Who could have imagined then that it would grow into a powerful jewelry empire of our day? In 1905, an entrepreneurial Greek immigrant bought a boutique in Rome on Condotti Street, calling it the “Old Curiosity Shop” in honor of Dickens's famous novel. This place of strange things, despite the use of the name rather sad, it must be said, a story that was very popular among the English-speaking public at that time, quickly became famous and is still the "heart" of the company.
The main "visiting card" of Bvlgari House was determined at the beginning of the 20th century - gold and silver jewelry with unusually bright and large colored gems for that time. Over the years, the style of jewelry has changed along with the trends of fashion and society: for example, in the 1920s collections were branded in the spirit of the then popular art deco, in the 1930s platinum products with diamonds became famous, and in the military the 1940s abandon a large number of new designs and focus on the release of simpler things from yellow gold with a minimum amount of gems.
After the death of Sotirio in 1932, the company passed to his sons, Giorgio and Constantino, who renamed it Bvlgari, based on the traditional Latin alphabet, where the letter "V" is equivalent to the modern "U". One of his sons, Giorgio, proved to be a talented designer: he liked to encrust jewelry with generous placers of precious stones. It is his jewelry craftsmanship that Bvlgari's so recognizable style belongs to.
The interest of aristocracy, movie stars and other famous people of that time in brand products continued to grow and grow stronger. Over the nearly 130-year history of Bvlgari, it has gone an amazing way from a small jewelry workshop to one of the world's largest manufacturers of luxury goods.
Among the variety of collections and individual Bvlgari models, some had a special influence on the corporate identity of the company. So, in the 1920s the bracelet in the form of a snake was first introduced ... It was he who opened the watch history of the company several decades later, which then turned into a full-fledged Serpenti collection, with necklaces, bracelets and other jewelry.
Many famous beauties, like the biblical Eve, could not resist the "serpentine" magnetism. The yellow reptile flashed an emerald look, wrapping its arms around Elizabeth Taylor’s wrist on the set of the Cleopatra movie, counting the minutes hidden in platinum. Pink, with onyx and diamonds, adorned Sharon Stone at the festival in Venice, and an elegant white snake, shining with diamonds, entangled Mila Jovovich’s hand in three rows - at the Cannes Film Festival. The craftsmanship of jewelers was embodied in numerous original images of these powerful reptiles of a peculiar beauty. Clock "snakes" are presented as simple models of metals, as well as more refined ones - with emeralds, diamonds, sapphires and rubies.
The first hours were equipped with mechanisms of the Swiss manufacture Girard Perregaux, hidden in a golden cunning head, the mouth of which was opened with a secret button. And now, some models hide the dial, successfully disguising the watch as a luxurious bracelet.
A skillful game with noble materials is one of the main components of the Bvlgari concept: the company’s jewelers have always sought to create jewelry that is valuable in artistic terms, not focusing only on the cost of the stones. Although, of course, admirers of these products can always be sure of the high quality of the jewelry.
In the 1960s, representatives of the second generation of the Bulgari family began to actively search and select gems, which were then used to create jewelry. The cabochon technique was often used for processing, which gave the colored stones a special smoothness, allowing them to most clearly show their beauty and brilliance. Thus, in addition to the traditional trio of emerald-ruby-sapphire, rarer (and sometimes less valuable) stones were used, which made the jewelry original and memorable, turning them into real objects of art. The stones were supplemented with diamonds, both stand-alone, and in pave bands.
Such a technique allowed gemstones and diamonds to “open” in full force. The Bulgari brothers played in contrasts, singing the beauty of metal, weaving precious and semiprecious stones into massive structures and emphasizing the high artistry of their works.
The jewelry house with Greek roots departed from the traditions of French classicism, offering its own unique trend in the oriental bright beautiful life and the festival of naked luxury. This tale has no happy ending. It just goes on ...
