A Sparkle For The Rich Not The Pompous; Italy; Focus

Set above a simple white tee-shirt an ancient Roman coin gleams darkly, ce ntred in a coil of gold that snakes the throat. Glossy lozenges of amethyst, tourmaline and topaz punctuate fine chains of gold, whose links twist every now and then in artless knots. Worn as necklaces and bracelets they cover almost as much sleek suntan as the postage stamp bikini they accompany.
A charming lack of pomposity about precious jewellery has been displayed traditionally by Italian women (Catherine de Medici is said to have fed diamonds to her enemies) and is recognized worldwide as the trademark of one discreet jewellery emporium in Rome's Via Condotti that is home base of the Bulgari family and headquarters of their international empire.
Jewels to be worn as casually as blue jeans, chokers that are encrusted with tiny diamonds and support a giant cabochon gem, the profusion of heart-shaped stones that are now so fashionable everywhere, these are their specialities.
Just over a century after Sotirio Bulgari, a Greek silversmith from Epirus settled in Rome in 1881 selling finely engraved pieces from a cart on the Spanish Steps, his name is synonymous with a style steeped in the traditions of Ancient Greece and Rome, and synonymous with that studied ease of rich ornamentation that distinguishes Italian alta moda.
The expansion of his empire, masterminded by his two grandsons Paolo and Nicola, which began in the 1970s with the opening of Bulgari shops in Paris, Monte Carlo, New York and Milan finally reaches this country.
The opening of the first Bulgari shop in London next month, in that tiny ghetto of jewellers at the older end of Bond Street is being celebrated with a reception on October 21 at Goldsmiths Hall and an exhibition of the most prestigious pieces of contemporary Bulgari craftsmanship. The shop, like every other soothing Bulgari temple to the jewellers art around the world, has been designed by the architect Piero Sartogo.
The Bulgaris make jewellery for contemporary women. Francesco Trapani, great grandson of the founder and managing director insists that Italian women do not keep their jewels locked in a safe. 'We are a company that establishes what women wear today and every day, ' he says. 'What we produce is what sets the fashion trends in jewellery around the world.'
For every authentic Byzantine coin set by Bulgari surrounded by diamonds there must be hundreds stamped and churned out by mass market jewellers. Their chokers, articulated in the same way as a petrol pump hosepipe (tubogas in Italian) and studded with their signature square-cut or domed cabochon cut stones are copied everywhere.
Bulgari pioneered the use of semi-precious stones mixed with diamonds, emeralds and rubies and invented the modern idiom that mixes steel with gold. Their disregard of the value of the raw materials they use produces unexpected and exciting results such as the gunmetal gleam of haematite side-by-side with mother of pearl in a gold necklace.
Modules of jade, turquoise, coral and steel are treated with the same respect as the finest diamond. Rubies and emeralds are used as freely as paste. The jewellery is created by Italy's top craftsman not only in the Bulgari ateliers in Rome, but in Florence, the birth place of the Italian Renaissance and the centre for the manufacture of jewellery today.
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