PUTS AN ‘APRÈS-TENNIS’ SPIN ON BVLGARI’S SERPENTI HANDBAG
As the latest guest designer for the “Serpenti Through the Eyes Of ” series, Charaf Tajer takes a shot at reinterpreting a house icon
e’re bringing sport into the house of Bvlgari for the first time in its history,” says Casablanca founder Charaf Tajer, the creative mind who, as the latest guest designer of the ‘Serpenti Through the Eyes Of ’ series, brings a fresh, tennis-themed twist to Bvlgari’s iconic handbag.
A rising star on the European fashion scene, Charaf – one of the co-winners of the 2020 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers – aims to make his Casablanca label “the Hermès of Gen Z,” according to industry bible WWD. At Bvlgari, he follows in the footsteps of design talents including Mary Katrantzou, Ambush’s Yoon Ahn and Alexander Wang, who also have reinterpreted the emblematic bag since the collaborative initiative was launched, in 2017.
Of Franco-Moroccan origin, and based between Paris and London, Charaf is quite the entrepreneur. He co-founded the clothing label Pigalle, collaborated with Off-White, and consulted for Supreme before making a bid to join the legacy of French luxury brands by launching Casablanca in 2018. His playful, niche “aprèssport” leisurewear is infused with a vacation mood and nods to Mediterranean luxury aesthetics.
Seated in the Bvlgari flagship on Place Vendôme during Paris Fashion Week in March, Charaf, dressed in a grass-green jacket and a silk souvenir shirt accessorised with a chunky pearl necklace that he “stole from a stylist,” confessed he’s more of a courtside enthusiast than a “real tennis player,” citing Björn Borg, Andre Agassi, and Pete Sampras – “whose style was more cold but very efficient” – among his tennis heroes. “I love that era of tennis.”
Today encompassing the watches, jewellery and leather goods categories, the legendary Serpenti, a symbol of glamour, power, and transformation, first appeared in the 1940s as a series of bracelet watches designed to coil around the wrist like a snake, a style made famous by Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Cleopatra in Rome in the
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“IT ’S A DR E A M OF MINE TO BE ABLE TO TOUCH SUCH A
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early 1960s. But Charaf had a more contemporary, athletic muse in mind for this collaboration. Instead, it’s Lady Diana – “Those paparazzi shots of her going to her car, coming back from tennis, dressed in cycling shorts and a Harvard sweatshirt” – who encapsulates the attitude of the line, the designer said, as “that modern, strong woman, moving forward, going from tennis to big meetings.”
The capsule’s eye-catching bags conjure a day at the country club, their sporty palette – a mix of tennis-white perforated leather and bright green accents recalling retro Stan Smiths – offset by gold-plated hardware and elegant wooden handles inspired by old-school tennis rackets.
Styles range from an ‘Après Tennis’ spin on the Serpenti Forever bag, adorned with a signature enamelled snakehead clasp inspired by the Serpenti jewels of the ’60s, to a practical new tote format and a ‘Jewellery Box’ bag inspired by a 1920s silver box from the Bvlgari Heritage Collection, its top shaped like a faceted gemstone. Using zip pullers adorned with miniature snakehead charms, the bag opens to reveal two tennis balls stamped with the Casablanca and Bvlgari logos.
The seven-piece capsule collection, which includes a separate mosaic theme, will be rolled out in two instalments to selected Bvlgari boutiques worldwide on April 20th and May 20th, 2022, respectively.
Charaf, who for his research visited the Bvlgari archives in Florence, said he had an instant connection with the house because of its flair for colour, but was also drawn to the story of the house’s founder, Sotirios Voulgaris, a Greek silversmith. The capsule’s vibrant mosaic-themed designs, printed on a grainy leather to create a raised 3D effect and edged with a twisting snake motif, pay tribute both to Voulgaris’ Greek heritage and the legacy of the Roman house he built.
“It’s a dream of mine to be able to touch such a monument in [luxury] and to play with certain codes that have been there for a long time,” said the designer, adding: “I think [Voulgaris] had a bit of that in his DNA.”
Tempering his playful nature, Charaf looked to revisit Bvlgari’s heritage codes without irony or anarchism. “Everything nowadays is so deconstructivist that it becomes the norm. The challenge lies in continuing the codes of the past but making them new again. Looking at the beauty of the world, that’s very much where my inspiration comes from – travel, architecture, nature. Maybe one day people are going to deconstruct my work, but for now, I want to create new classics,” says the designer.