Gucci Unveils its High Jewellery Collection in Roman Splendour
Designer Alessandro Michele created the third act of Hortus Deliciarum around his beloved Eternal City and its wonders
Under a strawberry full moon, an international crowd dripping in gems from the three Hortus Deliciarum collections reconvened with post-Covid enthusiasm, in one of Gucci’s most opulent Alessandro Michele-era parties to date. A Willy Wonka of fashion if there ever was one, the Rome-bred designer evolves his whimsical world based on the esoteric symbols, mythology, and ancient scriptures that fuelled his youthfully vivid imagination.
In and around the labyrinth of box shrubs of the estate’s sprawling grounds, a top Gucci client from Oman in a sweeping silk gown wore a diamond tiara fit for a modern princess while another Gucci muse in a celestial blue robe circulated the crowd, accented with a shimmering nose ring that dripped down to her chest.
Known as the largest private collection of ancient art in the world, Villa Albani is home to an exceptional assembly of antiquities owned by Cardinal Alessandro Albani: sarcophagi, busts and Greco-Roman statues make up one of the most prominent collections of Rome’s patrician families, as well as from excavation finds made on the Family’s own estates. In support of the villa’s conservation program, Gucci made a donation towards the restoration of its neoclassical Tempietto Diruto.
Inside the 18th century villa, no cameras were allowed. An ancient Greek relief of Dedalus constructing the ill-fated wings of Icarus and the aged stone face of a serene Roman priestess overlooked some of the world’s largest gems set into necklaces and bracelets fit for an array of emboldened women – ranging from a rock star to a proper monarch.
Designed by Michele and his Milan-based high jewellery team with the help of workshop of goldsmiths and artisans in the Italian jewellery heartland of Valenza, the third Hortus Deliciarum, (Latin for Garden of Delights) has been interpreted through a campaign and film featuring Academy-award-winning actress and film producer Jessica Chastain wearing a Grand Tour bracelet imbedded with a micro mosaic depiction of the Temple of Vesta and a diamond necklace set with a 174 carat emerald.
The collection is fleshed into five themes: the Grand Tour inspired by Rome and its monuments, kaleidoscopic beauty inspired by the Maharajah of India culture, exotic pearls; a more futuristic “New World” theme of mesmerizing geometric designs punctuated with intricate serpent swirls and exaggerated two-finger rectangle cocktail rings; and finally a more modern rock theme achieving a sense of movement through tassels and Michele’s beloved menagerie of animals like the lion, imbuing the gritty and traditional glam.
The collection launches from the idea of the Grand Tour, an opportunity for both escape and learning. Michele revisited unique and antique micro-mosaic pieces, made between 1850 and 1870, with images of Roman landmarks like the Pyramid of Cestius and the Colosseum. Through the materialization of ‘souvenirs in the form of jewellery’, the handwritten pages become a map of memories dreamed and recounted by Michele himself, the brand says.
Michele embeds them into necklaces, bracelets, earrings, brooches, gold pendants holding sparkling peridot, yellow beryl, red and pink spinel, blue topaz, fire opal, pink tourmaline and colorful diamonds accented by whimsical diamond-studded bows that could have easily been borrowed from 17th century France or today.
The second theme of the collection takes up this concept of kaleidoscopic beauty. Held in the pages of the imaginary travelogue, which started in Rome and then journeys as far as the India of the Maharajah, between the magnificence of the eclectic architecture of the royal palaces and lush nature of the gardens, the coloured silks of Mogul attire and the Hieratic atmosphere of the Vedic gods, captivating with red stones of light’: rubellite, imperial topaz, yellow beryl, tourmaline and garnet; stones possessing the magical, hypnotic quality of twilight in significant dimensions.
Under the starry sky, British singer Sam Smith, donning a Hortus Deliciarum necklace in white gold with tourmaline and diamonds over a black lace Gucci top, serenaded the intimate crowd with “Stay with Me” and “Kissing You”, the love theme from Baz Luhrmann’s 1997 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
“I can’t see you, but I can see your beautiful diamonds sparkling everywhere,” the 30-year-old said, addressing the crowd. “Thank you for being here and thank you for the diamonds. I am going to run away with them.”
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