How Bvlgari Eden, The Garden of Wonders High Jewellery Collection Is Paying Homage To Mother Nature’s Bounty
Bazaar Arabia’s Jessica Michault sits down with the house’s creative director, Lucia Silvestri, as she shares the story behind some of the collection’s most fascinating pieces
Bvlgari’s creative director Lucia Silvestri leaves a striking first impression. She is wearing a fitted white suit, tailored to her slender frame, her honey-blonde hair rolls across her shoulders in relaxed waves and her make-up is impeccably done. Tastefully bestrewn with a selection of the house’s jewels, she walks through the rooms of the brand’s flagship store on Place Vendôme in Paris to look over the new Bvlgari Eden, The Garden of Wonders high jewellery line-up.
However, this vision isn’t what lingers in the mind, it’s the words she utters, not to those around her, but to the jewellery as she slowly takes in the full breadth and width of the collection. The pieces are finally all in one place for their grand debut, which will take place with a runway show and gala dinner later that same night. In the store, Lucia spots one of the singular necklaces from the collection and she can’t help but drop into her native Italian to greet it. “Buongiorno,” she says, “I want to wear you tomorrow,” she tells it with a slight gasp in her voice.
Apparently even after working for decades at the house (she started in the gemological department at the age of 18) Lucia is still dazzled by the work of Bvlgari’s renowned craftsman and how they transform her visions into bejewelled reality. In fact, when it comes to what still makes her wonder today, besides the endless beauty that Mother Nature provides, it’s the people she meets and works with that continue to amaze her. “I am still surprised by people, sometimes in a negative way but more often in a positive way. I am an enthusiastic and cheerful person and I usually always see the best in people,” says Lucia.
The best was certainly the order of the day when it came to this new offering from Bvlgari. The 140 piece-plus collection was a long time in the making given that the house decided to focus a large portion of its attention on one particular coloured stone; the emerald. Considering that the maison is known for its love of colourful parure, this is the first time it has been so laser-focused on one gemstone, crafting more than 30 pieces dedicated to this rich green jewel.
“When we work with coloured gems, it is the gems that guide us, and give us direction,” explains Lucia. “We collected all the emeralds you see here over four years and of course, we looked to our archives for inspiration, but we made sure to continue to be daring,” she added.
“We collected all the emeralds you see over four years and, of course, we looked to our archives for inspiration but we made sure to continue to be daring”
Lucia Silvestri
Some of the “rock you back on your heels” designs include the expansive Emerald Glory necklace which features 11 pear-shaped emeralds from Colombia and has a cascade-like design that sees the neckline being enveloped in diamonds. Smartly, this piece is transformable and the emerald aspect of the necklace can be detached from its diamond surroundings to be worn as a standalone necklace or, alternatively, a tiara.
Other emerald-based beauties include The Emerald Venus Necklace, which was inspired by a particular Mediterranean plant named Capelvenere, “Venus’ hair” in Italian, and comes with diamond leaves and emerald berry-like beads that surround a central 19.30 carat octagonal-cut Colombian emerald. And the emerald necklace that closed out the high jewellery runway show at the Italian Embassy in Paris got a round of applause when it appeared. Called the Tribute to Paris necklace, it has an Eiffel Tower-inspired emerald design and 35.53-carat cabochon-cut central emerald. On the runway, it was worn by France’s former first lady, Carla Bruni, to the delight of onlookers.
But while emeralds have the advantage of numbers in the collection, the sapphire creations in the line-up did not slip by unnoticed as they took their turn during the Bvlgari presentation. Even before the gala event, the Mediterranean Reverie platinum necklace with its rare 107.15-carat cushion-cut sapphire from Sri Lanka had its own star turn. Bvlgari’s new brand ambassador Anne Hathaway wore it on the red-carpeted steps of Cannes just days earlier and caused quite a stir on the Croisette.
Then there was the Sapphire Petal necklace in diamonds and sapphires that undulates around the neckline with an over 35-carat cornflower blue cushion-cut sapphire blooming from its centre. And the house’s talisman, the serpent, was transformed into the Serpenti Ocean Treasure necklace, which has the sinuous creature crafted from white diamonds, a 61.30-carat pear-shaped sapphire dangling from its head, designed to sit just above it.
“The Serpenti is an icon for Bvlgari and my challenge, from a design point of view, is to maintain the DNA of the brand but reinterpret it in contemporary ways. It’s a kind of metamorphosis each time, not unlike how a real serpenti evolves, we change the head a little bit or rethink what the body would look like so that each one has its own unique character,” says Lucia. To prove her point she walks from one display case to the next showing off the myriad of different ways Bvlgari has turned the snake into gem-festooned high jewellery pieces. Considering this collection is focused on the Garden of Eden, and the snake plays a key role in that story, it’s interesting to see just how many Serpenti are on hand to tempt buyers.
At the end of the day, for Lucia, there is one thing that all the Bvlgari gems, jewellery and women have in common. “It’s personality,” she reveals. “They all must have personality.”
Lead Image Courtesy Of Bvlgari, Getty Images
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s September 2022 issue