Bulgari’s divas and muses

Ask Bulgari’s resident gem expert Giampaolo Della Croce what precious stone would suit a Filipino woman best, and, without hesitation, he prescribes: “Diamonds.”

“Filipinas are just the right height, not too tall and not too petite, so dangling earrings would suit you, and diamonds bring out the color of your skin,” Della Croce says.

Bulgari’s elegant senior director of high jewelry notes that, as it happens, Pinays are indeed fond of buying diamonds. We view it as the ultimate status symbol, and haven’t been fully converted yet to the Bulgari gospel of colored stones. That could change, however, with Bulgari’s latest collection Musa, which is possibly the most stunning collection of colored jewels I’ve ever seen.

To mark its 130-year anniversary, the Italian jewelry house has released two high-jewelry collections: “Musa” and “Diva,” the latter of which is sure to appeal to Filipinas because it focuses on diamonds.

“Both these jewelry collections are a tribute to feminine beauty; as Mr. Bulgari used to say, ‘Women cannot live without aesthetics,’” Della Croce says.

Diva pieces feature an iconic fan shape, which he says was inspired by the design of the ancient Roman mosaics that line the walls, floor and ceiling of the Baths of Caracalla. “From a single pendant, embellished by the sparkle of a lot of diamonds, to a garland of precious elements set with diamonds and colored gems, to clusters of sparkling diamonds and precious gems, these highlight the versatility of feminine beauty,” Della Croce says.

Musa, on the other hand, was inspired by the Greek myth of the nine daughters of Zeus, who had the power to inspire human beings in the arts, poetry and music.

While the creative spark for Diva was ignited by the powerful woman who would wear it, unusual colored gems from Jaipur were the starting point of Musa, whose stones feature the egg-shaped Takhti cut — a cut so sensual and opulent it reminds you of colored marbles or hard candy: you want to either palm them or put them in your mouth. Not too far off from Bulgari’s trademark cabochon, historically, Takhti evokes the Indian rooftops used in the palaces of the maharajahs during the Mughal Empire.

Of the nine necklaces inspired by the nine Muses, perhaps the most quintessentially Bulgari in its daring color combination, unusual cuts, dramatic volumes and compact shapes is Mediterranean Hues, with its purple amethysts, green emeralds and hot pink tourmalines set in pink gold and set off by brilliant diamonds.

Another necklace, Lira, boasts a jaw-dropping 86-carat emerald, originally from Zambia that came from an ancient jewelry set. Della Croce tells me about an Indian gem dealer who had a string of two large emeralds on a simple silk rope. Bulgari bought one and he kept the other. They cut it in two to obtain the Takhti cut, and fashioned it into an exquisite platinum necklace consisting of 58 emeralds, 50 rubies and 91 round spinels whose cerise color is the rarest in the mineral world.

Della Croce says his office in Rome overlooks St. Peter’s Square and that inspires him. He travels a third of the year, takes lots of pictures on his phone and shows it to his design team, who come up with hundreds of drawings and settle on a stylistic motif through a gradual process of elimination. During a recent trip to China, Della Croce says the ornate handles of Chinese keys fascinated him. Look for them in a future Bulgari collection.

Right now, the trend at Bulgari is “second skin” jewelry — bijoux that is a pleasure to touch as well as a sight to behold. Not too many jewelry houses place such importance on tactility.

“Bulgari has been a trendsetter in the past 130 years of history, a leader in creating new design, very much appealing to the ‘intelligentsia’ of the international jet set,” Della Croce says, “receiving a lot of fame and rewards from geniuses such as Andy Warhol and Diana Vreeland, as well as the divas of the last decades: Liz Taylor, Sophia Loren, Ingrid Bergman,” as well as modern divas like Nicole Kidman and the current face of the house, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

“At Bulgari, the pillars of our DNA are creativity, being inspired by our Roman heritage, looking always toward the future, crafting new contemporary designs, and the color combinations,” he says.

Della Croce, who studied gemology at the Istituto Gemmologico Italiano and the Gemological Institute of America, said he first got interested in gems as a child. While his father would go hunting, little Giampaolo wasn’t interested in shooting birds and game so he hunted for a different kind of treasure, collecting crystals and shiny objects and presenting his little cache proudly at the end of the day.

Now that he deals with the real thing, he says rubies and spinels are his favorite gems. “The fire of the rubies and the spinels catches always my attention. I have a huge pleasure in diving into their intense red color, which is somehow reminding me of the velvety petals of a rose, vivid yet smooth and rich as the finest velvet. Red is meant to be the color of love and passion, the same passion my team and I infuse into our magnificent creations.”

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Diva and Musa are available at the newly refurbished Bulgari store in Greenbelt 4, where the jewels aren’t the only spectacular sight. A gigantic chandelier fashioned entirely out of Murano glass is suspended over the central counter, shipped directly from Italy, according to Bulgari Philippines’ country manager Mario Katigbak.

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