Carolina Bucci

Carolina Bucci (born 1976) is an Italian jewellery designer. Born in Florence, Italy, she lives between London, UK and New York, USA.

Biography

Growing up in Florence, Italy, surrounded by jewellery and jewellers, Carolina backed up her desire to design with an education that provided her with the technical know-how necessary to execute her vision, studying Fine Arts and Jewellery Design in New York at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Returning to Florence after her studies, she worked alongside local goldsmiths encouraging them to push the boundaries of their traditional practices to create her first collection, Woven. Using a centuries-old Florentine textile loom to weave gold and silk threads, this collection has become her trademark.

Carolina Bucci has been listed in Vanity Fair’s annual ‘Power Player’ list for the jewellery industry for the past few years, and a selection of her designs is showcased in the permanent jewellery collection of the Palazzo Pitti Museum in Florence.

In 2003 UK Vogue featured a cover photo of Salma Hayek wearing Bucci's necklace, which led to Bucci developing her first non-US retailer—London's multi-brand store Browns.^[1] The jewelry is available in Harrods, Bergdorf Goodman, Lane Crawford, Colette, Luisa Via Roma and other stores.^[2] Bucci opened a flagship store in Belgravia London in 2007, and a second in Porto Montenegro in 2011.^[3] In 2013, Carolina Bucci was chosen to be a Brand Ambassador for Tod's No_Code .

History

In 1885, Carolina Bucci’s great-grandfather, Ferdinando Bucci, opened a workshop in Florence specializing in the sale and repair of gentlemen’s pocket watches. A talented artisan and goldsmith, Bucci soon began to design gold chains to accessorize his clients’ timepieces, and from there he moved into the production of fine jewellery.

By the time his son, Fosco, took over in 1920, the workshop was one of the most influential in the city and the business continued to grow as a supplier of fine jewellery across the whole of Italy. Around this time Fosco Bucci also moved the showroom to Piazza Santo Stefano, next to Florence’s fashionable Ponte Vecchio, which remains to this day the city’s traditional hub of artisans and goldsmiths.

After the Second World War, Carolina Bucci’s father, also called Ferdinando, picked up where his father had left off and grew the business internationally, particularly in the US and Japan. But through all of these many decades of expansion the manufacture of the jewellery has always been concentrated in the family’s local workshops.

Charitable Collaborations

Bucci has produced an annual limited edition collection that is designed to benefit a selected charity. In 2008, the collaboration was with WaterAid,^[4] and in 2009, with Global Action for Children.^[5] 2010's collaboration was with (RED)^[6] with profits going to The Global Fund to help fight AIDS in Africa. In 2011, Carolina Bucci collaborated with Petra Ecclestone for the Meningitis Trust.

References

External links

• Official website