Marina B 3.12Kt Oval Elongated Aquamarine 18K White Yellow Gold Solitaire Ring

No stranger to fanciful, bold jewelry designs, Marina Bulgari is the granddaughter of the founder of the legendary luxury house BVLGARI. In the 1970s, she established her own brand, Marina B, and her vibrantly colored, exclusive accessories were widely coveted by jewelry lovers of the 1980s. The same goes for the collectors of today. 

When her grandfather Sotirios passed away in 1932, Marina Bulgari’s father Constantino took over the iconic jewelry house alongside his brother Giorgio. Since she was a child, her passion for art and design was wholly enriched and broadened thanks to the historically celebrated family business that was growing in popularity around her. She studied at Saint Mary’s College in England and upon graduating began to contribute her own designs to BVLGARI. When her uncle Giorgio died in 1966, Marina began to help run the business. When her father passed away in 1973, she took his place at the luxury house and remained there for three more years before striking out on her own.

The first Marina B boutique opened in Geneva in 1978. In the years that followed, more locations were established in Milan, New York City and Paris. Marina’s brand embodied luxurious, easy-to-wear jewelry — for women, by women. Women of the era were newly independent, and the jewelry industry — its workshops, boutiques, and other areas of the business — had long been led by men. Alongside Marina, the likes of Elsa Peretti, Angela Cummings and a range of others whose work is still being brought to light today would change that.

Elizabeth Taylor — a dedicated enthusiast of BVLGARI’s dazzling eye candy and the sinuous snake motif that has come to be synonymous with the brand — was among the high-profile admirers of Marina B jewelry in its early days, and her accessories could frequently be seen as part of Taylor’s red carpet ensembles. Marina drew on Japanese and Byzantine traditions and created adornments that were stylized and graphic. Her work was fresh and innovative — for her Pneu collection, she created earrings that could be worn as either drop earrings or studs and in 1980, she unveiled a unique gem cut she called the Chestnut, which landed somewhere between a trilliant cut and a pear cut. This would become a signature of the brand.

Marina introduced other major collections such as the Shirine in 1984 as well as the Atomo and Cardan collections in 1989 before retiring during the 1990s. Ahmed Fitahihi, a Saudi Arabian sheik, bought the company in 1999 before it changed hands again in 2011 when it was acquired by the chief executive of Windsor Jewelers, Paul Lubetsky. In 2017, Italian-born French jewelry designer Guy Bedarida — an alum of Boucheron, Van Cleef & Arpels and a former creative director at John Hardy — took over as majority shareholder and creative director at the band. 

Hollywood starlets how found a lot to love about Marina’s designs over the years. In addition to Elizabeth Taylor, her work was worn by Sophia Loren and Grace Kelly. Marina B choker necklaces are popular among contemporary musicians like Rihanna who wore one at the opening ceremony of Rihanna Drive in Barbados and Alicia Keys, who donned a Marina B choker at her 2013 Superbowl performance. 

Find Marina B earrings, rings, necklaces and bracelets on 1stDibs.

A FAMILY STORY, THE STORY OF A JEWELLER In 1927 Giovanni Battista Berca started creating so beautiful and so refined jewelry that his fame surpassed that of any other master goldsmith. In a short space of time he became the personal jeweler of influential families who turned to him for their small masterpieces in the tradition of classical high jewelry. Giuseppe Berca, his son, refused to rest on his father’s laurels and decided that the tradition should be updated. He transformed his workshop into a small company and put emphasis on design development creating his personal style. Following his father’s philosophy is now Marco Giovanni Berca running the company: aesthetic searches coupled with unusual choices in the material selection are the hinges that hold up his ongoing research. “Attention should be placed on the item from which our activity stems: the research and the selection of those gems that may naturally appear mysterious and strange and that, in the hands of the jeweler, transform themselves so to appear almost magical, thanks to their capacity of light, color and joy: that’s why behind each collection lies a stone: we are fascinated by a unique material, its light, its color, the luminous spark that can materialize in front of our gaze; all items that, in themselves, constitute a beginning, the beginning of a new research of forms and volumes fit to give expression to our idea of “bello” –he says.