BVLGARI @ The Enduring Success of The B.zero1 ring Celebration

Bvlgari celebrates the enduring success of one of its most iconic pieces ~ the B.zero1 ring with a grand party at the Bulgari Hotel in Milan during the Design Week. The frame of the prestigious international fair does not come by chance: launched at the end of 1999, on the cusp of the end of the old millenium and the beginning of a brave new one, the B.zero1 ring has been standing out for 14 years like a true brand design statement conveying in an immediate and powerful way all the strength of the Bulgari style. 

 Its radical, industrial design is the fusion of two hallmarks of the Bulgari iconography: the Tubogas motif and the distinctive BVLGARI logo. In tune with the rich creative heritage of the brand, its iconic spiral is a metaphor for the triumphant harmony of past, present and future as well as – in a seamless transition between beginning  and end -  a symbol for eternal renewal. Engraved along the side, the BVLGARI logo encircles itself, reflecting the spiral for a perfect synthesis of tradition and innovation.

This year the colorful and playful advertising campaign shot by Fabrizio Ferri in 2000 for the very first B.zero1 worldwide launch will be exceptionally on air. The central garden of the hotel will be transformed for the occasion, its centerpiece a large colored installation of a pair of hands evoking the Ferri shots. This motif will be very familiar to visitors to Bulgari’s flagship boutique on via Montenapoleone where a smaller version  will be set up.

The B.zero1’s ongoing success owes much to the lyrical and timelessness of its design, composed of two perfectly balanced parts. The first, a central looping band, references the golden hoops of the Tubogas’s flexible tubular chain, a late 19^th century design named after the winding tubes of the petrol pump or gas hose that Bulgari had reintroduced in the 1940s. The band is created using an extremely sophisticated technique in which long metal strips are wrapped and interlocked without any soldering. And while the loops had earlier been used extensively to create serpentine rings, bracelets, necklaces and even watch bands, the B.zero1 marked the first time it was reintepreted in such an elemental, minimalist manner.

The second part of the B.zero1 features two flat rings that clasp around the sleek central loops, each engraved with the imposing gravitas of the BVLGARI double logo. The iconic font was introduced for the first time in 1934, with the revamping of the flagship via Condotti store in Rome. For the occasion, the Bulgari family decided to adopt the ancient Roman epigraphy incorporating the Latin ‘V’ instead of the Anglicised ‘U’ in one fell swoop, stretching the house name far back into Roman culture which is the rich, unending source of inspiration for so much of Bulgari’s creative DNA.

The purity and the simplicity of the B.zero1 designs were meant to never date. In that sense, there is nothing ‘simple’ about the B.zero1. Because as any design buff will attest, the simplest things are, invariably, the most difficult to create. When it was conceived, the intention was to convey all Bulgari’s incredible attention to detail and craftsmanship at the most cursory glance, whether it’s in the quality of the setting or the precise fit of each piece.