Sandra‘s Closet

Icons Minaudière –  The Authority of Craft

True luxury begins long before an object is desired. It begins at the workbench, in decisions measured in millimeters, in materials chosen for their integrity, and in the patience required to shape something meant to endure.

Championing the heritage of the Roman High Jeweler, Creative Director of Leather Goods and Accessories Mary Katrantzou introduces the BVLGARI ICONS Minaudière collection. Mary approaches creation with precisely this mindset. Her objective is not to redesign the evening bag, but to reinforce the idea of the icon, objects defined by their aesthetic vocabulary, and rich cultural symbolism.

Because icons are not trend-driven. They are constructed.

Craftsmanship is therefore not a supporting narrative here; it is the foundation. Each minaudière reveals an engineering logic closer to high jewelry than to traditional leather goods. Metal frameworks must balance strength with refinement. Stone settings demand microscopic accuracy. Enamel work, polishing, and finishing require technical fluency that cannot be simulated by surface aesthetics.

Nothing about these pieces suggests haste. At a time when luxury often risks becoming conceptual rather than material, this commitment to making feels quietly assertive.

Mary understands a fundamental truth: desirability follows discipline.

«This collection celebrates the living heritage of Bvlgari’s Icons, symbols that have transcended design to become part of our cultural language. Each minaudière was conceived not simply to hold objects, but to hold meaning, blending high craftsmanship with cultural storytelling. Carrying culture in your bag is both a metaphor and a reality, a way of cherishing the wisdom of women. We are honored to have five extraordinary women lend their voice to our Icons and, through their lived experience, give new dimension to their symbolism, transforming heritage into a living dialogue. That is the culture that we create, we carry, and share.» Mary Katrantzou Bvlgari Creative Director of Leather Goods and Accessories

Objects That Refuse to Behave Like Accessories

Encounter the minaudières in person and one impression overrides all others: presence.

They are structured, architectural, almost self-possessed. These are not accessories designed to disappear into a look; they anchor it. Weight replaces fragility. Precision replaces decoration.

Created in limited edition, each piece draws from Bvlgari’s unparalleled jewelry-making savoir-faire. The collection moves through five established Bvlgari icons, each translated into a compact object that prioritizes construction over ornament and clarity over excess. Scale, notably, is treated with refreshing honesty. The standard minaudières operate as genuine evening clutches, sculptural yet functional, capable of carrying essentials without compromise.

The XS versions make no such promise. However, they are smaller than a smartphone. Not inconveniently so, intentionally so. At this dimension, the minaudière shifts category entirely. It ceases to be about capacity and moves closer to jewelry: an object chosen for resonance, not practicality.

Luxury has always reserved space for pieces that privilege expression over utility. Mary leans into that tradition with confidence rather than apology.

Serpenti – Controlled Power

Rendering the serpent in rigid form demands exceptional technical command. Curvature must feel alive while remaining structurally exact, a balance achievable only through advanced metalwork. The result carries tension and authority, capturing movement in stillness.

Divas’ Dream – The Discipline of Lightness

What appears effortless is, in reality, highly controlled. Symmetry, stone placement, and material transitions reveal a craftsmanship that favors precision over spectacle. It is elegance engineered rather than embellished.

Tubogas – Technique as Identity

Few methods communicate mastery as clearly as Tubogas. Seamless and mechanically complex, its fluidity disguises the difficulty of its construction. Here, innovation is not aesthetic experimentation; it is heritage sustained through expertise.

Monete – Time, Edited Through Craft

Historical references invite risk, too literal, and they become costume; too abstract, and they lose meaning. Craft functions as editor, ensuring the coin motif is translated with restraint. The past is not replicated; it is refined.

BVLGARI BVLGARI – Precision Without Refuge

Strong geometry is unforgiving. With nothing to conceal behind ornament, proportion becomes everything. The clarity of the design reflects the confidence of its execution.

Restraint, in this context, is a form of technical bravura.

When Craft Opens Into Culture

Only once the material authority of the objects is established does the collection expand into a broader intellectual register, aligning each icon with female voices who examine how culture is lived, protected, and reimagined.

Notes on Honoring Tradition – Linda Evangelista reflects on family rituals, reminding us that heritage survives through repetition, through gestures performed often enough to become identity.

Notes on Cultivating Inner Calm – Kim Ji-won turns inward, proposing self-acceptance and emotional balance as markers of contemporary strength — a quiet counterpoint to an era defined by visibility.

Notes on Finding Home – Architect Sumayya Vally challenges fixed notions of belonging, describing home as something constructed through memory, care, and human connection rather than geography.

Notes on Listening to Nature – Isabella Rossellini, shaped by her work in animal behavior, invites a deeper attentiveness to the natural world, suggesting that listening itself is an act of cultural intelligence.

Notes on Creating Culture – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie articulates the principle that ultimately binds the collection: culture is not static. It is created, carried forward, and continually rewritten — with women often serving as its most vital transmitters.

What emerges is not a conceptual overlay, but a dialogue between making and meaning. These are unique new works, published exclusively by Bvlgari for this limited-edition collection.

The Quiet Confidence of Objects Made to Last

The Icons Minaudière collection does not argue for attention. It assumes it.

Craft gives the pieces legitimacy.
Design gives them permanence.
Cultural perspective gives them dimension.

They will hold what you need for the evening. However being smaller than your phone, they may require a reconsideration of what «essential» truly means.

But perhaps that is the point. The rarest luxury today is not excess, nor even visibility. It is conviction, the assurance that an object has been made well enough, and thoughtfully enough, to outlast the moment it enters.

And icons, by definition, are never designed for the moment alone.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © BVLGARI
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During Paris Haute Couture fashion week, a superlative event took place at the Casino de Paris – the ‘WÔW’ party, nicknamed after Lancôme’s signature letter – to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the brand, founded by entrepreneur Armand Petitjean in 1935.

Celebrating the House’s continually unique take on French beauty, guests enjoyed a surrealistic photocall where they were invited to strike a pose amongst giant cut outs of the brands iconic products and symbols, to the poetic fresh rose arch that served as an entrance to the theatre and a playful exhibition of carefully conserved objects from its patrimony: everything stated loud and clearly that “La vie est belle en Lancôme”, life is beautiful with Lancôme.

Celebrating 80 years of Lancôme is also celebrating femininity the Lancôme way. This could not have been achieved without the women who today embody the brand: Julia Roberts, Penélope Cruz, Kate Winslet, Lupita Nyong’o, Lily Collins, Alma Jodorowsky and Daria Werbowy were all on stage together for the first time ever, to wish a happy anniversary to Lancôme. Isabella Rossellini, who graced the brand with her charm and beauty for so many years, was the master of ceremony.

Among the highlights of the party, which gathered more the 1200 guests from the beauty, fashion, film and art world, was ultimate showgirl Kylie Minogue’s private concert of some of her most danced to songs, followed by French DJ Kiddy Smile who played late into the night.

Elettra Wiedemann, daughter of Isabella Rosselini,…

…Singer John Legend («All of me») and…

…Lisa Eldridge, recently appointed Creative Director of Lancôme Make up, were also in attendance.

Lancôme Power: Natacha Klein, Vincent Mottier, Margherita Masiello and Claire Jamet

With Margherita Masiello, PR Manager Switzerland Lancôme

The party is only one of the highlights of a celebration that started last January with the release of ‘Editions du Regard’ a book celebrating the brand’s heritage. This was followed by the launch of the first web only limited edition Lancôme products – three shades of the legendary L’Absolu Rouge, and a participative digital platform designed as a tribute to Lancôme’s customers “You are Lancôme”. Five participants who entered this creative ‘selfie’ contest won a ticket to the WÔW party.

The celebration will reach its climax in December with the launch of two extremely limited editions: the re-edition of Les Jumelés, a jewel lipstick case form Lancôme’s patrimony, and a very special version of the new La Vie est Belle l’Extrait created with France’s oldest high jeweller, Mellerio dit Mellers. Stay tuned!

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Stéphane Fougère for Lancôme, © Sandra Bauknecht

Isabella Rossellini`s love for Bulgari started as a child during the glamorous golden years of 1960s Rome when she accompagnied her famous mother, Ingrid Bergman, to the Italian jeweler in Via Condotti in Rome. The daughter of two legends became her own style icon and has been wearing Bulgari jewels to exclusive occasions many times.  Today, this long and felicitous relationship has generated an exclusive leather creation that was unveiled yesterday for the haute couture shows in Paris: The “Isabella Rossillini” bag by Bulgari.

It reinterprets the elegant style of the former golden screen divas in a modern key and comes in four colours and materials to reflect Isabella`s personality.

I love the handmade enameled claps embellished with semiprecious stones.

 

 

Find out which one suits you best!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lining is finely printed with a single, eccentric motif: playful snails inspired by Isabella`s recent efforts to support the ecological cause by making short educational films about the reproductive habits of the animal world. I truly invite you to see those short movies (by Jody Shapiro).

Applauded at the Sundance, Berlin and Tribeca film festivals, they combine comedy and curiosity and have since been made into a book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the season`s retro glance focused a lot on the `50s and `60s, the new Isabella Rossellini bag is a stylish accessory to carry around this fall. Available from this month in all Bulgari stores worldwide.

LoL, Sandra