its antique mirrors, arabesque marble floors, wicker chairs, and long banquettes in burnt orange, the all-day menu is a feast of Italian classics, from eggplant parmigiana to vitello tonnato. 

At Il Ristorante on the fifth floor, against lush mahogany walls and splendid views of the mausoleum, Romito serves a menu of updated Italian dishes like veal Milanese and lobster linguine with red prawns. Finish this off with a nightcap in the Bulgari Bar, at the black marble bar, which is finished off with 60 handblown Murano glass twirls or, during the warmer months, head to La Terrazza , the rooftop terrace where 360-degree views of the city are enhanced by a swathe of over 200 enamel pots, which have been filled with a variety of local plants and flowers.

And then there’s the spa. Anchored by a 20m indoor pool lined with glistening mosaics by Bisazza – that nod to the motifs seen in Baths of Caracalla – the spa also has also eight treatment rooms, a fitness centre and a salon, which all come together to create the perfect retreat after a day spent exploring the streets of Rome. 

bulgarihotels.com 

From high-tech facials to marble swimming baths, these London spas offer everything some of the best spa experiences you could ever wish for, in the way of fitness, beauty and wellness.

Surrenne

Surrenne is a members’ club in London’s Marylebone neighbourhood that sets a new standard in growing longevity space. Spanning four floors, Surrenne features a mind-boggling array of cutting-edge treatments and technologies, from a 2.0 Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber, to ‘microbiome mapping’ sessions, full-body bathing experiences performed on a crystal bed, purifying scalp treatments, saunas and much, much more.

The team behind Surrenne recruited some of the most respected names in the industry to create a space where members can relax, work out, and improve every aspect of their health– from nutrition to sleep, athletic recovery to mental clarity. Collaborators include Inge Grognard, the Face Gym founder, whose wellness design agency dreamed up the interiors of the space and brought in experts like the nutritionist Rosemary Ferguson.

Surrenne has also become the first UK home for American imports like New York cult-dermatologist Dr Macrene and the Tracy Anderson Method. The dedicated Tracy Anderson studio is even fitted with Anderson’s ‘Super G’ bouncy floor, designed to minimise impact on joints when performing her exercises. The longevity offerings have also been designed in partnership with tech pioneers Virtusan, whose board includes Dr Andrew Huberman, Dr David Sinclair and Dr Shauna Shapiro. Treatments include everything from hypnotherapy sessions to ‘Exomind,’ a brain stimulation therapy designed to enhance cognitive function.

surrenne.com

Arc

Arc reimagines the centuries-old Scandinavian concept of ‘contract therapy’ (i.e. cycling between hot and cold water) for a modern, city-dwelling audience. Located in Canary Wharf and outfitted with the largest sauna in the UK, Arc aims to create a social sauna experience, where guests can join guided classes aimed at improving a particular aspect of their health, or replace their night out at the pub with a ‘sauna party’ instead, where DJs curate energising soundscapes and aromatherapy scents fill the space, over the course of group class.

The classes are designed to address a range of needs, from athletic recovery to improved sleep, mood-boosting endorphin release sessions and sessions dedicated to pure relaxation. Those who would rather experience their sauna solo can enjoy a free flow session, cycling through the hot and cold areas at their own pace.

arc-community.com

The Spa at Claridge's

The first spa in Claridge's history has all the pomp and glamour you would expect from the 200-year-old icon. Excavating five floors below the London streets, Claridge's has created a hermetic wellness sanctuary with a swimming pool, steam rooms, sauna and seven treatment rooms. Interiors are designed by Andre Fu and inspired by his own visits to traditional Japanese temples and Zen gardens in Kyoto to create an enveloping feeling of tranquillity.

Star facialist and former Wallpaper* Design Awards winner, Teresa Tarmey (who counts Julianne Moore among her famous clients) currently has a residency at the spa, offering her signature treatments alongside the Claridge’s exclusive Skinmaster Plus by Brera treatment. Using cutting-edge technology, the ultrasonic exfoliation treatment visibly turns back the clock on skin. The spa also offers Augustinus Bader facial treatments, which leverage the brand’s famous TFC8® technology to transform skin’s appearance in sixty seconds.

If you’re looking for a body treatment alongside your facial, we recommend the two-hour long offering from Budapest brand Omorovicza, which includes a steam, scrub and traditional Hungarian body massage inspired by the movements of the ballet. The experience is capped off with a mud facial that infuses skin with the brand’s patented Healing Concentrate (a potent distillation of Budapest’s thermal waters, created through the process of fermentation and encapsulation).

claridges.com

180 Health Club

Located along the Strand, the 180 Health Club is ideal for those looking for a spot in Central where they can fit a workout and treatment in between their busy schedule. It is located on the top floor of 180 Strand, the London culture centre known for hosting some of the city’s buzziest events and exhibitions, as well as a Soho Works co-working space and the Reference Point library and bar.

The Health Club’s expansive wellness offering includes an infrared sauna (especially great as we move into the cooler months); an ozone sauna designed to detoxify the system and improve metabolism; breathwork practitioners; body rolling classes for a hyper-intense stretch; Brazilian jujitsu; fencing; and ballet classes, not to mention book clubs and gardening workshops, among many more.

Many of the Health Club’s offerings have been curated by London tastemaker Alex Eagle, who, throughout her years in fashion and retail, either discovered classes and therapies through her own research or on the recommendations of friends and colleagues. The result is a unique menu of offerings and practitioners that have an if you know you know reputation.

180studios.com

The Ned Spa

The Ned boasts some of London's finest hotel accommodations, 10 different restaurants, and a state-of-the-art spa with one of Europe’s largest hammams. The Ned itself is located in a former bank, and the spa is in what used to be the vaults.

In addition to lounging alongside the space’s tiled pool, guests can experience the space’s barbershop, hair and nail salon, and physiotherapy centre. Treatments include CBD facial and body treatments, Therabody massages and, our favourite, treatments from skin health specialist Annee de Mamiel.

We particularly recommend the de Mamiel Urban Warrior pollution-proof facial, which has been designed exclusively for The Ned. Intended to brighten, cleanse, and release tension from stressed facial muscles, the facial incorporates biohacking techniques to target inflammation and boost skin cell metabolism. At this time of year, the de Mamiel Seasonal Autumn Oil (£94) is incorporated into the facial – a seasonal remedy that protects and prepares the skin for changes in temperatures while also working to ground emotions during a period when schedules become busier than ever.

To bring a bit of the spa home with you afterwards, purchase a vial of de Mamiel’s cult Altitude Oil, a must-have for frequent travels and a reliable cure for occasional hangovers. The potent aromatherapy oil is formulated to help combat the anxiety and fatigue of flying.

thened.com

Le Petit Saint

Hotel spas are a reliable go-to for a day of indulgence, but for those moments when you need to cram a day's worth of relaxation and recharging into a lunch break, head to Le Petit Saint. The newly opened spot is the first London outpost of Dr Joseph Hkeik, the Australian cosmetic physician known for his innovative work in fillers, who counts celebrities like Eva Mendes and Rita Ora among his clients.

The clinic is one of the best in the city for injectables and cosmetic procedures, and their innovative facial offering is also top-notch (I was so zoned out after trying the Red Carpet Laser Facial that I left all my jewellery behind in the treatment room). But the real secret is the wellness area on the bottom floor of the clinic's enormous Mayfair townhouse. Clients can sign-up for one or all of the clinic’s thirty minute reboot therapies that include a Hyperbaric Hydroxy Therapy, which is ideal for boosting energy and refreshing especially when experiencing jet lag; Pressotherapy suits to stimulate circulation and lymphatic drainage; and Psychoacoustic Energy Pods, which encompass you in darkness and a specially tuned frequency designed to relax you and trigger deep, restorative sleep instantly.

saintclinic.co.uk

Hovering across the 40th to 45th floors of the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu skyscraper, the first Bvlgari hotel in Japan – the eighth in the brand’s Hotels & Resorts collection – seems to rise out of the city, its vertiginous views letting Tokyo dissolve into the horizon. Japanese hospitality rituals set the rhythm of the stay, while the brand’s Italian heritage is woven in with an assured touch.

Wallpaper*checks in at Bvlgari Hotel Tokyo

What’s on your doorstep?

Bvlgari Hotel Tokyo anchors itself in the Yaesu district, a landscape of glassy towers, clean lines and instant access to the city’s major transit hub. The buzzy shopping corridors of Nihonbashi and Ginza are a short walk away. For a dose of history, the Imperial Palace awaits – its East Gardens an ideal place to re-enter reality after the hotel’s cloudlike calm – while Tokyo Station, the 1914 red-brick landmark by architect Kingo Tatsuno, sits close by. Yaesu’s core may lean corporate, shaped by Japan’s leading business and financial institutions, but wander a few blocks in any direction and Tokyo’s contrasts reveal themselves.

Who is behind the design?

The interior design was entrusted to ACPV Architecture, the Italian practice led by Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel and responsible for the brand’s hotels in Paris and Rome. Their concept takes the precision of a Bvlgari jewel as its guide, pairing it with a dialogue between Japanese craftsmanship and Roman design heritage. That duality registers from the moment of arrival, where the drop-off pavement echoes traditional Roman ‘sanpietrinio.’ Before stepping into the lift to the 40th floor, guests pass drawings from the Bvlgari archive, including the Mount Fuji brooch that linked the brand to Japan in the 1970s.

At the upper level, a polished corridor lined with a Bisazza mosaic – inspired by a traditional Japanese ‘peacock tail’ textile sets the tone. Beyond full-height sliding doors lies the vestibule connecting reception and the hotel’s F&B spaces. The lofty volume is structured by elm-wood portals that nod to katōmado window forms, while two monumental Carrara marble tables by Naoto Fukasawa for Marsotto Edizioni ground the space, topped with sculptural Gaya ceramic vases.

The room to book

Book the Deluxe Room with a skyline view. At 56 sq m, it delivers the kind of panorama that stops you the moment the door swings open. Rooms come with Bvlgari Hotels & Resorts amenities and a well-stocked minibar featuring Niko Romito snacks and organic teas from Kitano Chaen in Ureshino, best brewed in the traditional kyūsu teapot. According to ACPV Architects, the design is ‘an accurate and balanced blend between the brand spirit and local culture,’ expressed through Italian furniture (Maxalto, Flexform, B&B Italia), ikebana arranged in a Japanese Kago basket, a Hosoo-produced bedspread (from the historic Kyoto kimono textile house), silk-and-elm timber boiserie, and a black-granite bathroom revealed by a sliding door with vertical fins.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

The hotel offers two distinct dining experiences. Il Ristorante – Niko Romito delivers Michelin-starred Italian cuisine framed by subtle Japanese design cues. Suspended glass lanterns hand-blown in Murano by Barovier & Toso glow above Maxalto chairs and sofas upholstered in Dedar fabrics. A light brown-and-white palette is punctuated by champagne-gold curtains and mesh-metal columns in a herringbone pattern. Dishes arrive on Ginori 1735 porcelain, paired with Bvlgari silver cutlery and Salviati Murano glassware, each plate charting a journey through Italy. Don’t miss the tender Cotoletta di vitello alla Milanese (milk-fed veal, Milanese style) or the impossibly light tiramisu.

For a contrasting experience, Sushi Hōseki offers an ultra-intimate, eight-seat omakase led by Michelin-starred chef Kenji Gyoten. The room is a study in restraint, lined with brushwood and dark oak and centred on a single hinoki-wood counter. Pendant lamps by Kajiji – a traditional wood producer from Aichi prefecture – cast a warm, focused glow over the service. Elsewhere, you can settle into the Bvlgari Bar for signature cocktails, unwind in the fireplace lounge, or sample Bvlgari Dolci’s exquisite confections.

Where to switch off

Jet lag finds its cure in The Bvlgari Spa, perched on the 40th floor with sweeping views across Tokyo. The 25-metre swimming pool, clad in emerald-green mosaic tiles, turns each lap into an otherworldly drift. The vitality pool is just as transporting, wrapped by a curved mosaic wall that recalls the floors of Rome’s ancient Baths of Caracalla – the very motif that inspired Bvlgari’s Divas’ Dream collection. Settle into the wooden cabanas if you want to linger, or head to the 24-hour Technogym-equipped fitness area if you’re feeling revived. Both the men’s and women’s changing rooms offer saunas, hot onsen baths and Japanese showers.

The verdict

Bvlgari aimed for the sky with this opening and quite literally reached it. Ranked No. 15 on The World’s 50 Best Hotels 2025 list, the property stands among Tokyo’s finest, delivering a standard of refined Japanese hospitality that’s increasingly difficult to match. From attentive service to its detail-oriented design, this aerated refuge above the city is an essential way to experience Tokyo. Here, Japanese minimalism and Italian warmth coexist effortlessly, shaping a stay that feels both spectacular and deeply considered.

Bvlgari Hotel Tokyo is located at 2 Chome-2-1 Yaesu, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0028, Japan.

Long before patchouli was adopted as the signature scent of hippies everywhere, the flowering herb, with its warm, woody, musky smell, was a symbol of opulence and prestige – rumour has it that King Tut was buried with gallons of patchouli oil. 

Borneo 1834 by Serge Lutens

Centuries later, Madonna put her own spin on the scent by infusing it into pressings of her 1989 album Like A Prayer, while in 2005, perfumer extraordinaire Serge Lutens launched iconic scent Borneo 1834, which blended patchouli with white fowers, cardamom, cacao and labdanum.

sergelutens.com

Tempo by Diptyque

Tempo is Diptyque’s ode to patchouli with three extracts of the essence in one bottle. The richness of the multiple patcholis is complemented by earthy notes of clary sage and maté and rounded out by a light touch of floral violet leaf. 

It is a fragrance that is more on the masculine side but works well for anyone looking for a wearable, sophisticated patcholi scent. 

diptyqueparis.com

Rhizome 01 by Rhizome

Rhizome’s minimalist packaging belies an intriguingly complex range of fragrances. Rhizome 01 is a unisex scent that blends the herby freshness of patcholi with warm spices like cumin and nutmeg. The result is a delicately musky fragrance that is well suited to the autumn and winter months. Perhaps best of all, its reasonable price point makes an accessible purchase without sacrificing quality. 

Those lucky enough to be in Milan can pick up a bottle from our favourite hair salon in the city, Smiths & Co, who have recently collaborated on two new perfumes with the brand. 

rhizomescents.it; smithsmilano.com

Velvet Black Patchouli by Dolce & Gabbana

Perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux’s latest creation for Dolce & Gabbana, Velvet Black Patchouli, blends its principle ingredient with notes of Sicilian blood orange, Venezuelan tonka beans and davana oil for a scent that is earthy with an edge of sweetness.

To create the perfume, Flores-Roux looked back to patchouli's past as a highly valuable fragrance that was traded between Asia and Europe. ‘Patchouli really symbolises that rich exchange of cultures,' he says, ‘because it references a time when precious goods arrived from the East to the shores of Italy, cloaked in its mysterious scent.’

dolcegabbana.com

Witchy Woo by Vyrao 

Similarly, Witchy Woo by Vyrao blends patchouli with notes of orris, cinnamon, and rose to create a dark, mystifying scent. The brand, which launched last year, uses aromatherapy principals and energetically charged Herkimer diamonds to create scents that attempt to actively alter emotional states, with Witchy Woo designed to evoke courage and creativity. 

selfridges.com

Celestial Patchouli by Sana Jardin

Sana Jardin is an innovative perfume brand that enables female harvesters from the rural Morocco to become micro-entrepreneurs by up-cycling the waste products from perfume production. Their Celestial Patcholi fragrance combines musky patchouli with delicate rose and smoky leather for a heady feminine scent. 

brownsfashion.com

Cannabis Patchouli by Dries Van Noten

Cannabis Patchouli is one of ten new fragrances within Dries Van Noten’s new beauty line. The patchouli heavy fragrance is blended with herby notes of sage and cedar for a fresh and woody genderless perfume. ‘In Dries world, antagonistic elements are combined to create surprise,’ says Cannabis Patchouli’s perfumer Nicolas Bonneville. ‘This fragrance is like a light and dark olfactive pattern of fresh green leaves of clary sage aromatics rubbing against the woody leaves of patchouli.’

driesvannoten.com

Ground by Gabar 

Gabar is a new women-led fragrance brand inspired by three distinct locations in Myanmar. Their scent Ground is a rich, creamy fragrance of sandalwood, patchouli, saffron, and fig that evokes the arid plains of Myanmar’s ancient capital of Bagan. Its elegant composition is an intriguing mixture of tangy La Phet (tea leaf salad) and the soft scent of Myanmar Thanakha (traditional tree bark). 

gabarmyanmar.com

Splendida Patchouli Tentation by Bulgari

Bulgari’s Splendida Patchouli Tentation combines a trio of patchouli with white peach and velvety musk for a more powdery interpretation of its top note.

bulgari.com

The familiar form of the Bulgari Octo Finissimo watch has been rethought in a collaboration between the brand and Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, who together imbue the piece with a mirror effect in a dazzling play on light.

The Octo Finissimo Sejima Edition stays faithful to Sejima’s signature design codes, with a sapphire crystal dial featuring only a minimalist dot pattern. ‘For us, the signature style of the Octo Finissimo is a monochromatic look in titanium,’ says Fabrizio Buonamassa-Stigliani, Bulgari product creation executive director. ‘Here we introduce again the same approach – monochromatic with the single finishing – but this time in steel that is completely polished. The dial is a mirror, the hands also have this mirror effect and there is a dot pattern introduced by Sejima on the sapphire glass of the watch. There is no logo, and no indices on the dial, it is very pure. We worked around the concepts of ‘one single material’ and ‘one single colour’ with the objective of creating a sort of ‘invisible watch’. It creates a strong connection between the object and the person using the object itself thanks to a completely shiny and polished watch.’

Buonamassa-Stigliani was initially drawn to Sejima’s concept of the invisible train – a train with mirror surfaces, reflecting the landscape as it passes through so as to appear completely invisible – and saw parallels with his creation of ultra-thin watches, so slender they seem to almost disappear. The watch is a bridge between these two concepts, its reflective surface meaning you study yourself when looking at the time in a rethinking of the relationship between an object and a person.

‘Her buildings are best known for their clean shiny surfaces that blend into the environment. I appreciate Sejima’s signature style represented by smooth surfaces and well-organised buildings accompanied with modernist elements of time,’ Buonamassa-Stigliani adds. ‘Squares and cubes are very present. Sejima loves blending outdoor spaces with a building’s interior; for this reason, she always incorporates large windows in her buildings, developing a visual connection between indoor and outdoor spaces. All these elements are very interesting for me.

‘What I particularly admire is the duality of the artist, her organic architecture, extremely geometric and essential, which is very close to Bulgari watches’ aesthetic approach.’

bulgari.com

September 2022 sees the Bulgari Hotel in London’s Knightsbridge celebrate its tenth anniversary through a collaboration with multidisciplinary designer Yinka Ilori, whose exuberant vision for an afternoon tea is served in the Bulgari Lounge.

Bulgari commissioned the London-based British-Nigerian designer to use his distinctive visual language, which draws on his multicultural heritage, in a unique interpretation of the popular afternoon repast. Ilori’s work is underpinned by a firm belief that art and design should be accessible to all; using the city as his canvas, he reimagines spaces to encourage a sense of community and invite audiences to engage with his work and its surroundings.

Ilori’s joyful combination of colour and pattern perfectly complements the elegant glamour of the Bulgari Lounge, which has recently been redecorated as part of its anniversary celebration. Traditional afternoon tea stands have been reimagined as bold artworks in the form of fantastically colourful stacked spheres – a motif that pulses with energy and life, and recurs with an exciting takeover of the building’s façade, as well as on the linen napkins.

Ilori comments, ‘I am extremely excited to have worked with Bulgari Hotel London for its momentous tenth anniversary. My designs for this collaboration celebrate London's cultural mosaic and the joy of coming together over food. The tea stands are based on the geometry of the sphere and the meeting of different cultures, and I hope people will gather at the hotel and enjoy a vibrant and colourful dining experience through the afternoon tea.’ Fittingly for a brand whose heritage is rooted in high jewellery, the cakes presented by Bulgari are gem-like – neon-hued and dazzling, and designed to complement the striking geometry and colouring of Ilori’s work.

The designer joined forces with award-winning Italian pastry chef and chocolatier-in-residence, Gianluca Fusto, whose carefully considered creations, sweet and savoury, are a delight to the palate as well as the eye. Guests may select from a menu of fine and rare teas, including a Scottish black tea named ‘Nine Dancing Ladies’ of which only one kilo a year is made.

For those that prefer a different kind of drink in the afternoon, Ruinart champagne and cocktails are also listed. The launch of this special afternoon tea experience coincides with the opening of Ilori’s first institutional show at the London Design Museum (showing now, ‘Yinka Ilori: Parables for Happiness’), as the city also celebrates the London Design Festival 2022 and gears up for Frieze London.

Which makes the Bulgari Lounge the perfect haven for a refreshment stop as you take in the capital’s art and design events. Should you wish to take a piece of Ilori’s work home, a limited-edition of 200 Yinka Ilori x Bulgari Hotel London napkin sets are available to buy

INFORMATION

bulgarihotels.com

Bulgari is marking the Platinum Jubilee with a unique high jewellery set. The spectacular Jubilee Emerald Garden collection, encompassing a tiara and high jewellery watch, is a celebration of both highly skilled craftsmanship and Queen Elizabeth’s 70-year reign.

An intricate, 63.44ct Zambian emerald sits at the tiara’s centre; carved with a lotus flower in a feat of technical engineering, it is the culmination of over 1,500 hours’ work by a master goldsmith. Surrounded by a boutique of diamonds and emeralds that bloom around the main stone, it is set into platinum in an appropriate nod to the Jubilee.

‘This high jewellery creation represents an homage to celebrate the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II,’ says Bulgari high jewellery creative director Lucia Silvestri. ‘I was inspired by the Queen, and by her historic admiration of emeralds, to design a piece centred around this striking carved emerald, which showcases Bulgari’s mastery in craftsmanship and creativity.’

The tiara, like many of Bulgari’s jewels, is completely transformable, and can also be worn as a necklace. It sits alongside a high jewellery watch in white gold, with Zambian emeralds, round brilliant-cut diamonds and pavé diamonds teased into playful fan-like silhouettes, encircling a dial studded in snow-set diamonds.

The Jubilee Emerald Garden set is the latest jewellery suite with a design that directly pays tribute to powerful women, with Grace Kelly, Queen Letizia of Spain, Queen Rania of Jordan and Elizabeth Taylor, Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren all particular inspirations for the Italian house in the past. Their appreciation of emeralds, nodded to in this set, promises to continue to be a feature in the future, with the one-of-a-kind pieces offering a teasing glimpse into what we can expect from Bulgari’s upcoming high jewellery emerald collection.

INFORMATION

bulgari.com

Bulgari is marking the tenth anniversary of the Octo collection with the release of the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra. Measuring just 1.8mm, the thinnest mechanical watch ever made has scooped Bulgari its eighth world record. The watch comes complete with a QR code engraved on the barrel of each of the ten limited editions, and also gives the owner access to a unique NFT art piece.

‘The point of the Octo Finissimo is that we always break the rules,’ says Bulgari Watch Division product creation executive director Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani. ‘We have to imagine something different.’

‘I'm a lucky man, because I’m the witness from outside of what is a very constructive dialogue,’ adds Bulgari Watch Division managing director Antoine Pin on the collaborative creation process. ‘It's probably something you would not see very often between the constructors, the watchmakers and the studio, and the fact that the studio is so connected from the very beginning to the conception of the watch. It is why you get products that are quite unique.’

This new piece intertwines the Octo’s classic watch design codes – including the eight-sided shape that takes its inspiration from the geometry of the Pantheon’s arches, and the clean purity of the dial – with a record-breaking technicality. The watch encompasses eight patents, from the assembly of the watch glass to the bracelet and barrel structure. Crafted in sandblasted titanium, it is both ultra-light and strong.

The QR code engraved on the barrel offers a new direction for contemporary watchmaking, inviting wearers into a digital new world where there is an ever-evolving selection of experiences on offer. Design-wise, it was a natural fit. ‘If you look at the design of the Octo, it's a 45-degree angle,’ Stigliani points out. ‘All the elements come from a square portion of a square. So in terms of design, it makes sense, because it's the same pattern.’

With the addition of the QR code, Stigliani envisions the watch becoming the gateway to this new non-physical world. ‘The watch is flat, it's a two-dimensional object; you lose the third dimension – this is what comes from the QR code.’

‘We’re not just creating a second world that is far away,’ Pin adds. ‘It's actually creating different bridges between the digital and physical. And it's interesting to be able to bridge between those two worlds, opening the dimension but without trying to reinvent the world; opening up to it without losing the strike on reality.’

Alongside this piece, Bulgari is also releasing two anniversary editions in titanium, the Octo Finissimo Automatic and the Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic, which trace the outlines of Stigliani’s original pencil sketches for the Octo Finissimo on the dial.

The pencil marks are laser-engraved onto the dial. ‘We had to do many tests to find something precise enough to fulfil the function of the launch,’ Pin says. ‘At one point we ended up with something that was too close to the final industrial design, without the character of the drawing. It’s funny, because I don't believe anybody before has gone backwards, reversing to the initial sketch of the product.’

INFORMATION

bulgari.com

Bulgari: The rectangular form of baguette-cut diamonds presents the gemsetter with a graphic tool, here adding depth to Bulgari’s white-diamond spirals and figurative definition to the ‘Serpenti’ brooch. Pictured, ‘The Magnificent Inspirations’ brooch (far left) in platinum with 60 round brilliant- (29.28ct) and tapered baguette-cut diamonds (7.02ct); the ‘Magnificent Inspirations Serpenti’ brooch (top) in white gold, with baguette- and tapered cut diamonds (6.92ct) and standout square- (2.01ct) and pear-cut diamonds, both by Bulgari.

De Beers: Baguette-cut diamond spokes form an abstract framework for De Beers’ diamond medallion. Pictured, brooch (bottom), detachable from the ‘Elizabeth Tower’ necklace, in white gold with 356 diamonds in four cuts – round, princess, baguette, pear – including the central round brilliant (3.03ct), by De Beers. Jacket, by Christian Wijnants.

Fashion: Jason Hughes. Watches & Jewellery director: Caragh McKay

The brooch as a jewel form has been somewhat undervalued in recent years. Commonly perceived as being out of sync with contemporary tastes, its often-baroque nature is often dismissed as being too narrative rich for simpler, cleaner tastes. But brooches are best viewed beyond fashion, in high jewellery terms, as three-dimensional sculptures that push expectations of the materials used. Unlike like rings or earrings, they are not restricted to a particular part of the body – brooches allow designers and makers broader artistic scope. Toying with scale, perspective and traditional notions, as our story (first published in Wallpaper’s October 2016 issue) shows, when designed and crafted at this level, the brooch can become a powerful art object in its own right.

Harry Winston: A spray of knife-set diamonds forms this meditation on two classic stone cuts – round- brilliant and pear. ‘Cascading Drop’ brooch in platinum with 169 round brilliant and 16 pear-shape diamonds (totalling 35.21ct), by Harry Winston. Dress, by Boss

Tiffany & Co: Legendary Tiffany jewellery designer Jean Schlumberger was drawn to the irregularities of natural forms, slight ugliness being a necessary 
foil for an overtly romantic outcome. In turn, their intricate twists and turns allow gemsetters to display their own talents, as with 
this re-edition of a 1950s Schlumberger brooch. ‘Jean Schlumberger Guadeloupe’ brooch (top), from the 2016 Masterpieces collection, in 18ct gold with 79 round pink spinels (11.21ct) and eight round spessartites (1.37ct), by Tiffany & Co.

Cindy Chao: The freedom to express 
her sculptor’s instincts 
in various jewelled forms 
makes brooches the standout design in each Chao collection. Her 
fine art approach manifests 
in the ‘Rose Petals’ brooch, created in four parts. ‘Rose Petals’ brooch in silver and 18ct yellow gold (only two pieces shown), with central oval-cut diamonds (1.51ct and 2.05ct) and various cuts totalling 48.12ct, by Cindy Chao. Jacket, by Cédric Charlier

Chaumet: a pear-cut exclamation point highlights the vivacious character of Chaumet’s summer wheatsheaf. Its elegant nature is distinguished by exquisite craftsmanship. La Nature de Chaumet ‘Offrandes d’Été’ brooch (on collar) in white gold and brilliant-cut diamonds, with 2.21ct pear drop.

Dior Joaillerie: Interior details from the Château de Versailles are translated into tangled, sculpted jewels shimmering with sizeable velvet-hued stones. Designing the pieces as if viewed by candlelight led designer Victoire de Castellane to consider alternative materials, such as blackened silver.
Dior à Versailles ‘Salon de Diane’ brooch (left) in white, yellow and pink gold, and darkened silver, with 154 round- (6.21ct) and three pear-cut diamonds (1.51ct; 1.01ct; 0.70ct) and pear-cut emerald (2.18ct), by Dior Joaillerie.

Piaget: the watchmaker-jeweller’s distinct house engraving techniques add a lush, organic feel to this fan of red-gold palm leaves, pinched artfully together with a 2.51ct green tourmaline baguette.
Brooch (right), detachable from The Sunny Side of Life ‘Golden Palm’ necklace, in 18ct red gold with green tourmaline baguette (2.51ct), and 60 white diamonds (15ct), by Piaget. Cape; coat (worn underneath), both by Agnona

Suzanne Syz: Her pop art background and craftsman’s approach are
 the fundamentals in Suzanne Syz’s postmodern creations, 
as this grotesque mélange 
of rare materials and cartoon-
like references reveals. ‘Kermit on a Lilypad’ brooch (top) in yellow gold with chrysoprase, spessartite garnets (38.03ct), tsavorites (45.89ct), cabochon rubies (0.66ct) and diamonds (0.29ct), by Suzanne Syz.

Chanel Fine Jewellery: The ancient symbolism 
of wheat inspired Chanel’s 
Les Blés de Chanel collection, which is why 
it is quietly, beautifully rooted in Classicism. Moisson Ensoleillée’
brooch (right) in 18ct white and yellow gold, with 19 marquise-, seven pear- and 168 brilliant-cut diamonds, 209 brilliant-cut yellow sapphires and one central octagonal-cut African yellow sapphire (10.22ct), 
by Chanel. Jacket, by Victoria Beckham

Louis Vuitton: the new era of brooch designs reflects 19th-century tastes, where the highly precious nature of materials did not inhibit scale, nor restrict a brooch to a particular area of the body, as in Louis Vuitton’s ‘lace’ garland of diamonds. ‘Diamonds’ brooch (top) in white gold with diamonds (10.74ct), from the Dentelle de Monogram collection, by Louis Vuitton.

Boucheron: Designer Claire Choisne’s plush peacock plume of diamonds is crafted in two pieces, designed to create the illusion of bird feathers transforming into a flock. ‘Plume de Paon’ brooch (below) in 18ct white gold with one pear-cut diamond (0.08ct) and 499 round brilliants (3.33ct), by Boucheron
Top, £395, by Pringle of Scotland. Skirt, by Marni

Amrapali: Polished perfection is not typical of the traditional Indian fine jewellery aesthetic, where the 
visceral power of stones 
is paramount. This white-gold wreath design of 
non-uniform pearls and tumbled 45.64ct rubellite tourmaline underlines 
the organic Indian style. Brooch in 14ct gold and sterling silver, with 
128 round brilliant-cut diamonds (0.76ct); 
oval-cut emerald (1.15ct) and 14 South Sea pearls (9.46ct), with central tumbled rubellite tourmaline briolette (45.64ct), by Amrapali.

Cartier: The French jewellery house’s creative links to India 
and its particular jewellery design codes are reflected 
in the compelling nature 
of this carved rubellite. ‘Caresse d’Orchidées’ brooch of rubellite tourmaline (414.45ct), 
with one diamond pear- (0.73ct) and 186 round brilliant-cut diamonds (2.08ct), by Cartier. Jacket, by MaxMara

Graff: Gradating tiers of marquise-cut diamonds add a natural sense of movement to Graff’s magnificent ‘Bird of Paradise’ and its everlasting delivery of a 2.02ct pear drop. Pavéd brilliants add volume and texture to its narrative form. ‘Bird of Paradise’ brooch 
in 350 diamonds (27ct), including pavé set, 
pear- and marquise-cut, with central 2.02ct pear, 
by Graff. Top, by Bally

In partnership with Bulgari

In summer 2021 in Milan, Bulgari celebrated the launch of the spectacular high jewellery and timepiece collection, Magnifica. Now, the maison is taking a considered look at the women who inspired the collection with an aesthetically stunning tome, Bulgari Magnifica: The Power Women Hold. 

Released by Rizzoli New York and edited by fashion stylist Tina Leung, the book encompasses contributions from writers and artists while paying tribute to the essential role of the jewellery artisans, and treating us to an in-depth look at the hypnotising jewels themselves.

For Bulgari’s creative director Lucia Silvestri, who pens the introduction to each of these three sections – Head, Heart, and Hands – the book offers an irresistible opportunity to turn the spotlight on the women behind the jewellery. ‘Magnifica is Bulgari’s answer to these new times, a celebration of rebirth and the beginning of a new renaissance spreading a message of joy, creativity and artistic perfection,’ she says. ‘We took inspiration from magnificent muses, and of course from Rome, which is always our first muse, but also from sublime gems and intelligent hands that craft our masterpieces and turn them into works of art.’

Contributors, from social entrepreneur Amanda Nguyen to actress Aisha Dee, activist Whembley Sewell, DJ Mia Moretti and many others, reflect on what it means to be a woman while acknowledging the power high jewellery codes can provide. ‘These women have traced a path that is an example and an encouragement for today’s women to pursue their intuitions and cultivate their talent like a true gift of nature,’ says Silvestri.

Above all, the book is an homage to the exquisite jewels themselves, with the dazzling culmination of years of intricate craftsmanship explored in brilliantly vivid photography. When intertwined with a tribute to the female muses who have rethought what being a woman can mean – baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, Chinese writer Eileen Chang and architect Zaha Hadid have all made an impression on the maison – the end result is a powerful one. ‘Created by women for women, Magnifica is a tribute to the pioneering, indomitable female personalities that, with their fierce vision and independent attitude, blazed their own paths, broke boundaries or shattered cultural norms in different fields,’ says Silvestri.

INFORMATION

Bulgari Magnifica: The Power Women Hold is published by Rizzoli New York

bulgari.com

Seventeen months after it was originally slated to take place – in April 2020, when it was postponed because of the pandemic – Salone del Mobile once again graced the streets of Milano. While many of the usual suspects – Prada, Fendi, Marni, Louis Vuitton – opted to sit this Supersalone out, there was no less innovation to be found. Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele made a cartoleria pop-up complete with a mouse hole; Dior gathered 17 of the most esteemed artists in the world to interpret its iconic ‘Medallion’ chair; Giorgio Armani gave us spaghetti measurers and rolling pins; while Hermès crafted a world of fine fabric canopies. Here is the Wallpaper* edit of the best fashion brands at Salone del Mobile 2021.

Fashion brands at Salone del Mobile 2021

Dior

Dior took over the newly refurbished Palazzo Citterio to unveil its ‘Medallion’ chair project. As guests mingled in the Dior-ified gardens, in the concrete depths of the basement, 17 artists – including India Mahdavi, Joy de Rohan Chabot, Sam Baron and Khaled El Mays – presented their interpretation of the Louis XVI-style seat that Monsieur Dior chose as one of the interior emblems of his fashion house on Avenue Montaigne in Paris back in the mid-1940s. The collective result was a reminder of the contemporaneous spirit of the fashion house and its enduring codes. Speaking about the project as well as her own approach, Mahdavi told Wallpaper*: ‘Beauty comes from the strength of the lot; they’re separate but connected and it’s that togetherness that I like.'

Hermès

Staged at La Pelota, Hermès enlisted Hervé Sauvage on set design to create five hand-painted structures in which to house the Paris-based brand’s collection. Designed to celebrate the tension between different textures, guests were invited to crunch around the softly lit space with sand underfoot, a detail which emphasised the raw nature of each room’s curated contents. Inside the imposing constructions sat pieces ‘designed to be touched': its ‘Sillage’ armchair made from recycled paper fibres; its elm and calfskin jewellery boxes; the enamelled copper ceramics from its ‘Sialk’ collection; and cashmere blankets hoisted on wooden poles. With Manuel Rocha Iturbide, Antonio Fernandez Ros and Rogelio Sosa behind the sound design, it became a sensory homage to the physicality of craftsmanship.

Tod’s

Tod’s enlisted New Jersey-based artist Willie Cole for its installation at its Montenapoleone flagship. The contemporary artist, who has carved out a reputation for using discarded domestic items such as hairdryers and irons during his five-decade career, was given free rein in the Tod’s factory to make three sculptures using leftover materials from the production line. The result was a chair, a sofa and a sculpture using the uppers of the brand’s signature driving shoes. ‘The thing that interests me is recycling beyond sanitation,' Cole told Wallpaper*. ‘My work is all about “play”.’ To complement his creations, the brand launched its limited-edition ‘Mosaic’ collection, which uses a traditional patchwork technique, and the offcuts from its mainline collections.

Valextra

Valextra teamed with its neighbour Tom Dixon on a project that saw the brand stage Dixon’s ten-piece ‘Black Light’ exhibition in its Via Manzoni flagship. For his installation of ten huge light sculptures, Dixon took his cues from Milanese masters including Gio Ponti, Achilles Castiglioni and Ettore Sottsass. For its part, Valextra looked to the traditional Italian art technique of chiaroscuro – meaning to contrast light and shade – to create a collection of the same name that juxtaposed its multidimensional leathers in four of its iconic handbags: the ‘Iside’, the ‘Tric Trac’, the ‘Bucket’ and the ‘Brera’. The result saw two disciplines come together, said Valextra CEO Xavier Rougeaux, to ‘pay homage to Milan, its masters and celebrate the symbiosis between design and urban craft’.

Gucci

Alessandro Michele created every stationery aficionado’s nirvana with his Gucci Cartoleria pop-up on Via Manzoni, which celebrated the lauch of the Florentine brand's Lifestyle collection. A bona fide treasure trove of pencils, pens, notebooks, pencil cases, paperweights and board games (catnip for early-bird Christmas shoppers when they launch online this week), the space was an ode to the small Italian shops of Michele’s childhood. ‘I imagined a small cabinet of curiosities, a Wunderkammer, like the cave of Ali Baba, that could accommodate these everyday objects and return them to a fairy-tale dimension,' he explained. In his signature whimsical style, Michele incorporated an overhead upside-down train track, a sensor-activated chess set, and a mouse hole complete with a miniature living room at foot level. It was conceived, he said, to restore a sense of wonder to everyday life – and it did.

Armani Casa

Things you now need that you didn’t know you needed ten seconds ago: an Armani rolling pin, spaghetti measurer and chopping board. For his Armani/Casa 2021 collection, Giorgio Armani wanted to ‘express all the dimensions of the concept of “living at home”’, hence the handy additions to a collection that caters to spending lots of time in it. The brand’s first desk chair and a huge new eight-seater square table are joined by an internally lit room divider and a new limited-edition cylindrical bar cabinet, all making the home user-friendly in the most luxurious – aka the most Armani – of ways. He’s considered the garden, too. The ‘Robespierre’ barbeque set, the ‘Rovo’ gardening bag (complete with wooden-handled tools) and the ‘Regni’ cashmere and wool rug that doubles as a chess board with supersized leather pawns take outside living to another level.

Issey Miyake

Issey Miyake staged ‘In The Making’ in its Tokujin Yoshioka-designed Via Bagutta store. Presenting the construction process behind two of the brands under its umbrella, Im Men and A-Poc Able Issey Miyake, it affirmed its longstanding textile-innovation credentials. First up, the ‘Flat’ (whose construction is inspired by 132 5 Issey Miyake) and the ‘Convertible’, which condense into briefcase and crossbody bags and are crafted from the husk of sugar cane. Next up, its ‘Type-I’ project, which involves a process that uses Triporous, a material made from rice husks (100 million tonnes of which are discarded globally every year, the brand pointed out), and achieves a unique shade of black that cannot be done through conventional dyeing techniques. These projects were joined by a presentation of collaborations with Tadanori Yokoo and Fabio Bellotti, both of whom have been working with the brand since the 1970s.

Rick Owens

Rick Owens and Michele Lamy collaborated with Galerie Philia founder Ygaël Attali to engage ten emerging Italian designers to create pieces inspired by Owens’ furniture. ‘My furniture is my couture,’ declared the designer about his one-of-a-kind projects, which here sat alongside the pieces designed in his honour. A marble chair by Pietro Franceschini and a floating glass and brass vase by Agustina Bottini stood opposite a bronze bollard lamp by Owens. Atop Owens’ alabaster and moose-antler ‘Stag T’ side table sat a sculpted brass candleholder by Samuel Costantini, both illuminated by a brass and silicone ‘Howl’ light installation by Morghen. ‘Rick’s work is brutalist, dark and rough and some things here are very soft,’ said Attali. ‘To mix them creates a discussion [between materials] and a dialogue between Rick and the Italian designers.’

Stone Island

Salone’s delay has rendered the fifth installation of Stone Island’s Prototype Research Series, its experimental numbered-garment project, all the more beautiful. The brand experimented by applying a nanometric copper layer through a vapour deposition technique onto a fabric bonded with its signature raso cotton, and made 100 trench coats. The plan was to investigate the natural oxidation characteristics of copper in a fashion context using industrial processes (the first time a fashion brand has used this particular type of technology); the result was a fabric that has a stunning iridescent camouflage-like surface texture but became completely unbonded in the time since the coats were made, the bonding ‘eaten by the same oxidisation', explained creative director Carlo Rivetti; it means the pieces can’t – like previous collections – be sold. ‘This is the unfiltered story of an unfinished research process,’ he added. ‘Each step has taught us important things which will be important for the future, regardless of the goal achieved.’

Kassl Editions x Zara Home

High-street juggernaut Zara Home and indie Amsterdam label Kassl Editions presented their limited-edition homewares collection at the former’s flagship on Corso Venezia. With the first floor devoted entirely to an exhibition to present the tie-up, it made for a bold statement of design democratisation and one for which Kassl Edition’s ‘Pillow’ sofa (originally conceived for Wallpaper’s Re-Made initiative in collaboration with Muller Van Severen) was reinvented. Joined by art prints, flat-weave rugs, reversible mirrors and lacquered wood furniture that can triple as tables, shelves or plinths, the modular collection caters to design enthusiasts on a budget.

La DoubleJ

Supersalone saw La DoubleJ founder JJ Martin ‘activate a hunch and bring back the bat’. Stemming from the themes of spirituality for which the womenswear brand is becoming increasingly known, Martin commissioned the artist JoAnn Tan to help turn the basement of the brand’s new Via San Andrea store into a bat cave-cum-craft installation to celebrate the spirit animal. Martin’s vision came to life through Tan’s suspended bat lamps, made from turned walnut, Italian silk, and Hermès leather on the wings, and which each took one week to complete. The event provided a first opportunity for many to see inside the space, which opened this April, as well as see the brand’s new Miniscalchi homewares collection. Highlights include a set of porcelain plates featuring patterns that first appeared on tableware made for Napoleon Bonaparte’s visit to Verona, here rendered in bubblegum pink (‘because this is La DoubleJ!' laughed Martin), and an extension of the brand’s collaboration with Venetian glassmaker Salviati on smoky sets of liquor glasses.

Versace

Donatella Versace called on Milanese architects Roberto Palomba and Ludovica Serafini to translate Versace’s fashion-house codes for Versace Home in a bid to have a more ‘3D vision of [the] Versace environment’, explained Palomba. Staged in Versace’s Via Durini space, which opened in April, everything hinged on the Greca pattern, which debuted in the A/W 2021 ready-to-wear collection. It manifested here in cushions, bed linen and wallpaper in green, blue, pink and brown. Deliberately less extravagant than Versace Home of old, this collection marks a move towards a clean-lined aesthetic and a focus on details over drama. Symbols synonymous with the house – including the gold safety-pin and Medusa head – arrived as subtle details such as zips and buttons on the new leather ‘Venus’ armchair and buttons on the made-to-share ‘Signature’ sofa. ‘Donatella is the icon for a new generation of women, and we made a house for her to represent her: she wants to hunt, rather than be hunted,’ said Palomba. 

Off-White

Salone may see few brands designing with dorm rooms in mind, but then most brands aren’t Off-White. Creative director Virgil Abloh collaborated with the ceramicist Ginori 1735 on its new homewares collection, which comprises a tea set, serving platters and dinner plates in the Florentine company’s classic white porcelain, all graffitied with Off-White’s tag. ‘This is a collection for the modern dining room – whether formal in a home, a millennial apartment, or simply a dorm room,’ said Abloh of the first instalment of the collaboration (the next will land in 2022). ‘The imposition of the modernity of a logo and graffiti art with the respected house of Ginori 1735 is proof that good design can live on forever.' Studying just got a whole lot more civilised.

Loro Piana

Famed for its deliciously luxurious textiles, Loro Piana looked to the past, the present and the future to create three stories that celebrate fabric for its Salone presentation at its Montenapoleone store. First up it commissioned Gabetti & Isola to create an exclusive version of its iconic ‘Bul-bo’ lamp (originally created in the late 1960s); as the new ‘Bul-bo Soft’, its base is covered in cashmere and contrasting Altai wool fabric. Next up, an interpretation of the classic director’s chair by Exteta and Paola Navone-Studio Otto, which has resulted in the ‘Delight’ chairs, covered in an outdoor fabric conceived by Loro Piana that is light, salt-, chlorine- and fungus-resistant. And finally, there’s the ‘Palm Duet’ chaise longue, a creation by Raphael Navot made exclusively for Loro Piana and upholstered in Cashfur, a novel fabric made from combining cashmere and silk on circular knitting looms.

Etro

After the best part of 18 months spent at home, it’s little surprise that bar cabinets have made a celebrated return. Etro’s new offering, the ‘Rajan’, is equipped with bronze glass and lined in a champagne paisley print (naturally). It forms one of the elements of the brand’s ‘Intimate Dining' collection on display at its Via Pontaccio store, where it is joined by its new ‘Klee’ round dining table, complete with a dinner-party friendly lazy Susan; the suitably sumptuous ‘Kush’ armchair, which is studded in gold; and the ‘McKenzie’ glass lamps, which drop like jewels from the ceiling.

Missoni

Missoni had a three-fold presence across the city. Its Via Sant’Andrea boutique hosted its Virgila Soft loungers and circular Art Glass tables. On display at its Brera HQ was its new collection of Miss Wood chairs - rounded wooden sculptures which have been polished and painted in degrade pastel hues so to appear almost plastic in their structure - and its new Grandma armchair suite featuring curved Walnut arms and upholstered in five variants of its famed zigzag textile. But it was at the Universita Statale di Milano where the world of Missoni Home came to life: modular outdoor sofas and square poufs covered in its water-repellent Andalusia stripe stood in the shadow of a huge Missoni vase covered in an intricate mosaic by the famed Venetian furnace Orsoni Venezia 1888. Creative Director Rosita Missoni, who turns 90 in November, told Wallpaper* that it was a joy to be designing items that allow people to enjoy being outdoors, something she has personally relished since the start of the pandemic.

Sunnei

Milan-based Sunnei partnered with its fellow Milanese brand and long-term collaborators NM3 on an installation outside its Via Vela flagship to celebrate the Super Salone. The cuboid metallic seating structure features a maple tree in the centre and was designed to bring the inside out, creating a tranquil oasis in the heart of Milan’s urban centre – in signature low-key-chic Sunnei style. The design duo behind the brand, Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo, used the occasion as an opportunity to spruce up their collection space too, where they presented their autumn/winter 2021 collection, AKA the uniform of Milan’s design-centric cool crowd.

Roberto Cavalli

Taking its leave from its new designer Fausto Puglisi’s first menswear collection for the house in June, the Roberto Cavalli Home collection on display at its Via Montenapoleone flagship was all about optimum glam (before arriving at the house, Puglisi was famed for dressing Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, so no surprise there). The result was two threads: the new Wild Dining and the Wild Suite. Brushed bronze tables, brass chandeliers and a bookshelf panelled in Wild Tiger fabric were met with animal-print bed linen, silk pillow cases and black leather bed frames, while the home office gets a suitably decadent update with a jewel-handled gold desk. 

Berluti

Berluti enlisted the talents of Spanish furniture designer Jorge Penadés to repurpose leather offcuts from its ready-to-wear collections to create three pieces of furniture that were unveiled in its new Montenapoleone flagship. After gathering a mound of multicoloured pieces, Penadés created what he has coined “Structural Skin”; it’s a wood-like structure that saw him compress the leather with natural glue in a bespoke mould and leave them to dry for weeks before cutting and sanding them down. Taking on a rock-like appearance similar to that of agate, his creation has formed the legs for a glass and steel table, the base of a table lamp, and keyring cords. Plans are to produce them in a numbered and limited-edition series, with only five of each available.

Bulgari Magnifica is a new collection of high jewellery and watches that sees the brand pay tribute to Milan. The city, hard hit by the pandemic, was the stage for the collection’s flamboyant launch at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which opened with an emotive performance from Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

The Bulgari Magnifica collection is defined by a bold joie de vivre, its 350 pieces cast in vivid hues and drawing oversized silhouettes. Seductive motifs and an abundance of precious gems make for irresistible high jewellery. In one piece, a large cabochon-cut emerald is caught in the jaws of a diamond-studded snake; the world’s fourth largest spinel takes centre stage in another, from which flows a waterfall of diamond and emerald beads.

Despite the weight of the gems, the high jewellery is lightly fluid thanks to careful craftsmanship that puts the focus on wearability. Diamond petals and sapphires, teased into flexible loops, comfortably curve around the neck and rest on the collarbone. Other pieces take on changing identities and offer multiple options in terms of how to wear them – a ruby and diamond necklace can become nine different pieces, as a result of its articulated and detachable structure.

The colourful threads that run throughout the collection pay tribute to the Baroque traditions we frequently see at Bulgari, the dynamism of the movement translated into spirals of rubies, emeralds and sapphires that make for hypnotising necklaces, bracelets and rings.

It is a colourful combination carried through to the timepieces in the Bulgari Magnifica collection, which place a diamond-encrusted dial in the heart of similarly hypnotic coils. In one, rubies and diamonds encircle the dial, itself is concealed beneath an antique cushion-cut Mozambique ruby. In a diamond bracelet watch, meanwhile, the clarity of the stones becomes a waterfall of diamonds, juxtaposed against shimmering mother-of-pearl inserts.

Bulgari will be exploring the sensory allure of its most iconic motif, the Serpenti, in an experience at Harrods, London, which will run throughout July.

INFORMATION

Bulgari will host the Serpenti Maestria Pop-Up at Harrods, London, 4-30 July 2021.

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Mary Katrantzou is the latest designer to rethink Bulgari’s sensual Serpenti Forever collection. The Greek-born, London-based fashion designer, celebrated for her colourful profusion of prints, brings her joyful design aesthetic to the Serpenti Metamorphosis bag, the Serpenti Metamorphosis Handle bag and the Serpenti Metamorphosis minaudière.

‘I wanted to be able to highlight Serpenti as a symbol of transformation, healing and rebirth,’ says Katrantzou. ‘The idea of metamorphosis is so relevant to this moment in time, as we all go through our own process of transformation. I wanted to create a narrative of optimism and spiritual growth and highlight the symbolic nature of Serpenti that dates back to Ancient Greek and Roman mythology. I was fortunate to be able to visit their historical archives in Rome just before the lockdown and seeing the incredible craftsmanship of their 1960s Serpenti pieces became the starting point to the collection.’

The archives proved fruitful for Katrantzou who, inspired by the Serpenti watches dating from the 1960s, reinterpreted the snake’s head as a minaudière in a first for Bulgari. ‘I wanted to explore this motif in a completely different scale and create a direct link between the world of watches and that of accessories,’ Katrantzou adds. ‘We wanted to respect the original, even down to the mechanism of the minaudière which opens by pressing the snake’s tongue. The collection also highlights the Serpenti body and its movement through the creation of a Serpenti bag handle, also a first for Bulgari bags.’

The Serpenti Metamorphosis Handle mimics the fluidity of a Bulgari necklace in its looping coils designed to hug the body. ‘It visually communicates the story of metamorphosis through the creation of a unique artwork that is precision engineered on the bag. It shows the Serpenti transform gradually into a spiral of butterflies and gave me the opportunity to showcase the couture craftsmanship that is synonymous to Bulgari.’

For Bulgari managing director for accessories Mireia Lopez Montoya, the partnership is a natural one; Katrantzou’s penchant for bold design and vibrant colour aligning with that of the Roman jeweller.

‘The collection is the ultimate expression of Bulgari’s "larger than life" motto,’ she says. ‘From the start we found a great affinity with Mary, a very natural feeling that connected us. Mary has an extremely joyful, curious and detail-oriented personality, which was clear from the first moment she set foot in our historical archive to seek inspiration for this collection. The possibility of reinterpreting the Serpenti sign has given each designer involved the possibility of building on the past but with a new, contemporary vision.’ §

INFORMATION

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Bulgari perfumer Alberto Morillas is standing on top of an alpine glacier in an elegant suit discussing the brand’s latest fragrance launch Bulgari Man Glacial Essence.

Unlikely as it may sound, this is no dream. It’s a VR experience the brand Italian jewellery and fragrance house has created to celebrate its latest men’s fragrance, a heady scent of cederwoods and musks sharpened by piquant notes of juniper berry and ginger. 

Owners of the Oculus VR headset can download the experience on Bulgari’s website and, within a matter of minutes, virtually transport themselves to a snowy mountain where, after a treacherous climb up an icy peak, they can break open a glacier to discover a bottle of the Bulgari scent. 

Even before in-store shopping ground to a halt, VR and AR technologies like Bulgari’s latest venture were predicted to be an increasingly popular feature of beauty products and marketing campaigns. Gadgets like personalised oral and skincare cleansers, video chat beauty consultations, or magic mirrors that allow you to test products without physically touching anything, have steadily lost their novelty over months of lockdown as people adapt to shopping for products and receiving treatments primarily from home. 

Translating the intangible experience of wearing fragrance into digital mediums has required brands and retailers to become even more creative. Bulgari’s mountain-scaling VR adventure is one example of how brands can create an immersive, visual expression of a scent’s unique atmosphere, while other technologies like Puig’s Al.lice allow consumers to explore a scent’s profile without physically touching the bottle.

Perhaps the most innovative application of digital technology to fragrance is IBM's new AI system Philyra. Recognising the power scent has in informing our everyday experiences- from the food we eat to the people we're attracted to- IBM's Philyra uses AI to create entirely new fragrance combinations and, consequently, new sensory pathways.

In the words of IBM, Philyra 'is a system that uses new and advanced machine learning algorithms to sift through hundreds of thousands of formulas and thousands of raw materials, helping identify patterns and novel combinations.' 

The next few years will no doubt see unparalleled advances in AI and VR fragrance technology. How exactly those advances will play out and how fragrance brands will continue to adapt to our increasingly digital world is yet to be seen but, in the meantime, sit on your couch and experience the bracingly fresh air of Alpine peaks.

INFORMATION
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Consisting of 92 marble Greek and Roman works, the heavily-anticipated The Torlonia Marbles. Collecting Masterpieces exhibition has opened to the public. The pieces were selected from the 620 works in the private and extensive Torlonia collection spanning two centuries, and are now returned to full splendour with a restoration sponsored by Bulgari and carried out by Fondazione Torlonia.

The exhibition, also sponsored by Bulgari and designed by David Chipperfield Architects Milano led by Giuseppe Zampieri – partner and design Director, is organised into five chapters which show both the evolution of the collection over time and place the sculptures in their historical context. The chapters tell a story, conjuring historical Museo Torlonia for the viewer then leading her to the sculptures from the archaeological excavations carried out in the nineteenth century in the Torlonia’s family property. From there, she will view the marbles from eighteenth century collections kept at Villa Albani followed by artefacts from the collection of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani, before finishing with a series of works from fifteenth and sixteenth century collections.

The staging is inspired by the 1885 catalogue of the Collezione Torlonia, early photographs from which portrayed the sculptures against a black background. Here this dramatic set is translated into a three-dimensional display of flooring and plinths, made from traditional bricks of dark grey clay which reference the foundations in blocks of cappellaccio in the buildings of ancient Rome. As a result, the statues appear to be almost emerging from the floor, held in sharp relief against contrasting pastel walls.The plinths, rising to different heights, are both architectural structures in their own right and foundations for the statues, effectively conveying the differing dimensions of each piece.

Each chapter of the story is defined by its own colour hues, making for a compelling storytelling. ‘As architects, it is a privilege to work with these sculptures of timeless beauty and to be tasked with developing spaces for them within the historic Villa Caffarelli,’ says David Chipperfield. ‘We feel a great responsibility to ensure that we are providing the ideal setting in which the public can encounter the sculptures as remarkable individual artworks, each with unique characteristics and history, while also allowing them to be seen as part of an almost mythical collection accumulated over centuries.’

For Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, this cultural patronage offers another chance to enhance Rome’s archaeological riches. ‘The main significance of this exhibition is in sharing beauty: for the first time ever these 92 masterpieces of Greek and Roman art are unveiled to the general public,’ he says. ‘When we first got in touch with the Torlonia Foundation we understood the immense beauty of these marbles, and an enthusiastic drive for enhancing them immediately arose.’ With their role, Bulgari aim to preserve the Roman artistic heritage, handing it intact to future generations. ‘Our commitment is a way to give something back to a city we owe so much, whose treasures have indelibly forged our sense of beauty,’ Babin adds. ‘Private companies constitute the economic and social structure of a country and they must do their part for cultural growth, as much as possible.’

INFORMATION

The Torlonia Marbles. Collecting Masterpieces exhibition, until 29 June 2021

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Creative director of Ambush, Yoon Ahn, is the latest designer to reinterpret Bulgari’s iconic Serpenti handbag and accessories collection.

The Tokyo-based designer brings neon brights and a contemporary edge to the Ambush x Bulgari collection. The Serpenti Forever bag is reborn as a shoulder bag, belt bag and as the heart-shaped Serpenti Minaudiere, which all keep the Serpenti motif firmly at the heart of their design. ‘History is essential because it's the root and story of the house,’ says Ahn. ‘When you work with a heritage house, it's important to remember that while the ‘design' embodies the spirit, it must reflect the time and the context. Bulgari was very open to seeing how I could re-interpret the Serpenti heritage line, and I took it to a place where they have never been before.’

The sensual lines of the snake are still there, its coils now the outline of the Serpenti shoulder bag or in the heart shape of the Minaudiere, which nods to the natural position snakes assume in the wild. ‘It was essential to express the beauty of snakes and capture it in a more approachable and lively way. Bags have been padded to mimic the fluidity of their bodies,’ Ahn explains. ‘The Serpenti head wrapped in the same leather blends with the body, so it looks like one full animal. I haven’t seen this in Bulgari’s designs previously.’ Ahn, also Dior Men’s director of jewellery, adds an opulent edge to the functional. The snake’s head acts as the closure of the bag and comes complete with reptilian eyes in mother-of-pearl or black onyx; thickly interwoven metallic chains pay homage to both Bulgari and Ahn’s jewellers’ DNA while adding a toughness to buttersoft Nappa leather.

Ahn’s modern take may rethink a classic symbol, but ultimately, the juxtaposition of cultures and aesthetics is an organic one. ‘My approach to design is instinctive, and always from the dual perspective of a creator and a user. I kept it honest,’ she says.

INFORMATION

Bags are available to pre-order from 11 August and will be in store from 3 September

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Bulgari has announced the growth of its hotel franchise with a new opening in Rome, in a significant homecoming for the Rome-based Maison.

To tie in with the hotel’s anticipated 2022 opening, Bulgari has created the Ospitalità Italiana necklace, which snakes familiar design references throughout its white gold coils. The tubogas choker, succinctly uniting Bulgari’s rich jewellery history with its newer forays into the hotel industry, is studded with gems, each one symbolising one of the ten Bulgari hotels set to be open by 2023.

For brand president and CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, the gems on this one-of-a-kind piece are weighted in significance. ‘We chose an extraordinary purple diamond for Rome, a nod to the signature colour of the Roman Empire,’ he says. Other stones, too, are rich in historicity: ‘There is a yellow diamond for Milan, to celebrate the main tone of the Sforza coat of arms and a white diamond for Moscow, honouring the preferred gem of Russian imperial families. The design and the boldness of the Bulgari Maison is what led us to imagine such a peculiar jewel.’

It is a bold tribute to the symbolism inherent in the Roman hotel opening, which, once again, has Italian architectural firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Vie at the helm. The building, located in the central Piazza Augusto Imperatore, is steeped in heritage. Originally completed in 1938 and designed by architect Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo, it takes its cues from the necklace by interweaving historical threads throughout its design. Traditional Roman materials including Travertine marble and burnt red brick – as well as Antonio Barrera’s beautiful frescos – soften its striking rationalist architecture.

INFORMATION

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The idea of transforming every day, found objects into something a little more precious is common enough in watch and jewellery design. Take the Panerai dials that descend directly from machine gauges the company made for the Italian Navy, or Cartier’s Juste un Clou – a design directly descended from the common, household nail. But for sheer surprise value, Bulgari’s Tubogas takes the crown.

Quite literally derived from a flexible covering designed to protect gas pipes, Bulgari adopted the idea from a technique that had gained traction with jewellers in the 1940s, returning to it more wholeheartedly in the early 1970s. Today, Tubogas is an integral element of Bulgari’s design identity.

The springy bands that define the Tubogas style are created by wrapping profiled strips of gold (and sometimes steel) around a wooden form so that the edges interlock in a continuous, unsoldered curve, with the result being that the design is both incredibly flexible and strong. It’s a technically demanding operation that requires a jeweller’s complete control over the temperature, particularly when more than one metal is involved.

The Tubogas concept quickly proved to be as flexible and adaptable as the name implied, with Bulgari’s jeweller-technicians creating suites of bracelets, chokers, cuffs and collars, frequently using different coloured metals and contrasting the modernity of the form with ancient coins and intaglios.

But as a wristwatch, in the open-coil style that determines the better-known Bulgari Serpenti, the Tubogas retains its early avant-garde nature, with designs featuring contrasting finishes that capture the spirit of the times in which they were made, and others that allow the watch head to take precedence.

The Bulgari Tubogas, then, is the perfect mix of distinctive design and artisanal skill, entirely in keeping with a design culture that seemed never to acknowledge a division between the beautiful and the practical.

INFORMATION

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Nicola Bulgari's passion for coin collecting in the 1960s saw ancient coins enter the Roman jeweller's design canon, becoming the definitive Monete collection. Now, a host of independent designers is interpreting historical currency with contemporary flourishes, adding pearls, coloured gemstones and carefully-considered chain designs. Here is our pick of some of the best.

Bulgari

The practice of mounting coins as jewels known as ‘Gemme Numari' - or coin gems - is rooted in ancient Rome. Its relevance in the design canon throughout time has waxed and waned, but in the Thirties, as new caches of antique coins came into the market, Roman goldsmiths revived the trend of using ancient coinage as precious elements, satisfying new interests in ancient cultures. By the Sixties, Bulgari, highlighting its Greek beginnings, began to develop a distinctively new style of gemme numari. Its Monete and Tubogas collections incorporated bronze, gold, silver and electrum coins from the ancient Mediterranean world into the rich, gold chain designs that had become definitely Bulgari. ‘The common denominator for the jewels adorned with coins  was the play of contrast: between the warm, matt finish of the antique coin and the smooth, polished shine of its surrounding setting; the colour contrasts between the metal of the coin and that of the gold or steel mount, and, of course, the contrast between ancient and modern,' says Amanda Triossi, author of Bulgari: 125 Years of Italian Magnificence (Skira, 2010). – Caragh McKay

Hermina Athens

Konstantina Pantelous was inspired by ancient Greek mythology for her jewellery brand Hermina Athens, where she takes traditional concepts and twists them, pairing gold-plated coins with her signature chain designs. Here, coins reference their rich history as decorative adornments, albeit with an off-kilter edge as they dangle from pink silk yarn, loops of pearls or bright beads of coral or crystal. Metal links in contrasting colours are generously proportioned; wallflowers need not apply for Hermina’s fun take on the trend.

Eli Halili

Eli Halili’s preoccupation with uniting the old and the new can be traced back to a childhood spent in Israel; the love of archaeology it ignited is something he has since integrated into his jewellery. Objects gain new subtexts with the passing of time, and Halili here imbues an old coin, its value almost obscured by a rich patina, with a new secondary value. A circle of 22 carat gold brilliantly unites the ancient Byzantine Empire coin with its original pecuniary purpose.

HHD Henry Dakak Jr

Lebanese designer Henry Dakak Jr’s background as an art historian informs his jewels. Since launching his label HHD Henry Dakak Jr in 2016, he has been inspired by Bulgari and drawn on ancient historical artefacts for inspiration and, as such, infuses each piece with a weighty character. ‘I buy coins from different countries and different epochs, sometimes at auction sales or from connoisseurs, and I have a large collection,’ he says. He experiments with ways in which to incorporate Roman coins into his pieces, frequently pairing them with a vivid 21 carat yellow gold to accentuate their tarnished state, without dismissing their historicity.

Bina Goenka

Bina Goenka's exceptional high jewellery marries ancient techniques with precious raw materials to create miniature works of art. Her pieces are one-of-a-kind, and so there is a sly humour in her decision to celebrate one of the twentieth century’s most minted coins, the 50 pesos piece. Cast in 18 carat gold, the common coin is juxtaposed against heavy links of gold and over six carats of white diamonds.

Dubini

Italian-born and London-based designer, Benedetta Dubini, has translated these ancient capitalist constructs into symbols of femininity by marrying them with rose, white or yellow gold. ‘Each piece is unique,’ says Dubini, ‘therefore my work on pairing them depends on the texture of the individual piece and what accentuates its characteristics.’ Sourcing her coins through accredited numismatic dealers and from auctions around the world, the coins she chooses in gold, silver or bronze come in a range of patinas - particularly bronze, which can be green, blue or brownish in colour. Coins, when worn around the neck and studded in brightly coloured studded gems, or swaying from earlobes with tassles of joyful green agate, become imbued with a wholly new functionality.

Soru Jewellery

Half-sisters Francesca Kelly and Marianna Doyle’s Sicilian heritage is evident in Soru Jewellery's designs, which weave together Italian cultural and creative influences. This undated medallion, handmade in Italy, uses gold-plated silver for a playful way into the trend. Featuring the patron saint of the environment, Saint Francesca Assisi, it makes for a timely tribute.

INFORMATION

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When hunting down a particular heritage jewel – be it a Forties Serpenti watch or a Roman coin-set Monete piece from the Sixties – Bulgari’s brand heritage department casts a global eye in the hope of acquiring ‘lost’ pieces to add to the house archives. From placing advertisements in local newspapers, in the hope of alerting former owners, to scouring auction-house catalogues in search of its own historical pieces, its quest is a constantly evolving puzzle.

It was in such a way that, last November, the Bulgari heritage department tracked down a much-coveted sautoir that famously festooned a headscarf worn by Veruschka for a Vogue photoshoot in 1970. The piece – set with Bulgari’s distinctive cabochon-cut coloured gemstones, including rubies, amethyst, topaz and turquoise, and featuring a huge heart-shaped emerald at its center, was acquired from a private collection.

It is just one of the rare 170 pieces on show at ‘Bulgari, the story, the dream’, an exhibition in the jeweller’s home city of Rome. Spread over both the Polo Museale del Lazio’s Castel Sant’Angelo and Palazzo Venezia, it is a grand celebration of Bulgari’s 135-year design heritage.

Adding a dual layer to this historical journey is a selection of vintage designer haute couture from the private vault of collector Cecilia Matteuicci Lavarini. Displayed on mannequins, it charts the sartorial styles that evolved, decade by decade, as Bulgari’s reputation flourished. These include pieces by Jeanne Lanvin, Cristóbel Balenciaga, John Galliano for Christian Dior and Alexander McQueen.

Bulgari’s home may be fashionable Rome, but its roots are Grecian. Sotirio Voulgaris – his surname translates as Bulgarian, hence the Greek ‘v’ in the Bvlgari brand name – left Paramythia in 1880 for Corfu then Naples and finally arrived in Rome in 1884, where he established his first boutique selling exquisitely crafted silver artefacts in Piazza dei Martiri.

Over time his ‘Old Curiosity Shop’ evolved into a jewellery-specific space, a focus pioneered by Voulgaris’ son, Giorgio, who journeyed to the Place Vendôme in Paris in the early 1900s, and became an expert gem buyer. His knowledge of jewels meant that the family business could start creating jewellery designs of their own, at first following in the French fine- jewellery tradition.

Post War, the house had begun to forged an Italian high jewellery style, focused around gold designs, stones having been hard to acquire during war time. That metal driven take naturally seamed into Italy's 1950s industrial design boom and the 1960s influx of Hollywood stars who came to Rome to film at Cinecittà Studios. Indeed, archival imagery, photography and film are an engaging addition to the exhibition. But it is the rare jewels and objects from Bulgari’s design archive that really fascinate.

They distinctly chart the aesthetic evolution of the house, from its introduction of bold coloured gemstones and the cabochon – dome-shaped – cut in its Sixties heyday, to its commercial explosion in the United States in the 1970s and consequent amalgamation of American iconography into its designs. Bulgari’s exploration of unusual materials with precious varieties, such as steel, porcelain and cord, also point to the Arte Povera influence and the house’s own mid-century point of view.

At Castel Sant’Angelo, the exhibition focuses on Bulgari’s history between the Sixties and the Nineties. Tremblant brooches quivering with petals, lifelike Serpenti watches and Monete pieces set with Ancient coins are all on view. The show also revels in Bulgari’s role within Rome’s Le Dolce Vita period, featuring pieces owned by its greatest movie-star patron, Elizabeth Taylor.

In her book ‘My Life in Jewelry,’ Taylor wrote, ‘Undeniably, one of the biggest advantages to working on Cleopatra in Rome was Bulgari’s nice, little shop’. When her jewellery collection was auctioned at Christie’s in 2011, Bulgari’s Brand Heritage Department bought back seven pieces for their archive, including the famed diamond and emerald necklace given to Taylor by Richard Burton in 1964 as a wedding gift. It amalgamated a brooch he’d bestowed to her two years before, as a removable pendant.

As the show comes to a close, the resplendent Veruschka-worn sautoir comes into full view. It is displayed not only as an emblem of Bulgari’s constantly evolving design approach, but of the Bulgari brand heritage department’s determination to hunt for the next piece in its grand historical jigsaw.

INFORMATION
‘Bulgari, the story, the dream’ is on view until 3 November 2019
bulgari.com
polomusealelazio.beniculturali.it

ADDRESS

Castel Sant'Angelo
Lungotevere Castello, 50, 00193 Roma

Palazzo Venezia
Piazza di S. Marco, 49, 00186 Roma

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It’s easy during the seasonal fashion week shows, to feel utterly disconnected from nature, shuttled from show space to show space in enclosed cars, glimpsing esteemed cultural sites, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Duomo in Milan through a small window. But last night, guests at Mary Katrantzou’s S/S 2020 show took in the startlingly azure blue hues of the Aegean Sea from 200 ft above sea level, perched amongst the 16 Doric columns that form the Temple of Poseidon, which since 444 BC has stood majestically on top of Cape Sounion, in Greece.

Here, instead of women in ancient togas, making offerings to Poseidon’s tempestuous trident, and his power to stir up storms and shatter fleets of ships, models walked beneath the temple’s colonnades in astonishingly imaginative and painstakingly crafted creations, barely fit for mere mortals. Greece born Katrantzou is the first designer to have access to the sacred space – one of the landmark monuments of the Golden Age of Athens – a period which also heralded democracy, the Western philosophy of Socrates and the dramatic poetry of Sophocles. Katrantzou’s moment of modern magnificence celebrated her home city, and also in a nod to the possibility of the future, the 30th anniversary of Elpida Association of Friends of Children with Cancer. 

Pieces had a couture-level of craftsmanship, which referenced Athens’ Golden Age. A caped dress was hand beaded with lines of numbers, in an allusion to Archimedes’ Pi, a delicately fringed gown was embellished with Aristotle’s tenet ‘Everything happens for a reason’, and dresses were festooned with beaded constellations of the night sky, fantasy world maps, ruffled fronds of silk, 3D florals and swirls of feathers. Delphic pleats cascaded across shoulders, and silhouettes came in straight columns, as layered lampshades or as floating orbs.

During her creative process, Katrantzou learnt that Sotirios Voulgaris, the founder of Bulgari, was born in the Epirus region of Greece, before settling in Rome, and jewellery was provided by its high jewellery and heritage collection. A new piece featured an ancient Greek coin, a reference to the house’s Monete collection.

During Athen’s Golden Age, Plato’s philosophical tenets took the form of written dialogues or speeches, theatrical performances played out over the course of eight hours and  the unknown architect behind The Temple of Poseidon defined classical architecture using the Doric order. Katrantzou’s own Midas Touch interpreted ancient culture with ebullient energy,  remarkable craftsmanship and with an utter sense of joy. Never mind 200 ft above the Aegean Sea, she left guests feeling they’d reached the Elysian Fields.

Mary Katrantzou S/S 2020

INFORMATION
marykatrantzou.com

Street style and heritage jewellery houses are perhaps not the most obvious partners. All the more reason for the Roman jewellery house Bulgari to buck the trend. Its latest project is born of a union with wunderkind Alexander Wang, the designer who is the epitome of New York cool.

As part of its ‘Serpenti Through the Eyes Of' series, which debuted in 2017, Bulgari handed the creative reins over to Wang to reinterpret its signature Serpenti motif for a special capsule collection. The resulting Alexander Wang x Bulgari collection centers around a reimagining of the house's ladylike Serpenti Forever bag, which Wang has multiplied into six different styles.

Ranging from a belt bag with two serpent closures, detachable straps and a detachable handle, to a double flap and triple flap handbag (each layer also emblazoned with the serpent's head) that also feature additional interior pockets for practical purposes, Wang's riffs on the renowned design elevate the allure of original design while imbuing them with a youthful versatility.

‘In my research into the archives, I was drawn to the Bulgari Serpenti head, made in the 1960s, which has a true timelessness to it,' Wang explains. ‘Bulgari was then able to replicate that specific design and we applied it as the focal hardware in the capsule.'

Although available in a range of sizes, materials and colours, such as calf leather in mint green, black and white, a natural python skin and a glossy lizard, the endeavor doesn't stop there. Wang also liked the idea of turning luxury packaging tropes, such as dust bags and paper shopping bags and watch boxes, into accessories in their own right. From structured shopping totes and box-like minaudieres with a matching wrist cuff, to the rebellious Two-in-One satchel, which fuses a leather satchel handbag with a drawstring dustbag exterior, these pieces make a compelling, tongue-in-cheek statement. 

‘I wanted to approach this collaboration a bit differently than the rest, and focus on the notion of packaging as luxury – taking key elements of the purchase ceremony and highlighting them in a way only a heritage house such as Bulgari can,' says Wang. ‘[It was about] looking at all of the external elements that comes with the luxury shopping experience.'

The collaboration with Wang adds a new chapter to Bulgari's already close relationship with New York. The Italian jeweller opened its first retail outpost in the city in 1971, at the Pierre Hotel near Central Park. Its jewelled blue and red gemstone-swathed ‘Stars and Stripes' collection was designed a year later to commemorate the United States Bicentennial. In 2017, the house launched another New York collection in celebration of its re-opened Fifth Avenue flagship, dazzling with coral, lapis lazuli and antique American coins.

Bulgari's accessories managing director Mireia Lopez Montoya concludes, ‘Daringness is something we love in Alex's designs and that is part of Bulgari's approach to creativity. But what really struck us was that despite his own, extremely contemporary viewpoint, Alexander paid particular attention to the history of the brand, going through our historical archive. From the very beginning, he had a very clear vision of what he wanted to do. His ability to create a virtual bridge between this new collection and the historical design codes of the house is what makes this such an exciting partnership.'

INFORMATION

bulgari.com

‘In the Planetarium of Milan, the geometry of the constellations meets that of the spider web and the cosmic web,’ artist Tomás Saraceno explains. True to his signature, the Argentine-born, Berlin-based artist is weaving science, technology, design and philosophy into his work. His latest commission, The Cosmic Web, is part of a double display put on by Bulgari, which is back at Milan Design Week following a successful debut last year. A second installation also celebrates the evolution of Bulgari's renowned B.zero1 ring.

Saraceno’s intricate web draws long queues from the word go, with Fuorisalone-goers lining up outside the Ulrico Hoepli Municipal Planetarium. Once within the dark space, the suspended spiderwebs come into sharp focus. The golden webs – built by two different species of arachnids; Nephila Senegalensis and Cyrtophora Citricola – seem perfectly at home with the systems of galaxies projected onto the walls.

If that weren’t enough, the sound effects are equally mesmerising. Devices developed by Saraceno’s studio translate the activity on the web into sounds audible to the human ear, reverberating in the air like gravitational waves. Beyond becoming a soundtrack, it is an invitation says the 2018 Wallpaper* Guest Editor, ‘to rethink the system of reciprocity that binds us and overcome the boundaries of our perceptive universes.’

Back in the gardens surrounding the Planetarium, Bulgari has set up a second installation, exploring the duality of the materials and techniques the Roman maison has become synonymous with. Curated by Silvia Schwarzer, Bulgari interior design director and her team, the space is a journey through a series of rooms. Each is brighter than the last, and all reference different stages in the evolution of the B.zero1 ring, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

As informative as it is immersive, the installation closes with an intimate theatre space, created to host a series of lectures and performances on subjects as diverse as music and science, design and sustainability throughout the week. §

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Bulgari website and the Studio Tomás Saraceno website

All watchmaking’s Grands Maisons have one, or more if they’re lucky, defining designs, these are the watches that you recognise before you see the brand, that are strong enough to shape a brand’s future. Think Panerai’s Luminor, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso or TAG Heuer’s Monaco: all generate instant recognition and demand decades on from their debut. It’s very rare, however, to see one emerge in real time, but that’s been happening at Bulgari twice over as the latest Octo Finissimo and Serpenti models shown at Baselworld reveal.

Fabrizio Bounamassa, head of design for Bulgari’s watch division won’t say it out loud, but five years on from the first Finissimo it’s clear that the design has the longevity to do the same for Bulgari as the Royal Oak did for Audemars Piguet. It’s also a masterclass in how to finesse the surface detail. Aside from breaking another record for slimness, the Chronograph GMT is one of the most usable time zone watches around, but most impressive is the way the dial remains uncluttered despite the extra functions.

The Serpenti descends from the already iconic Tubogas of the 1940’s but has its own distinct character. The 2019 Seduttori version shows just how versatile the design is.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Bulgari website

Moscow’s Kremlin Museum is currently glittering with the heady Italian glamour of Bulgari, as it hosts a vast retrospective of over 500 historic jewels that reveal how the Roman jeweller has remained at its peak through decades of creativity. For all the sheer style on view, the clunky title of the exhibition – ‘Tribute to Femininity’ – can be somewhat forgiven, happily eclipsed by the powerful designs on show. They chart the development of one of the great Italian design houses and its signature of combining candy hued gemstones, rich goldwork and Italian bravura in bold, avant-garde jewels that are unmistakably Bulgari.

The Italian jeweller has always mined the history of its native city for design inspiration. Since the 1940s, the Serpenti – a protective talisman in Ancient Rome – has been its slinky house motif. It started with the Tubogas bracelet, a smooth, weighty coil of gold technically informed by industrial gas pipes, which still forms Bulgari chokers, bracelets and watches today. Later, the snake would take on a more figurative form, acquiring smoothly overlapping scales in bold enamels and semi-precious stones, and a miniature enamel forked tongue.

By the 1960s the house was at its exuberant best – the rise of Cinecittà Studios gave Rome the nickname ‘Hollywood on the Tiber’. The jet set was keen to experiment with vibrant colours and increasing volumes, which Bulgari realised with steep, cabochon-cut stones and a revelatory disregard for intrinsic value. Brazilian socialite Carmen Mayrink Veiga’s 1967 gold necklace set with juicy cabochon sapphires, emeralds, rubies and diamonds in floral clusters, for instance, is brilliantly psychedelic.

Bulgari’s best-known patrons are also well-represented: on display is a strikingly geometric platinum sautoir from 1969, gifted to Elizabeth Taylor by Richard Burton for her 40th birthday, in 1972. The pendant, which can be detached and worn as a brooch, is mounted with a 65-ct Burmese sapphire, carefully fashioned into a towering sugar-loaf cabochon; the chain is made up of hexagons and rhomboids, set with smaller sapphires and pavé diamonds. It gestures towards the direction that the house would take in the 1970s, with an emphasis on flowing, hippy-like sautoirs and collet-set stones. It marks an exceptionally experimental era for the maison, which this year’s Wild Pop high jewellery collection has joyously revived.

INFORMATION
‘Bulgari. Tribute to Femininity’ is on view until 13 January. For more information, visit the Kremlin Museum website

ADDRESS

The Moscow Kremlin State Historical and Cultural Museum and Heritage Site
103132 Moscow, Kremlin
Russia

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Having launched properties in Beijing and Dubai over the past year, Bulgari Hotels & Resorts is certainly on a roll with the opening of its sixth location, this time sited within the Suhe Creek revitalisation project in Shanghai’s Jing’an district. As with all of its hotels, the Italian jewellery brand has managed to create an opulent retreat with Bulgari Hotel Shanghai in the helter-skelter heart of the world’s most populous city. 

Italian firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel – responsible for the entire Bulgari hospitality portfolio – has delivered a gilded 48-storey contemporary monolith with its 82 rooms and suites distributed across the top eight floors, ensuring quintessential Shanghainese panoramas pulling in the Bund, Pudong, and the broad Huangpu River. At the foot of the hotel, entwined within the property’s manicured Italian gardens, sits the neo-classical Shanghai Chamber of Commerce renovated with a light touch by Bulgari to house a glamorous ballroom, the Whiskey Bar, and Bao Li Xuan, a Chinese fine dining restaurant.

The riverside hotel’s signature concept, described by the group’s executive vice president Silvio Ursini as ‘contemporary glamour’, is evident as soon as you’re through the revolving doors. The high-ceilinged lobby projects effortless arthouse cool, with its leather-clad reception desks, shimmering bronze mesh walls, and monochrome photography conjuring Italian cinema’s Dolce Vita era.

The understated aesthetic flows into the guestrooms with white Calacatta marble table-tops floating over a dark oak floor – a monochrome effect warmed by squares of plush fawn carpet and the elegant silk and velvet bedhead panelling, one of several nods to Chinese style. Things get a touch more fabulous in the 400 sqm, double-height Bulgari Suite – the largest hotel suite in the city – which offers acres of Pakistani green onyx panelling alongside skyline views from the roomy jacuzzi. 

But the hotel balances its excesses with engaging subtleties, such as the understated indulgence of the brand’s first Il Cioccolato –  Bulgari’s first on-site artisan chocolate boutique – and touches like the secret door leading to the jewellery salon; an element that combines Shanghai’s clandestine past with its monied present. 

INFORMATION

Website

Rates from £584

ADDRESS

No 33. North Henan Road

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Precision cuts and non-precious metals are the contemporary take on classic styles
‘Ca Cartonne’ cuff in coated aluminium, titanium and diamonds, by Suzanne Syz. ‘Aria Passionata’ brooch in gold, lacquer, rubies, garnets, diamonds and central 22.51ct rhodolite garnet, from the Chaumet est un Fête collection, by Chaumet. ‘Tiare’ earrings in blackened gold, diamonds and rubies, by Reza. ‘Soothing Lotus’ necklace in gold with rough and polished diamonds and central 6ct diamond drop, by De Beers. ‘Piccadilly’ fabric, £100 per m, by Nya Nordiska. Jewellery prices throughout, on request

Beading and lattice work add a sense of lightness to hard materials
Left, ‘High Jewellery’ necklace in white gold with turquoise, emeralds and diamonds, by De Grisogono High Jewellery. ‘Feather 0011’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand. Right, necklace in white gold with diamonds and central 19.79ct Ceylon sapphire, from the Resonances de Cartier collection, by Cartier. ‘Diamond River’ earrings in platinum with diamonds, by Harry Winston. Ring in white gold with diamonds and central 4.29ct fancy vivid yellow diamond, from the Swirl collection, by Graff. ‘Feather 0012’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand

Expert gold techniques add texture to create a beautifully contemporary finish
Left, ‘Blue Shore’ cuff watch in white gold with lapis lazuli dial, from the Sunlight Journey collection, by Piaget. ‘Sailor Tattoo’ cuff in white gold with diamonds, from the Flying Cloud collection, by Chanel Fine Jewellery. ‘Feuille’ brooch in white gold with diamonds, from the Hiver Imperial collection, by Boucheron. ‘Scratch 6787/0001’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand. ‘Kito CS’ fabric £250 per m, by Nya Nordiska. Right, ‘Cachette des Coccinelles’ clip in gold with diamonds, spinels and central 10.17ct Zambian emerald, from the Le Secret collection, by Van Cleef & Arpels. ‘Divissima’ bracelet in pink gold with diamonds, amethysts and rubellites, by Bulgari. ‘Feather 0010’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand. ‘Batumi Uni CS’ fabric, £59 per m, by Nya Nordiska

Metal and stones take on the guise of fine fabrics in intricate mesh and ribbon designs
Left, ‘Les Merveilles Meche’ necklace in white gold with diamonds, rubies, pink sapphires and central 10.06ct white diamond drop, by Boghossian. ‘Feather 0011’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand. Right, ‘Elixir of Youth’ brooch in titanium with diamonds, rubies, sapphires and central 42.39ct jadeite cabochon, by Anna Hu. ‘Bosquet de l’Encelade’ bracelet in gold with rock crystal, diamonds, emeralds, spinels, spessartite and tsavorite garnets, sapphires, Paraiba-type tourmalines, turquoise and central 12.38ct black opal, from the Dior à Versailles Côté Jardins collection, by Dior Haute Joaillerie. ‘Tesori del Mare’ bracelet in white gold and titanium with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, spinels, spessartite and tsavorite garnets, Paraiba tourmalines, and pearls, from the Mediterranea collection, by Giampiero Bodino. ‘Feather 0011’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand

Bulgari Hotels & Resorts could not have picked a better spot for its newly opened Dubai iteration. Set on Jumeira Bay, a man-made seahorse-shaped island, with a scenic tableau of the yacht-speckled Arabian Gulf as well as the city’s dramatic skyline, the hotel is a quiet bolt-hole that seems far from the madding crowd, but is just on the other side of a 300m bridge that is connected to the mainland.

More precisely situated on the south of the island, the 13-hectare property is anchored by the 101-room hotel, a low-slung building that separates two bays: one, a sweeping stretch of white sandy beach lined with 20 villas, and the other, a chichi marina, complete with a string of private residences and the Bulgari Yacht Club – a first for the hotel brand and for Dubai – that is fast becoming the city’s place to see and be seen.

In contrast to Dubai’s ubiquitous skyscraper hotels, the property’s understated low-rise architecture is the work of Milan-based firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, whose white Carrara marble façade is defined by three floors of coral-inspired horizontal layers that filter through the sunlight while subtly nodding to the ornate, latticed details found in traditional Middle Eastern architecture.

Inside – in addition to the almost all Italian catalogue of furnishings from B&B Italia to Felxform, Flos and Maxalto – the luxury quotient is amplified by Iranian green onyx, Shanxi black granite from Mongolia and heavy wild-wool rugs handcrafted in Morocco.

The guest rooms are spacious cocoons that pull in evocative beach or ocean vistas, best enjoyed from your private balcony, the deep-soaking bath tub or perhaps from the spa’s 25m lap pool, which also comprises a Vitality Pool lined with shimmering green and real gold mosaic tiles. But it’s the in-house restaurants that draw the attention – not least Il Ristorante which serves elevated takes on Italian classics from pasta al pesto to veal Milanese, courtesy of Michelin-starred chef Niko Romito.

Up next for Bulgari Hotels & Resorts are Shanghai and Moscow openings, which will round its small portfolio up to just seven properties in 16 years. But as Silvio Ursini, the group’s executive vice president says, location is key. And judging by the Dubai property’s flawless positioning, it does seem good things come to those who wait. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the website

ADDRESS

Jumeira Bay Island
Jumeirah 2

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Bulgari began honing its creative connection to New York in 1971, opening its first New York outpost at the Pierre Hotel. By 1972, it was so smitten by the city’s creative energy that it designed a celebratory ‘Stars and Stripes’ collection. A riot of red and blue stone designs, it was created to commemorate the United States Bicentennial.

Now, to mark the re-opening of its flagship store on Fifth Avenue – reimagined by Peter Marino – it pays homage to the city that never sleeps with a celebratory site-specific jewellery collection. Sparkling with humorous riffs on classic American symbols, it celebrates the spirit of Pop Art, Studio 54 and the geometric splendour of the city's skyline. The graffiti-strewn streets of 1970s Manhattan are also a key influence in the designs.

Bulgari’s bright, bold take on traditional diamond fine jewellery combinations emerged in the late fifties, during Italy’s design-boom years. They upped the glamour factor, adding sizeable, colourful sapphires and emeralds to big-volume forms, such as giant-link gold chains. That approach still resonates today, as the new collection proves. While bold colours, strong lines, twinkling star motifs and even a graffiti-art inspired Bulgari logo speak of a seventies-era Manhattan, the collection also reflects a transatlantic exchange of creativity between Italy and America.

The house’s signature styles, including the ‘Serpenti’ bracelet (a favourite of New York-based editor Diana Vreeland) has been given a stars and stripes makeover. The American Flag also informs a cascading necklace of tanzanite, rubelite and diamonds. A cocktail ring is set with diamond stars and coloured gemstones, and in an abstract interpretation of the Star-Spangled Banner, a thick bracelet is formed from concentric circles of pavé diamonds, lapis and coral. The Roman coin ‘Monete’ designs have been crafted using not only antique Roman and Greek coins, but American money too.

Nicola Bulgari took the helm of Bulgari with his brothers Gianni and Paolo in the sixties. After visiting New York in the 1970s, he split his time between New York and Rome for more than forty years. This collection flies the flag for both his birthplace and his adopted home from home.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Bulgari website

Set in a new development centred on an art foundation by Tadao Ando, the Bulgari rises above the Liangma River in Beijing’s leafy Embassy District and is conceived as an urban resort for this city of 20 million. In keeping with tradition, it was designed by multidisciplinary international design studio, Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, who selected or designed each element for consistency. Uncompromisingly contemporary from without – squint and it’s almost an elongated reimagining of the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana – inside, there are echoes of the flagship Milan hotel.

Based on a contrasting palette and lavish use of travertine, onyx, granite and bronze, the design does include the odd local nod, notably in the landscaping by Enzo Enea, which is inspired by China’s Millennial tradition but overall, reads as an expression of all things Italian. So there are furnishings from Flexform and Flos and food from Niko Romito, the triple-starred owner of Abruzzo’s Reale, who will also be overseeing menus at the forthcoming properties in Dubai and Shanghai. With 119 rooms and suites, including a two-floor spa with 11 treatment rooms and indoor pool, Beijing’s latest luxury retreat brings a taste of northern Italy to northern China. 

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

Building 2
Courtyard No 8 
Xinyuan South Road

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Valenza, a small town within the industrial triangle of Milan, Genoa and Turin, is a bland place with a glittering reputation.

Ever since goldsmith Francesco Caramora set up shop here in 1817, carriages and later armoured trucks filled with ingots have trundled down its streets, and its inhabitants have honed their stone-setting, polishing and engraving skills to elevate Valenza to Italy’s goldsmithing hub.

Bulgari acquired Caramora’s former farmstead 18 months ago and this spring the Roman high jeweler and watchmaker re-opened it as its new jewellery-making facility, the largest in Valenza’s history. For more than 30 years, Bulgari has worked with the region’s craftsmen, but until recently its production was split between Valenza and the nearby town of Solonghello. With the new 14,000 sq m space, Bulgari is able to consolidate its jewellery-making under one roof. ‘We had been contemplating building a new avant-garde manufacture for years and had our eye on Caramora’s farm,’ says CEO Jean-Christophe Babin. ‘We liked it for its history, position and proximity to our historic workshops. We were lucky!’

Bologna-based architects Open Project won the job of creating a fittingly glamorous facility. ‘It couldn’t just be a dull concrete building,’ says practice partner Luca Drago. Administration and hospitality facilities are located in the renovated farmstead, with a new 13m-high ‘glass house’ attached. The workshop is housed in a new three-storey building, featuring an internal courtyard. The structure is surrounded by a perforated ‘metal skin’ that provides natural light while boosting security. ‘To get to the gold, you have to pass through lots of systems and alarms,’ says Drago. ‘You can’t just hit the jackpot. The Italian Job was our main reference,’ he jokes.

Gold ingots, precious metals and gemstones are delivered to the ground floor, where, prior to assembly, they might undergo chemical and thermal treatments. Since employees have to stay on site all day for security reasons, Drago designed the space to be as welcoming as possible. The courtyard encourages everyone to hang out while providing the workshop with light and ventilation.

The jewellery manufacture is a huge boost for Valenza – and for Bulgari. ‘The new building bridges tradition and innovation, and allows us to take Italian craftsmanship to even higher levels,’ says Babin. ‘By 2020, staff will increase to approximately 700, nearly double the number currently employed, and the new facility will enable us to ramp up our internal capabilities by about 40 per cent in the next few years.’

The building also houses the new Bulgari Academy, a school that will train up to 40 people, from new employees to students from other colleges. ‘It will be a gateway to the world of Bulgari jewellery, allowing trainees to approach our specific techniques and ways of working’, says Babin. ‘The magic is that we can teach them in the place where it all began.’

As originally featured in the Precious Index, our new watches and jewellery supplement (see W*218)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Bulgari website

ADDRESS

Strada Pontecurone 78,
15048 Valenza AL,
Italy

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The recent tendency in fine jewellery design has been towards linear minimalism and spare, precious metals. But as the high street has cottoned on, so has the desire for something richer. It’s fitting, then, that the work of the woman who did much to define the opulent jewellery aesthetic of the 1980s is back in the frame.

Marina Bulgari, a scion of the eponymous Roman jewellery house and its one-time co-chief executive, left the family business in 1973 and set up Marina B in 1978. Drawing on her own glittering social network, Marina exhibited in exclusive hotels, from Gstaad to Monte Carlo, growing her elite but global fan base. She sold her business in 1999 and it changed hands a couple of times before her nephew, Giorgio Bulgari, took the helm in 2014. He has spent the past two years reviving the brand and Marina’s classic designs, defined by her signature unexpected colour clashes, elegant way with materials and innovative construction.

Giorgio has now made his first foray into high jewellery with the launch of the unique Oursin (sea urchin) collection, which looks to pick up where Marina left off. ‘Her goal was finding the right proportions to achieve balance,’ says Giorgio. ‘She used springs in place of links in necklaces or bracelets, and devised ways to string pearls and coloured stones together without putting them on a traditional strand.’

She also chose to use blackened gold as a device to accent the diamonds, yellow gold and precious stones in her designs. With Oursin, Giorgio pays tribute by opting for a base metal of blackened aluminium.He has also used moonstones and diamonds in the distinct Marina B teardrop shape.

Taking up the baton and continuing the family tradition, Giorgio is exploring new themes and forms, gaining creative insight in the dazzling archive of more than 10,000 original drawings.Then there is Marina herself, now living in Monte Carlo. ‘We see each other often,’ says Giorgio. ‘We discuss what I am working on and she isn’t shy about saying what’s on her mind which is one of her many virtues and one of the reasons I am so fond of her.

As originally featured in the December 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*213)

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Marina B website

It may be a diminutive jewel but the Bulgari B.Zero1 ring is a distinctly grand design. Launched by the Roman jeweller in 2000, its audacious form was brilliantly informed by the architecture of the Colosseum and cast in gold, often with rich marble accents. This week, it just got a whole lot grander. The latest iteration – the majestically named B.Zero1 Design Legend – was designed in collaboration with the late, great Dame Zaha Hadid.

Marking the architect’s redesign – a sumptuous, spiralling ripple of gold – created in four related variations, Bulgari’s decision to launch it at Design Miami was a pertinent and poignant one. Hadid, of course, loved Miami and the city loved her back. Her presence was felt as she looked down upon the city in the form of a giant portrait attached to the construction site of the One Thousand Museum residential complex, due to be completed by Zaha Hadid Architects in 2018.

To celebrate both the life of Hadid and its proud collaboration with her, Bulgari invited a prestigious group of Design Miami attendees to hear our very own design great, Wallpaper* editor-at-large Suzanne Trocmé, present a compelling rundown of design icons through the ages. Citing inventive minds such as Le Corbusier, Niemeyer, Sottsass, Paulin and Hadid, Trocmé highlighted the exact qualities that qualify as ‘legend’, whether an idea, its realization or the designer themselves.

The original B.Zero1 ring, one of the most celebrated jewellery designs of the noughties, was inventive because the material concerns shaped the design. Bulgari’s signature ‘tubogas’ (gas pipe) constructions allowed gold to be engineered so that it could flex and move. The B.Zero1 reflects the industrial character of its origin, its ‘pipe’-like grooves, whether fashioned in gold, ceramic or marble, encapsulated by two flat rings engraved with the distinct Bulgari logo.

With a nod to that early Bulgari technique, yet true to her distinct vision, Hadid freed the central bands, creating the impression of an oscillating ribbon of gold that appears to float elegantly around the finger. As Trocmé humorously pointed out, in her design of the B.Zero1 Design Legend, Hadid had, in effect, reimagined the Colosseum in miniature, in her typically magnificent style. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Bulgari website and the Zaha Hadid Architects website