Buccellati is inviting its inner circle to look at silverware from a completely different angle — preferably through the bottom of an exquisite crystal glass. The high jewellery Maison has renewed its partnership with interior designer Chahan Minassian to open an intimate, double-height Caviar Bar inside the historic family flagship at Via Montenapoleone 23 in Milan.
Tucked away in a private courtyard space inside Palazzo Gavazzi, the project transforms the brand’s legendary ‘ Art de la Table’ silverware archive into a fully functional hospitality environment.
The Caviar Bar was designed following the features of the signature ‘ Caviar’ collection , famed for a dense surface texture composed of entirely hand-crafted silver microspheres. Minassian has taken that micro-beaded motif and expanded it across a room lined with vaulted surfaces entirely garbed in custom mirrored panels, rendered in nuanced tones of copper, silver and smoky grey.
Visitors enter through an atmospheric gallery that recalls the ceremonial sequences of 19th-century Milanese palazzi. This path then opens into a main salon dominated by dramatic verticality, where a glazed mezzanine level overlooks the lounge seating, bespoke bistro tables and a central bar arranged to host conversational intimacy.
“The objective was to create an interior that felt welcoming and lived-in while preserving the architectural grandeur of Palazzo Gavazzi,” Minassian explains. “The mirrors introduce light, movement and depth, while the materials, textiles and Murano glass bring warmth and intimacy.”
The double-height lounge combines antique Murano glass chandeliers with custom-designed velvet sofas, Fortuny fabrics and richly textured leathers, establishing a residential mood where guests sip drinks alongside new additions to the Caviar lineup. The spherical design motif — reinterpreted by Andrea Buccellati from an original drawing — adorns a comprehensive new flatware set, ice buckets, champagne flutes, trays and two distinct sizes of caviar serving bowls, all finished with a delicate crown of silver microspheres.
But that’s not all. The bar also serves as the active setting for the house’s most eccentric silverware collections, treating centuries of Italian bottega craft as dynamic tabletop accents.
For instance, the tablespace highlights the ‘Furry’ collection , a series of realistic silver animal sculptures first devised in the 1960s by Gianmaria Buccellati. The unique hair-like manual technique involves hand-fraying paper-thin silver sheets over plaster moulds to create hyper-detailed deer, eagles and flamingos.
These sit alongside smaller, tender creatures like squirrels, sparrows, dogs, koalas, monkeys and oryxes, complemented by feathered birds that look alive. To accent the experience, the Maison has also integrated its new ‘Furry’ bowls collection, displaying textured, decorative silver receptacles across the lounges.
Buccellati, Caviar and Jam Jar collections.
The remaining corners of the bar introduce a playful splash of colour via the ‘ Jam Jar’ collection . Here, the pieces fuse hand-blown Murano glass bases with sculpted silver lids shaped like delicate botanical foliage, expanding this season to include a realistic, deep-purple blackberry jar.
These additions join the existing pieces shaped like lemons, oranges, plums, apples, pears, mushrooms, pumpkins and peaches. To heighten the tablescape’s decorative appeal, matching miniature place card holders — designed as tiny replicas of fruits and vegetables — are also scattered across the settings.
The venue rounds out its study of the natural world with the ‘ Nature’ collection , showcasing silver triptych bowls inspired by flower petals, leaf-shaped picture frames and monumental table centrepieces. These include the historic ‘Armatae Flores’ — a majestic centrepiece composed of a handcrafted garland of artichokes grafted onto a silicified wooden base — and the theatrical poppy centrepiece, featuring light silver blooms rising from a functional floral container.
The new Buccellati Caviar Bar is open for private client commissions and hospitality bookings at the Milan flagship. Discover all the new Buccellati collections here .
photography. courtesy of Giulio Ghirardi (interiors), Buccellati words. Gennaro Costanzo
Linea Light Group has taken its latest architectural project up to 1,600 metres above sea level, working inside the newly opened Colere 1600 by Cloud 7 Hotels , in Italy’s Orobie Bergamasche Park. The lighting specialists have collaborated with Milanese studio P2A Design to treat light like a structural material and an integral part of its decor with the new Linealight Collection .
The installations create a continuous visual thread that runs from the subterranean well-being zones up to the panoramic terrace, adjusting its intensity to map out the changing rhythms of day and night against the Presolana sky.
Inside the 28 guest rooms, the lighting configuration focuses on building a warm, low-glare environment that emphasises the natural texturing of the oak and stone interiors. Spherical, uniform ‘ Oh!’ pendants hang overhead to diffuse a soft, natural glow, while discreet Basin ceiling fixtures manage the general illumination.
The system integrates adjustable Bart spotlights directly into the headboards to isolate the sleeping zones, running parallel to recessed Baton LEDs that eliminate unwanted glare and the indirect, home-like warmth of Poe floor lamps. The architecture relies mostly on these multi-layered modulations — including the evening accents of the Yo-Yo wall light — to make sure the illumination follows the mood of the stay without ever imposing itself on the space.
Dining areas at Colere 1600 by Francesca Iovene.
Spa and rooms at Colere 1600 by Francesca Iovene.
The common spaces shift into a more dynamic and articulated formatting to handle the hotel’s various social functions. The main lobby and lounge areas combine technical Modoc downlights , Optus fixtures and Ribbon LED strips with decorative, floating spheres from the Oh! family to give the architectural layout its character.
In the dining spaces, like the ‘Plan del Sole’ à la carte restaurant, this balance continues through functional track heads and Cristalbolla glass pendants that throw delicate reflections across the tables. Meanwhile, the Sky Room relies on Crew fixtures to create a relaxed evening orbit.
The visual path extends out onto the spa terrace and solarium retaining walls, where flush-mounted Quara step lights mark the vertical masonry and paths without bleeding light pollution into the dark alpine night.
Plan del Sole at Colere 1600 by Francesca Iovene.
Terrace space at Colere 1600 by Francesca Iovene.
The property beneath this complex lighting scheme functions as a vast, 2,800-square-metre Alpine hub designed by P2A Design for year-round mountain transit. Developed by the international lifestyle group Kerten Hospitality , the resort transforms a mid-century cableway station into a simplified stone-and-larch destination accessible exclusively by chairlift. The layout coordinates open lounge areas centred around dual black steel fireplaces, a panoramic wellness spa and the slopeside Barbarossa self-service counter built for quick mid-ski meals.
Discover the Linealight Collection here .
photography. courtesy of Francesca Iovene words. Gennaro Costanzo
Jean Schlumberger at his working table, Hotel Regina, by Luc Bouchage, 1951, MAD.
Paris Fashion Week is on the horizon, but the most compelling line-up in town isn’t hitting a the runway this season. Instead, Tiffany & Co . is setting up camp in the French capital to launch a multi-year preservation initiative dedicated to the creative universe of the legendary jewellery designer Jean Schlumberger.
Partnering with the Musée des Arts Décoratifs , the luxury house is embarking on a monumental digital archive project to rescue, conserve and scan roughly 5,000 original sketches and 5,000 historic documents that have remained tucked away from public view.
To kick off the partnership, the duo has conceived ‘I Am Only a Pencil’, an immersive private exhibition curated in tandem with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts that maps out the precise evolution from a simple stroke of graphite to a multi-million-pound high jewellery masterpiece. The installation pairs fragile, historical works on paper directly with the physical treasures they generated, focusing heavily on items recovered from the private collection of Schlumberger’s lifetime confidante, the renowned philanthropist and landscape architect Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon.
left. Jean Schlumberger, sketch for the Jasmine necklace, 1961-2, MAD right. Jean Schlumberger, sketch for the Tulips necklace, 1959, MAD
Jean Schlumberger, Sketch for the Butterflies Bracelets for Rachel Bunny Mellon, 1956, MAD.
When Schlumberger joined Tiffany & Co. in 1956, he ushered in a new era for the house, bringing an eccentric and highly imaginative vocabulary of birds, flowers, marine life and fantastical forms to jewellery through an instinctive sense of movement, colour and wit. The exhibition follows these recurring motifs through a series of thematic displays, with Hedges and Flowers, Jasmine and Tulips among the creations shown alongside their corresponding designs.
Other sections explore the influence of Surrealism on his objets d’art and the role of couture in shaping his creative output.
The visual layout naturally culminates in a comprehensive study of the ‘Bird on a Rock’, arguably the most enduring high jewellery profile in modern history. The display brings out one of the very first iterations of the brooch ever manufactured — the personal piece belonging to Mrs Mellon, which features the signature diamond-set cockatoo balanced atop a striking lapis lazuli stone rather than the traditional citrines or aquamarines seen today.
left. Jean Schlumberger, Mermaid (Siréne) (Candlestick), 1969 right. Jean Schlumberger, Table Clock, ca. 1962
left. Tiffany & Co. Jean Schlumberger, Bird on a Rock brooch, 1965 right. Jean Schlumberger, Sketch for Sphere for Rachel Bunny Mellon, ca. 1964, MAD
Yet ‘I Am Only a Pencil’ is about more than revisiting a celebrated chapter in Tiffany’s history. By bringing fragile original drawings and archival material together with the finished jewels they produced, the exhibition also preserves the less visible stages of jewellery design — the sketches, ideas and experiments that might otherwise disappear long before the finished pieces do.
The wider archive initiative extends that idea considerably, ensuring that thousands of Schlumberger’s original works survive not simply as records of Tiffany’s past, but as a source of inspiration for the designers and researchers still to come.
The ‘I Am Only a Pencil’ exhibition was presented privately to invited guests in Paris on September 28, with selected material from the wider Jean Schlumberger archive initiative to be made accessible digitally. Find out more here .
photography. courtesy of Tiffany & Co. and Musée des Arts Décoratifs words. Gennaro Costanzo
If you’re ever tempted to get a tattoo, Kim Kardashian’s legendary advice about not putting a bumper sticker on a Bentley will inevitably come to mind. Yet on Wednesday evening, Bentley itself flipped that pop-culture rule completely on its head.
Guests leaving 180 Studios on The Strand walked away with cheeky ‘Bentley Boy’ and ‘Bentley Girl’ decals alongside a sample of ‘Become’, the house fragrance. The occasion for this rare bit of brand mythology?
Bentley has finally entered the electric conversation, choosing London as the setting to drop a glimpse into the future of luxury motoring.
The global unveiling of the Torcal marks a massive milestone: it is Bentley’s first-ever fully electric production vehicle, introducing an entirely new fourth model line to the historic British marque. Deep racing green dominated the room, casting a moody glow across the main attraction.
The Torcal debuted in a luminous, forest-green finish, while a second slate-grey version sat close by, giving attendees an unhurried look at the revised architecture from every angle. Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh , ‘Bridgerton’ star Simone Ashley and Jodie Turner-Smith led a highly polished crowd that gathered to watch the sheets come off the five-metre luxury SUV.
The silhouette represents a heavy structural shift without losing the hand-finished nuances that make a Bentley recognisable from a mile away. A classic long bonnet, short overhangs, and a vertical front nose are framed by a new illuminated diamond grille, flowing backward into pronounced rear haunches.
The design team has visualised the posture as a “resting beast” — a title that fits the car’s sense of contained muscle. “The Torcal is a Bentley first and foremost, created by hand by people who care, using the best available materials and technology to blend heritage with cutting-edge innovation,” says Bentley Chairman and CEO Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser.
The engineering tucked beneath the floorboards is where things get genuinely radical. The Torcal deploys twin electric motors, with the core model pushing out an imposing 821 PS and 1,155 Nm of torque.
Step up to the Torcal S, and those figures climb to a staggering 888 PS and 1,350 Nm when Launch Control is active. The S variant will rocket to 60mph in just 2.8 seconds, though the suspension tuning feels fully geared towards buttery refinement.
Bentley Active Ride brings independently controlled dampers to each wheel, while all-wheel steering reduces the turning circle to around 11 metres. The battery offers up to 600km of WLTP range, with 10–80 per cent charging in 16 minutes on a 400kW supply.
Simone Ashley, Jodie Turner-Smith and more by Claire Menary.
Inside, the cabin treatment feels wonderfully tactile. The standard 16-speaker audio setup can be swapped out for a massive 28-speaker Naim sound system, running parallel to a Dynamic Waterfall Lighting matrix that uses more than 450 LEDs to react directly to the car’s throttle acceleration.
Bentley has also developed a 100 per cent Merino wool automotive fabric with Somerset weavers Fox Brothers , alongside new walnut finishes made partly from responsibly sourced off-cuts. It arrives as the opening statement for the brand’s next design and electronic era, loading the Strand with enough sustainable craft and heavy engineering to make the electric transition feel surprisingly real.
The new Bentley Torcal luxury electric SUV will be available for early commissions later this season. Find out more here .
photography. courtesy of Claire Menary and Bentley words. Gennaro Costanzo