When I am in Rome,
I always visit Bulgari
because it’s the
most important
museum of
contemporary art”- ANDY WARHOL
The king of pop art gave the word funk a new mean-
ing as he promoted popular culture in the 80s through
his unique art lens. Warhol died in 1987 but his vision
of art lives on. He manufactured consent and dissent
through his work which he marketed aggressively and
glibly, turning people’s opinion of art on its head. Warhol
had a connect with Italian luxury brand Bulgari and now,
three decades after his death, the brand unveiled its Wild
Pop high jewellery collection in Rome that pays tribute
to Warhol and the 80s, a time of excess, extravagance
and wickedness. The result is a jewellery collection that
is layered and picks motifs from the era to accentuate that
moment in time. Bulgari’s creative director Lucia Silvestri
has been at the fore of things at the brand for over three
decades, sourcing the finest stones and shaping them
into masterpieces that defy convention. At the launch of
the new collection in Rome, she speaks exclusively to In-
dia Today Spice about the brand’s design philosophy, its
journey and the Wild Pop high jewellery line.What inspired the latest collection?
If you look at La the Fiesta collection we launched in Bali
last year, you will see that we had some pop pieces there
and as we went along we decided to celebrate the 80s
because it was a time when there was maximum creativity
in fashion, art, music, and we were very inspired by this.
Music with a synthesiser or microphone, happy leaves
(marijuana), Madonna, musical notes, Joan Collins, light-
ing etc, many of those motifs have been used in our Wild
Pop high jewellery collection. In fact, Happy Leaves in
white gold with diamonds and emeralds was inspired by
the film Desperately Seeking Susan, when Madonna shares
a joint with a friend.T
THINKING BIG
Bulgari’s creative
director Lucia
Silvestri in Rome
for the launch of
WIld PopINDIA TODAY SPICE 35 AUGUST 2018