Bulgari appoints Mary Katrantzou as creative director for Accessories

Jean-Christophe Babin, the company's CEO, affirmed Bulgari's commitment to strengthening and enhancing accessories production while praising the new director's merits: "Mary shares with Bulgari not only her Greek origins, but above all her quest for excellence in the choice of materials and their transformation, with a particular emphasis on craftsmanship," he said in an interview.

In this new role, the designer will focus on the handbag collection and high jewelry clutches, which will be available in stores from August. "I'm honored to be the first creative director of Bulgari Accessories. A new segment that I'd like to elevate to an art form," commented the former student of London's Central Saint Martins.

But this choice of collaboration is no accident. Mary Katrantzou already knows the house well, having collaborated with it for the first time in 2019, on the occasion of the Spring-Summer 2020 show in Greece. Then two years later, the designer reinvented the iconic "Serpenti Forever" handbag model for the new "Serpenti Through the Eyes Of" accessories collection.

Bulgari has been making a lot of changes recently. Just a week ago, the brand launched its Foundation (Fondazione Bulgari), with a particular focus on protecting and safeguarding historical heritage worldwide.

For many years, Bulgari has made diversification a key part of its business strategy. In the early 2000s, the company entered the luxury hotel business, pioneered by Silvio Ursini, now Managing Director of the company's hotel division. He worked hard to steer the brand towards this diversification strategy, in order to offer customers "a luxury experience" that high jewelry alone could not provide.

The road to diversification thus began, later involving the perfume and wine sectors with the acquisition of Sarment Wine & Spirits Holding in 2019. Now it's time for accessories, with a new, reinforced marketing and communications strategy.

Owned at 98% by LVMH, the jewelry house was acquired by the leading luxury group in 2011 for 4.3 billion euros. A strategic and promising investment, given that LVMH's Watches & Jewelry segment generated around 11 billion euros two years later, or 12.7% of its sales.