Crossing signals
British shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood unveils a characteristically visionary take on Bulgari’s iconic Serpenti Forever design. By Alice Birrell.
Astoried Italian jewellery house versed in la dolce vita and a gifted London shoe designer meet and work on a global project. It reads like the beginnings of a modern fashion fable in which the players have little in common. It happens though, that the parallels between Bulgari and Nicholas Kirkwood go straight to their respective cores. “It’s not a matter of nationality,” says Mireia Lopez Montoya, managing director of accessories at Bulgari, of the collaboration that sees Kirkwood rethink the Serpenti Forever bag in a one-off collection. “More an encounter between art, design and modernity.”
Although any actual encounter between German-born, London-based Kirkwood and Greek-born silversmith Sotirio Bulgari, who founded the house’s Roman boutique in 1884, remains impossible, on Lopez’s authority they would have got along famously. “Unexpected materials, daring use of colour, strong graphic traits, boldness,” lists Lopez as common interests. Kirkwood, for his part, doesn’t see jewellery as far removed from his home territory: shoes. “I love getting into the really fine, fine details, and quite often when people talk about attention to detail you think: ‘Look here, in things like shoes or jewellery,’” he says, “‘every single element, every millimetre will make a difference to the line of a shoe or the fit of the heel.’ With jewellery it’s even finer still.”
The multi-faceted pyramids zigzagging the face of the bags not coincidentally resemble cut gemstones, while leather in jewel tones of pink spinel and sapphire blue is Kirkwood tipping the hat to Bulgari’s finesse in the jewellery realm. The Serpenti bracelets and watches worn by film and fashion greats he iterates in the snake’s head clasp and the chevron geometry like a serpent’s scales (also available in gold and silver – the Serpenti’s original colourations for jewellery buffs reading).
This being Kirkwood, though – known for his innovative future-facing designs, often rooted in the soaring lines of architecture – the spikes are rubberised, and flattened metal studs lend a tech-y industrial edge, something he’s interested in personally; he’s just visited a future tech exhibition when we speak and is known to design on a smart tablet. “I’m kind of a nerd like that,” he says, before describing his respect for Elon Musk and bemoaning the slow pace of older modes of production still used to make luxury pieces, though he knows it’s a necessity – for now.
This kind of future focus, Lopez says, has always been in step with the heart of Bulgari, a brand that counts Zaha Hadid and Anish Kapoor as past collaborators. “The beauty of working on a brand with such a strong DNA and clarity of vision is that you can dare. The path is clear,” she says of the Roman house that, in the 1950s, brought back the cabochon – the unconventional round gem cut that showcases colour and depth – when no-one else was doing it, and developed Tubogas, a labour-intensive linking technique that allows for the sinuous movement of pieces.
When pressed on whether Bulgari’s traditional clientele will be surprised by the new pieces, one of which is a backpack, Kirkwood says: “I kind of hope so! … I want them to be that odd shape, to be a talking point”, a predilection he picked up working around extravagant chapeaux in Philip Treacy’s London boutique and while orbiting the likes of Isabella Blow, Grace Jones and Cecilia Dean. There is also the clear appeal of the bags’ Insta-ready block colours to a younger clientele. “We are obviously aware of the new generation of millennials,” says Lopez. “Digital is nowadays a philosophy and a toolbox allowing brands to connect with clients.”
Connecting with one another taught both parties, British and Italian, that traditional craftsmanship doesn’t preclude pushing boundaries. “When you learn how something is made, you learn how to bend the rules,” says London’s Cordwainers-trained Kirkwood. It also impresses upon both that seemingly disparate elements can make the strongest whole. “On the one hand I love the very small, but I also love the really epic,” says Kirkwood. Well, we know what they say about small packages.
“Every single element, every millimetre will make a difference to the line of a shoe or the fit of the heel. With jewellery it’s even finer still”