Bottega Veneta’s Matthieu Blazy on the house’s debut fine jewellery collection

“We produce exceptional things when it comes to clothes, and bags, because we have great artisans – so I thought, Why not jewellery?” Matthieu Blazy, the creative director of Bottega Veneta, is in Venice describing his unhurried approach to the house’s latest endeavour: its first fine jewellery collection. We are discussing these glittering prizes sequestered in a salon in a ridiculously elegant 15th-century Venetian palazzo; on the table between us are the 15 pieces that make up this inaugural undertaking – sleek if gargantuan teardrop earrings; chain bracelets imposing enough to ward off evil spirits; rings whose sweetness is cut with thorns. (The pieces in this initial collection are grouped into four families: Drop, Catena, Primavera, and Enlaced.)

“We started with very few objects,” Blazy explains, with the quiet intensity that informs both his personality and his work. Since taking the reins at Bottega Veneta in late 2021, Blazy has treaded that enviable territory between astonishing artisanal craft and unforced modernism, with his collections among the most anticipated in any fashion season. Maybe it is not so surprising, then, that he should be drawn to creating jewelry that echoes the clean lines and discreet whimsy – those feather hems! – of his clothes. Then again, the whole notion of “investment dressing” has lately undergone a seismic shift: It no longer means predictable classics that last forever, but now includes one-off pieces that justify their price tags with both their uniqueness and the care with which they are made. And isn’t fine jewelry, after all, the ultimate investment – deeply personal, crafted to last for generations? (Last point: If times are tough, you can’t melt a dress and get your money out, but a serious piece of jewelry will always retain its worth.)

“It’s never about the number of things in a collection,” Blazy insists. “It’s about having the right things.” These right things include those huge 18-karat-gold teardrop earrings, whose lightness belies their size. “I liked the singularity of it as an object, as well as how it would look with the clothes,” he says. “The idea was: Just because it’s big, it doesn’t have to be heavy. You have the whole world reflected in it, like a drop of water.” And though Blazy thinks its contours owe a debt to Brancusi, when I venture to suggest that there’s a bit of Grace Jones at Studio 54 in their combination of austerity and audacity, he laughs in agreement.

“We started with the drop, but I was also very interested in introducing diamonds and precious stones,” Blazy continues. To that end, rosettes curve around a diamond band—an homage to his grandmother’s toi et moi ring. “We did pavé, too, but not in a classic way.” Instead, he employed a startling array of cuts in a single earring, because “when it is uneven, it captures the light differently.”

A gleaming 18-karat-gold evening purse, as heavy as those teardrops are light and incorporating the house’s famous woven intrecciato leather motif, could double as a weapon if things took a rough turn at a particularly louche soiree. (Barring those high jinks, this item could also reside happily on a chic sideboard.) “The gold box is very interesting, but also traditional,” Blazy says. “In the 1930s, they were making minaudières like this.”

Unlike some designers, who are caught up short when they expand into different categories, Blazy took to fine jewellery with a natural ease: “I was like a fish in water!” he exclaims. “The artisans, and the passion – that’s why I do this job!” The pieces were all created in Vicenza, a centre of Italian jewellery-making for the past 700 years, where Blazy traveled often. “I loved working with them and having them come up with crazy solutions – I was always asking them: ‘Can we go further?’  ”

Nor is Blazy a stranger to the lure of an object with an idiosyncratic provenance. He grew up, he says, in auction rooms and flea markets, and he has long collected Mexican silver and Art Deco pieces. He shows me his prized possession – an extraordinary silver bracelet, designed by Line Vautrin, who worked with Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1940s – which he found in a little shop in Belgium. It features (are you ready for this?) a policeman on one side and a thief on the other.

Of course, when you investigate the roots of an artist’s vision, it quickly becomes clear that ideas bubble up everywhere. The chain bracelet – buy a pair and it transforms into a necklace! – was inspired by the vintage lighting chains that would hang a lamp or a chandelier. Two of its links are artfully misshapen, as if rebelling against being a conventional cable. A thorny gold necklace enlivened by diamonds is, it turns out, a glamorous take on Blazy’s garden that took three years to hone. “At my house in Milan, there is a trellis, and there was jasmine, kind of spiky, crawling over it. I like that tension – beauty, but sometimes also danger.”

What if I wanted this trellis as an ankle bracelet, or maybe a rosette body chain? Well, yes: The whole idea behind this 7,000-square-foot palazzo is that it is a special place for special customers, beyond mere VIPs – an atelier at their service to accommodate their wildest flights of fancy. “Here you find what you can’t find anywhere else,” Blazy says. “It is a place where the artisans can really show their craft.”

Though the jewellery will be available at Bottega flagships across the globe, ultimately this sort of personal attention can only be accommodated by a trip to Venice. (Would this be so bad?) And though it is only a short walk from the madding crowds choking Piazza San Marco, to enter this refuge in the hushed Cannaregio neighbourhood is like entering another dimension – a universe inhabited by the finest midcentury-modern furniture on the planet: here a George Nakashima bench, there a Jorge Zalszupin Petalas side table. Shelves display the house’s trademark woven satchels, and racks offer those spectacular faded blue trousers that might be denim—but no, they are leather; one of Blazy’s famous flourishes.

What unites everything – from the wittiest jeans to the most commodious intrecciato totes to those cheerful gold teardrops – is Blazy’s insistence that nothing will bear Bottega’s signature until he is absolutely sure it is ready for prime time.

“There are pants I have been working on for two years, and they are still not done,” he says, smiling. “I would rather take my time. As we say in the company: We count in days, not hours. I tell the team, ‘Don’t do anything that doesn’t evoke emotion – it has to make your heart pound.’ ”

In this story: hair, Panos Papandrianos; makeup, Yumi Lee; manicurist, Dawn Sterling; produced by Boom Productions.