Bulgari

Bulgari wrote his name as Bvlgari

The history of Bulgari began with the Greek silversmith Sotirios Voulgaris (1857-1932), who emigrated from his native Epirus to Italy due to the unrest resulting from tensions between Turkey and Greece, and arrived in Naples via Rome. There Voulgaris, as Bulgari called himself in Italy, opened several jewellery and antique stores, one of them in 1884 in the famous artists’ street of Via dei Condotti. In accordance with the classical Latin alphabet, in which the U is writes as V, the Bulgari brand usually appears with the spelling Bvlgari. The sons of the company’s founder, Constantino (1889-1937) and Giorgio (1890-1966) played a major role in the success of the young company, actively participating in the jewellery design and taking over the management of Bulgari from their father in 1932. The store operated for a time under the title Old Curiosity Shop and was primarily aimed at tourists from the USA and Great Britain. 

The luxury brand of fame

In the 1950s, Bulgari profited greatly from the new flowering of the Cinecittà films studios. The ‘Film City’ was elevated to myth by the Italian star directors such as Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini, and also served as a backdrop for major US productions such as Quo Vadis? by Mervyn LeRoy and Ben Hur by William Wyler. The stars of the film scene such as Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Romy Schneider, Gary Cooper and Clark Gable subsequently came and went at Bulgari, making the up-and-coming Italian luxury brand internationally famous. In 1970, Bulgari opened its first stores in Monte Carlo, Pairs, Geneva and New York. The international expansion was accompanied by a successful diversification which added Bulgari’s own line of perfume to its sortiment in addition to jewellery and watches. The company has been listed on the Italian stock exchange since 1995, and in 2004 the first company-owned hotel was opened in Milan, followed by further Bulgari hotels in Bali and London.

Gemstones in dazzling colours

Today, Bulgari operates more than 180 branches around the world, with its store in Via dei Condotti, now a listed building, still acting as its flagship. While Bulgari’s jewellery design was influenced in the 1920s and 1930s by Art Deco, the Second World War and resulting scarcity of resources forced a change: platinum was replaced by gold, and the lavish use of gemstones was reduced. The economic boom of the post-war years saw the return of rich gemstone settings, with the Italians setting themselves apart from the classic Parisian school - which focused primarily on diamonds – through the conscious use of dazzling colours: red rubies, green emeralds and blue sapphires are a lasting Bulgari trademark, even if the style of design has changed again and again in the course of the company’s history. The jewellery manufacturer designed a radio key for General Motors as well as a dashboard made of eucalyptus wood for the luxury brand Cadillac.