L’Officiel meets Bernard Delettrez in the splendid setting of a Roman Terrace, from which one can see the Piazza del Popolo, over a glass of chilled white wine. His tall figure, elegant, reassuring, is opposed to its magnetic and mysterious gaze and his words that convey the dynamism of genius in him.
And ‘this Bernard, the man of many contrasts and multifaceted, just like those of a rare gem, always ready to upset the Convention to undertake new creative journeys to unexpected destinations, guided always and only by her, Creativity , eternal life companion that made him dependent on a constant state of looking for what goes beyond the obvious, what is perhaps only a third eye can see, along with the willingness to go beyond all limits, it’s creative, spiritual or technical, but above all his personal limit.
“I like to unsettle and provoke the audience with unusual designs and themes, but first of all I like to surprise and unsettle its own myself. Never plan the theme of my collections, subjects, inspirations … they are choosing me! ”
Creating jewelry for Bernard Delettrez is a way to give vent to his ideas and form, yet also a personal challenge to surprise and amaze first of all itself. A fantastic imagination, between the dream and Gothic, which is shaped through dragonflies, flowers, frogs, snakes that wind along the ears, spiderwebs that wrap around the wrists, the bones that cover in a three-dimensional surface of the body, hands gripping fingers, wrists, neck, spiders that rest on the upper chest, mouths that enclose the eyes.
“I try to convey all the love that I put into creating my jewelry to anyone who looks or wear my creation. Even today I love every single piece, do not prefer some than others, each is linked to a specific moment in my life and tells a bit ‘of my personal history. ”
And it is this that tell the creations of Bernard Delettrez, a great love story with creativity, a love made of lightning strikes that led him to have unexpected inspirations that give life to collections from dark taste but at the same time also pop and opulent jewels that evoke memories of her childhood in Morocco or its travels around the world accompanied by his beloved boat.
“I am a gemologist and I like to work with materials that others often do not even take into account. Of stones like tanzanite, morganite, fluorite, lassonite I appreciate not only the nuances of color and texture, but also their inherent energy force ”
He speaks of his skull, and tells how they represent for him an emanation of himself outside the context of the collections, seasonal themes and everything else:
“Creo constantly skulls, I feel the need and do it first of all for myself, I consider them very personal creations. Of each model they produce only 3 pieces and one I always keep for me, now I own a very large collection, I’d like it to organize an exhibition and display them all together, through them you can trace all my life and feel my journey through the time, but I would like to be an exhibition in the true sense of the word, it is my private collection to which I am particularly attached and are not willing to part with even one of these pieces! ”
Bernard gives advice to young people who seek to pursue a career in his field and he says that to become a designer is not enough to have a brilliant idea, but many exploding suddenly go off just as quickly. The key thing is to give continuity and maintain their well-defined style, that’s what makes the difference and determines the success of a designer and a line. One must also know how to take risks and break some rules, and he still shows us today as being against this consistency has been a winning formula for Bernard Delettrez. Recently it opened its first boutique in Rome, in Via Bocca di Leone, and here perhaps we are facing a fate that had already written:
“A risky business choice, but this is the city where I was welcomed and in which I live now, I could not open my own boutique anywhere else, I chose Rome as Rome has chosen me. “