Meet the latest expression of Bulgari’s celebrated serpent motif: The Serpenti Forever. A handbag with its own tale to tell.
By Natalie Trevis
Cabochon-cut emeralds, rubies and sapphires, interspersed with brilliant-cut diamonds, are arranged in cascading symmetry in the prized necklace, which was worn by Keira Knightley to the Oscars in 2006, the year she was nominated for Best Actress for Pride and Prejudice. Ten floral clusters bring these unique domed gemstones together, their highly polished curved surfaces and absence of faceting reflecting the light like nothing
else.
This treasure is part of the maison’s heritage collection, included in the recent retrospective, The Art of Bulgari: 130 Years of Italian Masterpieces. The workmanship and vision conceived in the necklace is now translated into the handbag: The hand-polished and printed python skin topped with a bejewelled enamel snakehead clasp, with eyes of lapis lauzuli. This is just the kind of savoir faire Bulgari has been delivering for over 130 years, painstakingly crafting each bag over the course of three months.
Bulgari’s Serpenti is renewed by the maison in infinite forms, like a snake shedding its skin, each one more intriguing than the last. This time, it’s not a watch, bracelet or curling fired-enamel cuff, but a limited edition Serpenti Forever bag, upon which the exquisite motif rests. Tradition and innovation collide in this python skin bag, part of the spring/summer 2016 collection and limited to 68 pieces, as it dances before the eyes in a floral screen-printed pattern, inspired by a 1968 high jewellery necklace from the Italian heritage brand itself.
The Serpenti is the most evocative symbol associated with the brand, indelibly intertwined with its own history and that of its most famous customers, from Elizabeth Taylor and her iconic film representation of Cleopatra – as Richard Burton once said, “The only word in Italian Elizabeth knows is Bulgari” – to Diana Vreeland and her signature Serpenti enamel belt. The Serpenti Forever might be the latest expression of Bulgari’s vision, but we’re certain it won’t be the last.
