Is it time for luxury to look inward again and value its craft? Newly minted creative director of Bulgari’s leather goods and accessories Mary Katrantzou is quite possibly the voice luxury has been missing in recent years. Dan Ahwa talks to her about ushering in a new era for the
It’s 10am in Florence and Mary Katrantzou is waiting to be admitted into our scheduled video call. In contrast to my 8pm surroundings back in Auckland — a soulless meeting room at the office glaring underneath LED lights — Katrantzou’s beautifully diffused morning light filters through the large French windows behind her, no doubt overlooking some renaissance-style palazzo below, framed by soft lemon wallpaper. Dialling in from Bulgari’s Florence HQ, the brief snapshot of Katrantzou’s surroundings from what I can gather on my fuzzy corporate laptop is still unapologetically 100% bellissimo.
“I’m in beautiful Florence, and I’ve decided to find a beautiful room to take my meetings where it’s nice and quiet,” says the 41-year-old Greek designer, who was announced in April this year as Bulgari’s creative director of leather goods and accessories, the first in the brand’s 140-year-history. But it’s not unfamiliar terrain for Katrantzou, a designer synonymous with her love of kaleidoscopic colours and geometric patterns, motifs which have helped shape her design aesthetic via her London-based eponymous line of demi-couture and ready-to-wear.
In 2019, she styled her spring/summer collection, breathtakingly staged at the historic Temple of Poseidon in Athens, with Bulgari jewels. A year later, she was invited to guest design a capsule range of handbags and minaudières inspired by Bulgari’s iconic Serpenti motif, a signature Bulgari icon famously beloved by Elizabeth Taylor.
Katrantzou returned last year for her second Serpenti-inspired collection, a range of embroidered Serpenti Metamorphosis bags, in a nod to the couture techniques employed in her fashion line. “Mary was perfect to create a very elevated project,” explained managing director of leather goods and accessories Mireia Lopez Montoya. “She’s Greek, like our founder, she’s a joy of life, a volcano of ideas, a beautiful mind, a beautiful person. She is maybe the closest to the brand in terms of personality.” Graduating to the prestigious role has come organically then.
But it’s a gift from her father — a Bulgari watch — where the connection runs deep. “Thank you, father!” she says laughing as she recalls the sentimental treasure, gifted upon her high school graduation. Her roots have also played a part in influencing her direction in life; her father is one of the most prominent manufacturers and retailers of sports apparel in Greece, and her mother was an interior designer.
In 2008, Katrantzou’s now-seminal graduation collection from the prestigious Central Saint Martin’s quickly became a fashion moment in 2008. Showcasing a medley of jersey-bonded dresses featuring distinctive trompe l’oeil prints of oversized jewellery, the collection was swiftly ordered by notable stockists at the time like Browns and Joyce and the now-closed Colette, and cemented her as a designer with a distinctive design aesthetic centred around a love of bold colour and print. Like every great designer who peddles in the flamboyant, Katrantzou is famously known for wearing black. “I think there are two types of designers,” she told the Guardian in 2018, “those who wear their own clothes and become an advocate for their brand, and those who dress in monochrome to shift the focus away from themselves and on to their work. I’m definitely the latter.”
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It’s an approach to the business that might also help her navigate the intricacies involved in running a luxury brand that is still seeing record growth in the past year as reported by its parent company LVMH. But the appointment also coincides with what’s turned out to be a critical time for luxury goods overall.
Global management firm Bain and Company reported last month a 1% to 3% year-over-year decline in sales of personal luxury items in the first quarter of 2024, while at Burberry, an entire restructure has taken place as the heritage British brand is now actively trying to figure out its premium standing in the luxury space after reporting its full-year operating profits had plunged 36% to just under $537 million. While other luxury fashion houses have been criticised for their lack of diversity when it comes to tapping top talent in creative director positions, Katrantzou’s appointment offers some glimmer of hope.
But it’s no surprise for those familiar with her work. Katrantzou has built a career on successfully staying true to her distinctive design aesthetic and her Greek heritage. It’s a bonus factor to her hire — the company’s founder Sotirio Bulgari was also Greek.
“I’ve had the honour and privilege of working with Bulgari for the past five years on various projects and collaborations, so I’ve had the opportunity to develop trust with the brand, which is rare. Before any appointment, you never really have much time to develop a relationship naturally. I’ve had the time to study and understand the brand, so it is a milestone moment for me and a milestone for Bulgari because they have never had a creative director for their accessories.”
While we’ve witnessed a high turnover of creative directors in luxury in recent times, from Rhuigi Villaseñor’s departure from Swiss label Bally after a little over a year, to French designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s abrupt departure from Ann Demeulemeester, Katrantzou’s appointment and the way it has come about is a significant reminder of the value in hiring experienced creative directors.
“I’ve had the time to study the archive. I’ve had the time to get to know the teams before joining, and I have had the time to develop a vision for the category. So, of course it’s a big responsibility, but I couldn’t have dreamt of it happening more naturally.”
When Katrantzou talks about luxury today, one can’t help but be comforted by her fluency in understanding both commercial responsibilities and catering to the emotional desires people have when consuming luxury goods. Her track record for collaborations with everyone from The Rug Company to adidas also offers some confidence in a designer capable of balancing the breadth of the industry.
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Advertise with NZME.“As a woman and as somebody who has always been drawn to Bulgari’s aesthetic, even as part of my upbringing and my formation as a designer, it’s the point of distinction,” she says in a continental accent, which includes shades of Greek, Italian and British. At the start of the pandemic, she returned to Athens after living in London for several years where she lives with her husband, neurology professor Marios Politis, and their 2-and-a-half-year-old baby, Michael.
“I think the gravity behind Bulgari as a brand and its importance in design history is how strong their symbolism is, and how rich the narrative behind each symbol is. What draws me to a Bulgari bag, the eyewear, or a scarf, is the storytelling. There’s so much richness in the narrative. Whether it’s the iconic Serpenti story, or the Tubogas watches or the Monete collection, or new icons like Divas Dream. What excites me is the opportunity to be self-referential, to study these archives, and to continue to reinvent those symbols. I recognise how strong these icons are and how strong the narrative is, and of course, the innovation that happens on the design side. It’s not just storytelling — it’s the opportunity to work with the best artisans, the best craftspeople. To also treat the leather accessories with the same preciousness that we treat the jewellery.”
To help usher in her new position, Katrantzou will unveil a new Bulgari pattern identity — the Calla, inspired by the intricate mosaics of the Terme di Caracalla, the second largest Roman public baths from Ancient Rome. It’s a fragment already part of Bulgari’s existing Divas Dream collection, a sensuously curving fan, with links to the Gingko leaf and a symbol of strength and resilience; and with the Calla lily, drawn from the Greek “magnificent beauty”, and an emblem of purity and rebirth.
The collection is a confident evolution of what Katrantzou has created for the house in the past, but in keeping with the forward-thinking innovation she is fostering in her new role. The collection includes a padded nappa shoulder bag and a trapèze-shaped tote known as the “Serpentine Duo” handbag, with a forged metal handle, featuring a double Serpenti head on each side. The designs highlight Bulgari’s innovative approach to haute leather goods and is a stake in the ground for Katrantzou’s commitment to the House.
“The first collection is fairly singular. I felt we needed a pattern and symbol that can work alongside Serpenti which we didn’t have in the past, but could act as a leitmotif. I was looking for something that was very image-based and that in the future, it can evolve in its own pillar.”
As soon as Katrantzou saw the patterns of these ancient Roman baths and researched their history, she realised the power of its potential given Bulgari has played a pivotal part in helping fund the restoration of the mosaic floor in 2015 and 2016. “To me it was already an authentic connection to our Roman roots.”
In a time when luxury brands such as Dior and Armani have come under fire for labour exploitation of the manufacturing of some of their designer handbags, Bulgari’s leather Savoir-faire is a technical response that signals, when they go low, we go haute. For example, a bedazzled Ginko clutch rounds out the debut line, suspended from a leather bracelet made in fine nappa leather and moulded metal. The striking piece combines the artisan work of jewellery-making and leather craft in a single, collectible item.
“My intention with this design was to extract an emblematic silhouette. The amount of innovation these pieces have comes from how we study watches and jewellery, so there’s a strong technical component to the way we approach leather too. From the opening of a bag, or a bag handle, or sometimes for proportionate sale, the innovation is mind-blowing,” says Katrantzou.
But what is it like to physically hold in your hand?
“It’s almost like having the most incredible ingredients in say, the world of chemistry, and being able to create newness by these combinations. But these ingredients have their own property and their own nature that has been honed for decades. This is inspiring for me to learn from the design and when you find ways to translate all this into a new or different category. By doing this, you’re creating truly iconic pieces that have stood the test of time, and you’re able to adapt and use that vocabulary to build a new chapter. This is when you have pieces of true magnificence. We need to be alchemists of our own design integrity and push it in the future.”
I ask her if it gets exhausting always having to maintain this level of excellence. “I always feel fulfilled when I feel that we are discovering something we haven’t seen before. I think this is the true joy of a creator.”
Her late and great central Saint Martin’s master mentor and tutor, the formidable professor Louise Wilson who died in 2014 and whose past graduates included the best of contemporary British masters Phoebe Philo, Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders, imparted some pearls of wisdom that remain with Katrantzou today.
”In the beginning of my career, I was always very doubtful and didn’t believe in myself,” she says. “I remember being out at dinner and my husband told Louise, ‘Mary has achieved all these things, but she still doesn’t believe in herself’ and she turned and said to my husband ‘Of course she doesn’t believe in herself, she’s a creator.’
“The next day she sent me a quote by Robert Hughes — ‘the greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.’ That made me use my doubt, as an indication of breaking new ground.”
As star designers and creative directors are far and few between these days, Katrantzou represents a new generation of luxury leaders helping navigate the industry to a new and innovative future. After all, she’s been preparing for this moment her entire life.
Mary Katrantzou’s debut Calla collection is available to New Zealand customers by special order from August.
Dan Ahwa is Viva’s fashion and creative director and a senior premium lifestyle journalist for the New Zealand Herald, specialising in fashion, luxury, arts and culture. He is also an award-winning stylist with more than 17 years of experience, and is a co-author and co-curator of the New Zealand Fashion Museum’s Moana Currents: Dressing Aotearoa Now.
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