Stores

Inside the New Bulgari Boutique at Holt Renfrew

We've never been so afraid to drop something.

By Julia Dilworth / February 8, 2018

We’ve never been so afraid to drop something.

The new Bulgari boutique opened this week (pronounced with even emphasis, almost like Hungary, not bulgaaaaary) and at 300 square feet it might be stocking the most expensive merch in all of Holt Renfrew.On the back wall, behind what we can only assume is a bullet-proof and laser-protected glass case, sits a $525,000 gold and diamond pavé coiled snake necklace and bracelet set—the (now-Canadian) crown jewel of the 130-year-old brand’s iconic Serpenti collection. The snake emblem of the house can be spotted on Bulgari’s leather purses as well, which along with sunglasses, watches, and their signature steel-pipe-crafted B01 and colourful Diva’s Dream jewellery collections make up the extended selection they can now show off in Bulgari’s first directly owned Western Canadian store. (They already have a presence at YVR, but this shop is bigger.)”When we open a directly owned store, it gives us the opportunity architecturally to put in some designs which are connected to our brand,” explains Bulgari’s North America president, Daniel Paltridge. Most notably a classic Italian-style acrylic chandelier hangs in the centre of the shop, with rich washes of saffron on the walls: “we use saffron as this very, very warm colour to reference the Roman sunlight,” says Paltridge. An important connection, for the Roman high-jeweller first began as a silkscreen shop in 1884 at the top of the Spanish Steps. But you can find the new boutique just a few steps off Dunsmuir Street, on the main floor of Holt Renfrew.