eternal poetry

In an exclusive interview with Vogue Philippines, BULGARI's FABRIZIO BUONAMASSA STIGLIANI and MAURO DI ROBERTO talk about how an appreciation for craftsmanship and technique makes it possible to realize poetry in precious stones.

- CHELSEA SARABIA

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 ultraprecise 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 steeped in a commitment to precision and to achieving beauty in spite of that challenge in and of itself. “It starts to be very, very tough,” Buonamassa says of the process. “But I love these kinds of things. If the people on the other side of the table tell me ‘This is so difficult to do,’ I start to look them in the eyes and say, ‘That’s exactly what we have to do.’”