Roman silversmith, Italian jeweller, modern luxury house.
Bvlgari is the oldest Italian luxury maison still trading under its founder's name — and the only one founded by a Greek silversmith on the Spanish Steps in Rome.
Sotirios Voulgaris arrived in Rome from Epirus in 1881 with a silver shop in mind. By 1905 he had moved to Via Condotti 10. By the 1950s, the Serpenti — wristwatches that coiled the wrist as snakes — would make the maison synonymous with Italian glamour. LVMH acquired the company in 2011.
Founded 1884.
Sotirios Voulgaris, the son of an Epirot silversmith, emigrated to Italy in 1881. He opened his first shop on Via Sistina in Rome in 1884. The family Italianised the surname to Bulgari (rendered Bvlgari in the Latin V used on the storefronts). Sotirios's sons Costantino and Giorgio inherited the business and moved it to Via Condotti 10 in 1905 — still the maison's flagship today.
The Serpenti began as a Tubogas watch wrapping the wrist like a coiled snake in 1948. By the 1960s — when Elizabeth Taylor wore one on the set of Cleopatra and Bvlgari became forever attached to the Burton-Taylor jewellery love affair — it had become the maison's defining motif. The Serpenti has been continuously in production since, branching out into bags, scarves, and watches across seventy years.
After 127 years of family ownership, Bvlgari was acquired by LVMH in 2011 for €4.3 billion. Francesco Trapani, the founder's great-grandson, became LVMH's head of watches and jewellery. The maison has continued to operate from Rome with its own atelier; under LVMH it has expanded aggressively in leather goods, particularly the Serpenti bag line.
6 icons. Each one a scene; each scene a gallery.
The maison's defining bag. Serpenti-head clasp with enamel and gem accents.
Quilted with cabochon stud accents.
Translation of the iconic B.zero1 jewellery into a bag silhouette.
Recent Serpenti variant with reversible Serpenti-head.
Top-handle bag named for the maison's home city.
Snake-skin texture shoulder bag.