Duran Duran, the Eighties in the Spotlight at Bulgari Event

Luisa Zargani

Updated Fri, June 29, 2018 at 2:01 PM UTC

ROME – “I look forward to seeing him play every time, I’m so excited like a little girl, I just want to dance along to be there, and it never gets boring, it’s never the same.”

Amber Le Bon’s comments about her father Simon Le Bon pretty much summed up how guests reacted to the Duran Duran performance organized by Bulgari that closed the event held here on Thursday evening. Earlier in the day, the Rome-based brand unveiled the “Wild Pop” high jewelry collection inspired by the Eighties, and what other band could better personify that decade? True to her words, Le Bon, flanked by her equally excited mother Yasmin, sang and danced along to Duran Duran’s hits including “A View To A Kill,” “Hungry Like The Wolf,” and “Rio.” “I love the Eighties, it was just such a fun time for me — I was young, I started working, I became independent, then I didn’t become independent, I got married and had Amber,” said Yasmin Le Bon, pointing out that her daughter, “barely just made it in the Eighties,” as she was born in 1989. “I also worked really hard, people sometimes forget that. It felt full of possibilities, you didn’t feel anything could hold you back and that if you had a great idea, you could do anything.”

On stage, Simon Le Bon shared his own Bulgari memory with the cheering crowd. “Is it Bulgari or Bulgàri? It’s Bvlgari [emphasizing the v], for us in our family,” he said. “Our daughter as a child found a Bulgari box of Yasmin’s and saw that is was spelled out as Bvlgari [the stylized Latin trademarked logo], she started calling it Bvlgari and that’s how it’s stayed for us.”

“When I stand somewhere like this, it feels surreal, I feel really lucky,” said Lady Kitty Spencer, one of Bulgari’s new ambassadors, ahead of the runway show part of the evening event, closed by Pat Cleveland and her daughter Anna. While the show, dinner and concert were held under an expansive graffitied structure styled to evoke the Eighties — which helped fend off the rain later in the evening — Spencer was speaking of the location: the Stadio dei Marmi, designed in Twenties and lined by 59 Carrara marble statues in classical style portraying athletes performing different sports disciplines. “I wish I were Italian, I lived in Florence, I love all things Italian and Bulgari is so representative of Italy.” Her favorite piece in the collection? “All the earrings with the cats and the paw prints. I’m a crazy cat lover, a crazy cat lady,” she said smiling of the series of jewels inspired by Andy Warhol’s equally strong passion for the pet. “I loved the fun of the collection, it’s great to bring such playfulness to high-end luxury, it’s a great juxtaposition.”

For Eva Green, the Eighties conjure up images of “Michael Jackson, Madonna, sharp shoulders, rock ‘n’ roll. I associate it with music, fashion…” Green just wrapped up filming “Proxima” by Alice Winocour in Russia, “about an astronaut torn between her passion for space and her daughter. It’s a very hard thing, a very hardened subject, I’ve never seen that kind of story,” enthused the actress, who plays the lead role.

“Music and fun,” were also top of mind for Laura Harrier, another recently nominated Bulgari ambassador, when thinking of the Eighties, as well as “glamor and color and lots of statements.” Her most recent film, “BlacKkKlansman,” directed by Spike Lee, and which earned a standing ovation at the recent Cannes Film Festival, is due out in August, she said.

Other guests included Bella Hadid, Lily Aldridge, Jasmine Sanders and Shu Qi.

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Duran Duran, the Eighties in the Spotlight at Bulgari Event

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