Style Edit: Bulgari’s Mediterranea High Jewellery collection is a tribute to its founder’s journey, taking inspiration from Italian baroque aesthetics in art and architecture
Imagine the glistening rays of the sun cascading from a flawless blue sky across the rippling waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The beauty, warmth and glow reflect the stunning natural allure of this unique cradle of civilisation, and is reimagined in Bulgari’s latest Mediterranea High Jewellery collection. The audacious creativity of the Italian jeweller is expressed in commanding silhouettes and bold gemstones, made possible by its storied history and passionate display of craftsmanship.
Bulgari’s Mediterranean-inspired collection traces the footsteps of its founder Sotirio Bulgari’s in his jewel-making journey. Leaving his home in Greece, he travelled the Mediterranean countries before finding a home for himself and his namesake jewellery brand in Rome, Italy.
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The jeweller, known for his impeccable eye for hues and ability to manipulate shapes and forms to create kaleidoscope statement pieces, lets his design ethos take centre stage in the Mediterranea collection.
Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin describes the collection of jewellery and luxury timepieces as “an epic and immersive journey that starts from Rome, the eternal city and permanent source of creative inspiration for Bulgari, to Venice, the major crossroads of Mediterranean influences where the Roman-Byzantine Empire fused with the Roman Western Empire to give birth to inclusive and unrivalled arts and architecture.”
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The fiery passion of the Mediterranean and the linking of Eastern and Western cultures, and Italian baroque aesthetics all fuel the incredible vision behind this latest high jewellery collection. Jewellery creative director Lucia Silvestri embraces this openness to cultures and histories to find inspiration in architecture, landscapes, coastlines and the vast natural wonders around the world.
The Southern Radiance creations nod to the lush greenery and sunny seas of Southern Italy. The Mediterranean Muse necklace and its alluring shades of blue is a sparkling interpretation of the gorging tides and crisp waves near Sicily’s cliffs. Sapphires, aquamarines and diamonds mimic the rhythmic movement of ocean waves. A 15.13-carat cushion sapphire at the centre of the necklace transports the soul to the deepest blues of the ocean. More sapphires, including pear-shaped ones, dance like splashes of seawater crashing against the high cliffs. The white diamonds, set in a curve along the necklace, shimmer and flow like soft waves on a calm summer day.
Very much a nod to the tutti-frutti aesthetic iconic to Bulgari, the Diocletian Garland earrings bring together the rich hues of blues and greens from exceptional sapphires and emeralds. Diamonds, sapphires and emeralds take on the mosaic motif found in Rome’s ancient Baths of Diocletian. The two Sri Lankan cornflower blue sapphires weigh 21.15 and 19.42 carats, and the bold use of colour brings that unmistakable Bulgari flair to the earrings.
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A merry marriage of high jewellery craft and haute horology, the Giardino Marino Piccolo secret watch gets its beating heart from Bulgari’s watchmaking home in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Every bit a piece of jewellery as it is a timepiece, the timekeeper is only revealed when the gem-clad starfish is swivelled, and rests among equally bejewelled corals, anemones and shells.
A see-through topaz dial – set with diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, Paraiba and green tourmalines, tanzanites, tsavorites, topazes, peridots and rock crystals – completes the bejewelled creation. An in-house mechanical micro-calibre Piccolissimo with a 30-hour power reserve sets the watch into motion.
These sensational designs offer just a glimpse into the 400-piece Mediterranea High Jewellery collection – there’s much to explore both in the vast landscape and in Bulgari’s eloquent expression of the land, sun and sea that is the Mediterranean.
- Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin calls the collection ‘an epic and immersive journey’ through the crossroads of Mediterranean influences, from Rome to Venice
- The Giardino Marino Piccolo secret watch, bedecked with diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, topazes and rock crystals, is an ode to marine life, and as much jewellery as timepiece