Style Edit: Bulgari’s Eclettica blends Roman elegance with artistic expression
The Italian house’s high jewellery collection fuses art, architecture and Roman heritage into bold and expressive designs
That intersection of art and jewellery lies at the heart of Eclettica, Bulgari’s latest high jewellery collection. Comprising more than 150 one-of-a-kind creations, it explores the many ways different artistic disciplines can shape design – borrowing from sculpture, painting and architecture to create pieces that are bold, expressive and unmistakably Roman. Rather than adhering to a single aesthetic, the collection embraces contrast, pairing geometric forms with fluid movement, vibrant gemstones with graphic black onyx, and centuries-old influences with contemporary craftsmanship.
Rome, the city where Bulgari was founded more than 140 years ago, remains the collection’s greatest muse. Like the Eternal City itself, where classical monuments coexist with contemporary life, Eclettica layers different artistic influences into a single visual language. Architectural symmetry, painterly colour palettes and sculptural silhouettes come together in jewellery that feels both dramatic and effortlessly wearable.
At the heart of the collection are nine exceptional Capolavori, or masterpieces, each built around extraordinary gemstones. The Secret Garden necklace showcases a rare 26.65-carat Padparadscha sapphire, surrounded by emeralds, purple sapphires and diamonds in a composition that recalls the rich brushstrokes of a painting. The transformable Seres Scarf necklace, meanwhile, mimics the drape of silk through an intricate construction of more than a thousand articulated elements, centred on a remarkable 31.90-carat sugarloaf sapphire.
Bulgari’s iconic Serpenti motif also evolves throughout the collection. The Serpenti Illusio necklace uses negative space to reveal the serpent’s silhouette almost as an optical illusion, while the Serpenti Imperial Heart necklace is crowned by a magnificent 30.75-carat Golconda-type diamond, believed to have once belonged to an Indian maharaja. Despite their scale and complexity, many of the creations move with remarkable fluidity, demonstrating that engineering is just as important as aesthetics in contemporary high jewellery.
