Serpenti by Bulgari: 5 iconic creations that forged the legend
The snake, a famous jewelry motif that has become a Bulgari emblem
A rising actress and fashion icon, Zendaya turns each of her red carpet appearances into a moment of anthology. Among her most spectacular looks, we find the one she wears at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, September 3, 2021, for the screening of the film Dune . Dennis Villeneuve. That day, the American star dazzled in a molded leather Balmain dress that matched her complexion, paired with a Bulgari necklace, which borrowed its undulating design from the jeweler’s emblematic motif, the snake.
A symbol of rebirth and fertility, but also of cunning and temptation, the serpent has fascinated with its duality and evocative power for thousands of years. Witness the quantity of mythological, religious and folkloric stories mentioning it through the centuries. And if over the ages and fashions, many jewels and adornments reproduce its sensual and sinuous lines, the oldest dating from ancient Egypt, this bewitching animal definitively achieves immortality during the second half of the 20th century, with the Serpenti line from Bulgari .
The only Italian brand present on Place Vendôme, alongside the great French and Swiss names Cartier , Boucheron and Van Cleef & Arpels , Bulgari was founded in 1884 in Rome. Founded by the Greek goldsmith Sotirio Bulgari, the workshop renowned for its silver pieces specialized in high jewelry and women’s watchmaking, at the dawn of the 1920s, under the impetus of his son, Giorgio Bulgari . Although Bulgari has cultivated a flamboyant and colorful aesthetic over the decades, embodied in gold and platinum adornments set with precious stones, it is ultimately thanks to the first Serpenti model., a sleek and futuristic wristwatch launched in 1948, which it achieved success. Synonymous with metamorphosis, this famous reptile motif proves to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration, populating jewelry and watchmaking collections, and giving rise to a line of leather goods as well as numerous artistic collaborations.
To celebrate the seventy-fiveth anniversary of Serpenti, Bulgari tells the story of its emblematic line in an immersive pop-up installed at the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, until July 3, 2023. While waiting to discover this space as sumptuous as the creations it houses, Numéro magazine retraces the fantastic epic of this jewelry icon through five pieces that have forged its legend .
