In yesterday's post about Lina Bo Bardi we looked at some fashion collections inspired by her works. Yet there are other links with fashion and Bo Bardi that we hope will be rediscovered.
In her archives you may spot a picture of her at a fashion show with Dior models that took place in 1951 at the Museu de Arte in São Paulo, or early fashion illustrations Bo Bardi did in the early '40s for Italian magazine Bellezza.
Yet Bo Bardi's best connection with fashion remains a photograph taken at a Carnival party in 1948 portraying the architect wearing a necklace she designed.
The necklace (we should maybe to do a study on the connection between architects and accessories, think about Charlotte Perriand's iconic ball bearings necklace) featured large aquamarines mounted on a gold set, in a cascade-like configuration.
Unfortunately the necklace was stolen in 1986 from the Glass house together with other 42 other jewels by four robbers who threw away the aquamarines and just sold the golden parts of the design.
The necklace was reproduced in 2016 by Talento Joias, in the original version with aquamarines, but also in alternative versions made with prasiolite, amethyst and blue topaz, an alternative way to pay homage to the architect.
Bo Bardi was indeed a fan of semi-precious stones: in an article entitled "Stones Against Diamonds", she wrote about her passion for collecting stones, pebbles and shells from the rocks in the Abruzzo region since she was a child.
She began her collection with a handful of glass pieces and pebbles found in the stomach of a chicken by her mother, small joys that she kept in a little powder compact. As she grew up, young Lina fell in love with a window display of antique jewels in Via Condotti, in Rome, but gold, pearls and diamonds never interested her, semi-precious stones remained indeed her constant fixation.
When they moved to Brazil her husband gave her a collection of stones and aquamarines and she fell in love with Brazilian gems, like the quartz crystals found in the mountains in Minas Gerais.
Bo Bardi concluded her "Stones Against Diamonds" essay with a call to designers in Brazil to start working with these gemstones. "Consider it an ethical demand for 'ornaments' made of base gold, bronze, diamonds, with visible inclusions, silver, chrysolite, quartz and coloured beryl," she stated. Who knows, maybe some contemporary jewelry designers re-reading this essay may want to experiment along these lines and create a collection that would have appealed to Bo Bardi's tastes. 