For Bulgari’s heritage collection ‘ Aeterna ,’ creative director Lucia Silvestri found inspiration in the crests of the half-shaded rooftops and monuments of Rome, just as dawn began to break over the city, “when the warm reflections of the early hours of the day show me angles that differ from the ordinary ones,” she writes in its introduction. “The city is reborn and, together with it, my creativity is renewed.” The minds behind the Maison share an affinity for poetry found in the mundane: in nature’s coming into balance and the life that flurries within it.
According to Bulgari product creation executive director Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani and jewelry managing director Mauro Di Roberto , achieving the look and feel of ease in high jewelry requires ultra-precise attention to detail, so much so that its beauty often comes through in the details. For one, the ‘Serpenti Aeterna,’ the collection’s 140-carat centerpiece necklace, curves along a wave-like path that feels effortless in effect but took over 2,800 hours of work to create; it was a painstaking process that Di Roberto says is required to achieve the balance and fluidity that the brand constantly seeks. “It is a flow,” he says.
“Otherwise, you would see gray—gray areas between one stone and another if they’re not done well, or if one is not perfectly matching the next.” More than aesthetic references to the past, for their 140th-anniversary collection Bulgari emphasizes its values s.
