From her tiny workshop tucked into the arches of the Ponte Vecchio, fourth-generation jeweler Carolina Bucci gazes out the window at the Arno River. The view is a reminder of the city’s rich past—and a link to its future. Bucci’s atelier is part of a centuries-old unbroken tradition, which began in 1593 when Ferdinando I de’ Medici decreed that only goldsmiths and jewelers could occupy the coveted spaces on the city’s bridge. Still today, visitors crowd its gold-filled shops for Italian-made jewelry.
Bucci grew up visiting her grandfather and father in their cramped Ponte Vecchio workshops, where they crafted classic gold pieces for the stores on the bridge and also supplied to well-known brands. Though she believed tradition was central to her family’s trade, after studying jewelry design in New York City, she had a new vision for the business.
In 2002, with the encouragement of her father, she launched her namesake brand, Carolina Bucci, with contemporary, playful pieces crafted in her family’s ateliers using age-old techniques.
Bold cuffs and pendants feature her signature Florentine finish, a sparkly texture that is achieved through hours of delicate hand-hammering. Knitted bracelets and necklaces, inspired by the string friendship bracelets she made during summers at Forte dei Marmi, are woven in 18-karat gold on old Florentine textile looms. And her 1885 collection—the year her great-grandfather founded his business—features elongated, oversized gold-link chains.
Artisans applying Bucci’s Florentine finish.
The designer sits in a sunlit corner of the Conservatorio at Collegio alla Querce, Auberge Collection.
Venetian cups made for Bucci’s stores.
Bucci wears her rings stacked in multiples.
Bucci’s appreciation for classic Florentine artistry goes well beyond her own creations. Her favorite local makers have crafted pieces for her stores in Florence and London, as well as her newest outpost in Montecito. “I wanted to show my clients my world,” she says. “These are my passion projects. They help tell the story of hard-earned skills and preserving craftsmanship.”
Bucci’s collaborations with local makers are personal too. She has commissioned Loretta Caponi, a family-owned linen business established in 1967, to create embroidered accessories and a colorful capsule dress collection. And she turns to Sbigoli Terrecotte, a local ceramics workshop founded in 1857, to handcraft custom candle vessels with a stripe in her signature blue.
Bucci honors traditional Florentine craftsmanship and uses old textile looms to make her woven chains.
Bucci has made Collegio alla Querce, Auberge Collection her second home in Florence.
Clients can assemble their own colorful bracelets at the designer’s store.
Gold thread woven on antique textile looms at Bucci’s atelier; clients can assemble their own colorful bracelets at the designer’s store.
Inside the Sbigoli workshop.
Bucci collaborates with Florentine embroiderer Loretta Caponi on limited-edition linens.
Even the scent of the candles she places in those pots is custom: “I hired Italian nose Giorgia Navarra to capture my favorite smell that permeates the air with the breezes at the end of summer.” That distinct scent is expressed with base notes of amber, musk, and light woody accord with pomegranate at its heart and citrus top notes. Bucci also frequents Murano glassmaker Laguna~B for handblown glasses and 250-year-old Pineider for stationery sets.
Each one-of-a-kind piece is a beautiful manifestation of Bucci’s beloved Florence. To bring her many memories of her native city to life, she also visits Collegio alla Querce, Auberge Collection, her former high school in the Le Cure neighborhood. Staying in the hotel helps her reconnect with her own legacy, as well as admire its new connection to Florence’s past and present.
That philosophy—honoring Florence’s past by ensuring its ancient crafts remain a part of the city’s future—drives Bucci every day. “You must keep evolving,” she says. And all the inspiration she needs is right outside her window.
