Bulgari Introduces New Roma Bag, Fetes Serpenti’s 75th Anniversary
It’s in the bag for Bulgari.
The Roman jeweler celebrated the 75th anniversary of Bulgari’s Serpenti design with a spring 2024 collection inspired by its birthplace, a garden party in Paris — and introduced its new Bulgari Roma design.
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“We were really looking to create [a shape] that could be complementary to Serpenti,” said Mireia Lopez Montoya, the house’s accessories business unit managing director, calling the proposed Roma design “timeless, elegant but totally contemporary.”
Its latest is the newly minted Bulgari Roma purse, which made its debut at the Paris presentation. A top-handle purse with a semicircular metallic structure, it owes its shape to the round Bulgari logo, introduced in 1975 as a design feature on a watch’s face and itself inspired by ancient Roman coins.
Its metal clasp took several iterations to perfect, in order to refine the pusher mechanism that opens the bag at the press of a finger.
While capacious, the Roma remains on the smaller side. “We need to be coherent to what we are as a brand and this is a good size for a day bag to us. Those big soft bags don’t ‘belong’ to us,” said Lopez Montoya.
Coming in seven colorways — silver, black, as well as jewel tones such as emerald, tourmaline, amber and two kinds of opalescent hues — the Bulgari Roma is priced at 3,500 euros for its calf leather version.
These bags are the first of their line and Bulgari is “looking forward to building a different family next to Serpenti,” said Lopez Montoya. The new bag is available on the jeweler’s website and selected Bulgari boutiques worldwide. Its augural campaign stars Olympia of Greece.
But Serpenti remains “the most important icon of our collection,” she said. “There are so many different things that can come up. We always say the Serpenti changes its skin and has endless metamorphoses.”
These were plentiful in a spring 2024 collection that was about “looking more than ever into our world in Rome, our inspirational city,” said Lopez Montoya. Titled Roman Lights, it took cues from the Eternal City’s features as well as jewelry craft, all of which “connect to Rome in some way,” she said.
Mosaics were reinterpreted as arrays of 28,500 glittering Swarovski crystals on the “Serpenti Forever Crystal Sparkle” top-handle bag, six types of embroideries were used on the “Rays of Light” version that evoked the city’s sunshine, and the jeweler’s heritage was alluded to with domed studs shaped like cabochon jewels.
Over time, its titular reptile has revealed multiple angles, starting with its best-known clasp representing its head facing forward, and now its full body used as handles for the Serpentine line.
Upon launch, the vertical mini-tote declension shot straight up to the brand’s top 10 bestsellers list when it was introduced three seasons ago, according to Lopez Montoya.
Going forward, the house will also be stepping up its efforts on the high jewelry Serpenti designs, which feature clasps that can be detached and worn as a necklace.
Paris was the latest chapter in a year of celebration around the brand icon, including the Serpenti in Art artist capsule presented in July and arriving late October in-store, as well as temporary exhibitions like the “75 Years of Infinite Tales” that landed in Dubai in September.
The Roman house also marked Serpenti’s milestone anniversary with a party at the Nissim de Camondo museum, popping a giant Serpenti Forever purse in its garden. Inside, performers took turns serenading the crowd with Belgian singer-songwriter Pierre de Maere opening the evening as guests including Rainey Qualley, Poppy Delevingne, Lena Mahfouf and Anna Cleveland streamed in.
Before Canada’s Charlotte Cardin beckoned people closer as she took a seat at the piano for a few songs, a glamorous posse led by Delevingne and Olympia of Greece hopped onstage to the delight of photographers.
The night drew to a close with the melodious voice of Italian singer Mahmood, who emerged after competing on the country’s edition of “The X Factor” musical contest.
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