BULGARI Sotirio (Jewellery designer)

A Bulgari collar and earrings modeled by Tatjana Patitz makes a statement worthy of a Medici, although the jewellery is a blend of traditional Italian forms and contemporary style. Warhol once called the Bulgari store on Rome's via Condotti "the best gallery of contemporary art". The company was founded in Rome by silversmith Sotirios Voulgaris (Sotirio Bulgari in Italian), who honed his skills in his native Greece before moving to Italy where he founded the now world-famous brand in 1884. His sons, Constantino and Giorgio, developed the jewel and precious stone side of the business in the early twentieth century. In the 1970s, Bulgari drew on their Art Deco themes, in particular the rectangle-cut baguette work, to develop modern, graphically spare jewellery that put diamonds in geometric settings. Precious jewellery was thus placed in the domain of young, fashionable society. The company was purchased by the LVMH group in 2011. 

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