Hidden Treasures : At the Discreet Bulgari, the Jewels Are Shown by Appointment Only
Small is putting it mildly.
No, not the size of the jewels, particularly the 81-carat blue sapphire (about as big as a chocolate truffle) embedded in a diamond choker ($1.3 million). The size of the store selling them.
At Bulgari, which opened last week in Beverly Hills, there is room for one salesperson and one gilt-trimmed desk. Foot traffic isn’t just discouraged, it’s impossible. Customers enter the salon, furtively housed in a transformed one-bedroom suite at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, only by appointment.
Nicola Bulgari likes to call it discreet--unlike, he says, so much of what he sees in Los Angeles. Along with his brother, Nicola is the force behind the century-old, Rome-based jeweler’s international expansion in the last 21 years.
Bulgari now has 17 shops, including sites in Tokyo, Osaka and Singapore and two in Hong Kong. A year and a half ago, Bulgari added a second New York store; the first is concealed inside the Pierre Hotel.
Next year, Bulgari says, the company will build its largest store in Tokyo. Jewelry accounts for 70% of its sales, while watches and silver objects make up the rest. The least expensive item is a pen ($250).
While the recession finds many retailers scaling back and closing doors, this company firmly believes in looking beyond the bad times.
“When times are very hard, we move forward,” says Bulgari, who wears one of his own signature watches with BVLGARI--the original Roman spelling--engraved on its gold bezel.
“When the storm is there, you have to believe it won’t be there forever. You have to trust in your business. People are always looking for something of quality and durability,” he says.
The modest little suite may be only a glimmer of things to come in the city that already houses most of the world’s prestige jewelers: Van Cleef & Arpels, Harry Winston, Tiffany & Co., Fred Joaillier, Buccellati and Cartier. Asked if his company will look for a larger, more prominent site in Beverly Hills, Bulgari would only hint: “We have other plans.”
