Eternity needs you. Infinitudes with Viviana Bianchi

VIVIAN will be exhibiting at HOMI FASHION&JEWELS EXHIBITION 16 - 19 September 2022
A dedication to sustainability, craftsmanship, design and manufacturing with the ultimate accuracy. HOMI FASHION&JEWELS EXHIBITION explores a cultural challenge, is sustainability an utopian fantasy or a possibility?

You grew up in Carrara in the midst of art, religion and science.

My mom is an artist. She taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara and transmitted to me the passion for art. My dad was a doctor, a man of science, as I say, and he certainly gave me the strength to integrate the two things. I have a 93-year-old grandfather, he is a deacon and as a child he allowed me to play in the family church. So I played with these materials, there was silver inside the church and from there I practically grew up with this idea of ​​sacred and profane, it has influenced me a lot. Then I enrolled in Architecture in Florence. But later I followed my heart because I wanted to create and after doing architecture I learned jewelry design. I was really passionate about it and I found my way to communicate through my jewels. Then for many years I worked for a company where I really learned the trade and I thank my mentor Ugo Cacciatori. I worked with him for almost nine years and I learned what it really means to give life to a jewel.

And then you created your own brand.

Yes, some people ask me 'Why is Vivian like this?', and I always say, 'I'm Viviana and I don't talk much.' And then there is Vivian, who is my alter ego and she speaks for me. She creates the things I need every day, she creates that magical world, she manages to go further, to see what is beyond the mystery of everyday life. Whoever buys one of my pieces can see her story from inside, she certainly finds the right meaning. I love Victorian jewellery. I'm a little bit Victorian at heart, they were mourning jewels. They were jewels that were given as gifts in sad circumstances, but a mean to move forward, to remember a person that is gone, a loved one or even as promises of love. Unfortunately life is going to end, so you have to live in the moment. In the end they were jewels for mourning, but linked to life, to beauty, to what happened in everyday life.

So Vivian set you free.

I’m fascinated by history. When Queen Victoria lost her husband, she was in mourning all her life. So at that time in England the jewels were inspired by that, they began creating these fascinating pieces, they would open it, they hid a lock of hair, then closed with resin and inside you would have the hair of your beloved, your mother. They were all things that tied you to your family and their feelings. Vivian for me is just a way to remind me that even in suffering, in the most difficult moments, there is always light. 

Do you have a favourite piece? 

The serpent ring. It is a snake that bites its own tail, the end as a beginning. It is the cycle of life. I created it with several turns because it was said the more the snake turned, the more it gave you the good omen of many lives.

The new collection is finished?

The collection is almost ready, there is a moth, a night butterfly. And then the moon and the stars. The moth is practically the only butterfly that flies at night and manages to find the light because it goes where there is light to then be able to feed itself. And so my idea is to say that even in the darkest moments we find the things that push us to be truly happy.

So Victoria is your muse.

There are many women that I’m inspired by. I love Frida Kahlo as an artist and as a woman. But I find inspiration in whatever field nature gives me, mainly because for me nature is just a way of start. That's where everything comes from, from clothing, colors… When I see a flower, I image that in my collection, and how I could present it, and I can find those answers in nature. You never stop learning about life, you have to be curious.