ROME — For Lucia Silvestri, an ordinary day in the office starts with what most would consider extraordinary — the gem table, strewn with the most beautiful rubies, sapphires, emeralds, tourmalines, rubellites, aquamarines and more.
Seeing the creative director of Bulgari in action is quite the experience as she sits in her luminous office overlooking the Tiber, Castel Sant’Angelo and the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in the background.
“The light is very important, as is Rome, which is a huge inspiration for me, its colors, its cultural layers and atmosphere,” Silvestri says, smiling as she places the rubies on the table to form a heart.
You May Also Like
Related Articles
“This is a magical world,” admits Silvestri, whose good humor, energy and passion for her job are contagious. With diamonds, she explains, “you start with an idea and then you buy the diamonds. With gems, it’s the opposite; I start with looking at their size and colors, each is so different and I have to ‘play’ with them to see if and how I can turn them into jewels.”
“Quanto sei bella [how beautiful you are],” she blurts out fondly, gazing at a stunning carpet bracelet, sparkling with gems the colors of the rainbow.
“I talk to the gems and they need to have a personality, talk back to me; there are some stones I can’t use because they have no energy, no personality, no life. There are cold gems, maybe too perfect and they look like glass.” She admits she also sings as she works, as music has a strong influence, too.
Silvestri was named creative director in 2013, the first to hold the role at Bulgari, but she started at the company when she was 20 years old, a biology student and an assistant to then-co-owner Paolo Bulgari. (The Rome-based company has been controlled by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton since 2011).
“He had a huge gem table, double the size of this one, and I was so drawn to it, that one day he surprised me, asking me to try and mix up the gems. When I realized that there were sapphires of different colors, and not only blue, it was a revelation, I couldn’t sleep dreaming of the gems and how they could be combined. I was almost crazy with the excitement.”
This hasn’t diminished one bit, as Silvestri still lights up as she talks about the qualities of the gems and tries on the different high jewelry necklaces herself to illustrate a point.
“I guess Mr. Bulgari saw a talent, a natural attitude and from then on I left university and started traveling the world, from jungles to banks, seeing the best places, and I have never regretted that decision. I’ve been very lucky,” she says.
Silvestri is unique in the industry, as she is also the company’s purchase director, having bought gems for the company for more than 40 years, trained by Paolo Bulgari. “One of his first lessons was, don’t buy a gem if you can’t see it placed in a jewel,” she says.
She admits the early days negotiating for the stones were difficult. “I was very young, the only girl in a male-dominated world, which remains so, but I am very proud to be a woman so close to our suppliers, dealing with different cultures.”
Because of this experience, Silvestri is also mindful of the business and that, while innovative and bold in her choices, the jewels must balance the rarity and the cost of the gems with the final price. “Harmony is the key word, also in terms of price,” she remarks.
“Certain stones have no customers, and Lucia understands this,” said Bulgari chief executive officer Jean-Christophe Babin, who emphasizes the uniqueness of Silvestri, as both a gem specialist and a buyer. He touts her skills at creating “contrasting, unexpected color combinations, daring to combine them in a totally new way, expanding the palette with extraordinary hues.”
Silvestri was responsible for introducing semi-precious stones 10 years ago to the collections, says Babin, “although we hate the term semi-precious, sometimes they are even more costly than some gems.”
The executive also emphasizes Silvestri’s ability to connect with the customers. “She knows Bulgari’s clients on an emotional level and is very much aware of what they want, interpreting their desires and dreams.”
The gems she buys for Bulgari come from Colombia, Thailand, South America, Sri Lanka, Jaipur, and Africa and Silvestri humbly says that, after she has placed them on wax tiles to form a first concept, she works with the brand’s designers to turn her ideas into reality.
Another lesson that Paolo Bulgari taught her, she recalls, is that she should “never be shy with colors, be audacious,” which has helped make the jeweler become known for its striking color combinations.
Despite the excitement, she says that a necessary quality in the job is patience, as it can take three years to complete a parure, for example, waiting for the right gems.
Case in point, she shows a design that started as an all-diamond choker, which she transformed over the years with 31-carat emeralds, finally resulting in an entirely different jewel.
A necklace with a 21-carat ruby at the center took about four years to be completed, as Silvestri added 20-carat rubies from Mozambique that would perfect the piece. “Red gems are very rare,” she explains.
Asked about her own favorite gems, she responds: “Sapphires — they reflect my personality with one color outside, but they are full of different colors inside.”