EXCLUSIVE: Buccellati Debuts High Jewelry Evening Bags in Paris

PARIS – As precious as their high jewelry brethren, the trio of designs Buccellati will unveil Tuesday in Paris aren’t just jewels.

Calling for gold, gemstones but also silk velvet, the Italian house’s latest creations are also evening bags.

There’s a rectangular clutch in quilted emerald green velvet peppered with small stars embroidered at the center of floral motifs and a frame clasp highlighted by a 2-carat rubellite cabochon, hanging from a gold chain and a rotund version in black with a Rigato-engraved closure decorated with diamonds and seven rubellites in varying sizes running along the top, plus a small Opera pendant dangling from one side. It called for over 8 carats of rubellites and some 352 diamonds.

As for the third, it’s a sphere of black stretch velvet, adorned with an openwork lace-like succession of triangles and garlands set with diamonds on each side of its opening and a circular gold handle. On the bottom, a minute gold rosette discreetly catches the eye.

The ensemble reads as a timeline of sorts for the Milanese house.

“One is very historical, its design is really reminiscent of old handbags; the second is a classic pochette redesigned in the Buccellati style with a lot of little parts fixed on the velvet,” said third-generation scion Andrea Buccellati, creative director and honorary president of the Milanese jewelry house. “The third is a completely modern, completely different concept.”

Because the trio is less about introducing a new category than it is about reconnecting with a tradition of bejeweled handbags, items greatly in vogue — and in use — in the times of founder Mario Buccellati.

“It was something that was always very interesting and we always admired the work that my grandfather did at the time,” said the younger Buccellati.

Two years in the making, this capsule sprang from the reactions to the historical pieces showcased in “The Prince of Goldsmiths: Buccellati Rediscovering the Classics” exhibition held in Venice.

With collectors eyeing the vintage pieces from the house’s private collection, the idea of reimagining the line gained momentum not only for sales potential, but mostly for the creative challenge.

For all his experience, these fabric-and-metal evening styles were a first for the creative director. “From the ’50s to the 2000s, we made bags but never used other materials than gold and silver,” he said. “We always did minaudière box clutches.”

The project was already a tall order on the goldsmithing side, given the minute elements needed. Over the decades, evolutions in regulations forced changes in technique and, occasionally, the loss of a particular skill.

One example Buccellati gave was soldering, where gold was once softened in the mouth.

“They were able to work with a different dimension of metal,” he explained. “They were able to use, for example, half-millimeter parts of gold today you have to use a one-millimeter for the system.”

Even so, by Buccellati’s own admission, the biggest hurdle wasn’t one of gold and gemstones. “It was finding the little old who knew to embroider the pieces,” he revealed.

Indeed, as lifestyles changed and the need for eveningwear for, say, a night at the opera lessened, workshops specialized in such accessories began to vanish.

After an extensive search, Buccellati was able to locate an atelier with the required expertise, coincidentally in Milan.

“They have 100 years of history, so they still have the techniques to do this kind of work and that was a very big surprise because I was looking around and around and finally, found ,” he said. Demurring on sharing its name, he said the atelier was “very famous for handbags made by hand, really artisanal work.”

Materials were sourced from the workshop’s expansive selection of materials.

After their Grand Paris debut, don’t expect these evening bags to become a regular feature in Buccellati’s high jewelry offerings — not yet at least.

“The three are just a capsule, a kind of demonstration that even today, we can do the kind of work that was done in the ’30s,” he said. “We will see the response of the market.”