FOR THE LOVE OF GEMS

Lucia Silvestri, the creative director of Bulgari, on offering a legacy to the new generation, and why she keeps coming back to India.

- JISHNU BANDYOPADHYAY

Being the creative director of Bulgari was the last thing that Lucia Silvestri dreamt of becoming. But if you scroll through her Instagram, you wouldn’t be able to imagine her as anything else. Glimmering colourburst of gemstones line her feed, and shots from her office desk intermingle with global icons, like Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Zendaya, wearing her creations. “I never studied gems, and neither did I know my attraction to these shiny pieces of earth. I was set to become a biologist or a nutritionist. Nothing to do with jewellery. But when I first started as an intern, and I met Mr Bulgari, he had a desk full of the most beautiful gemstones. I took one look at them, and I knew immediately that this was my passion. I decided that I needed to follow my heart, and not my rationality. I was so very drawn to these stones, it was magical,” Lucia recalls.