(1936-1984)
These are the words of renowned jewelry designer Aldo Cipullo. He began his apprenticeship in Italy, his home country, before moving to the States where he worked for David Webb and Tiffany. He even did time with Trifari designing costume jewelry. In the late sixties, a time of the flower child, he continued his career with Cartier, refining and simplifying his design sensibilities.
In 1969, he created what seemed like a fairly simple gold bracelet. Inspired by the chastity belt, he called his design the love bracelet and suggested that couples buy two, which they would exchange, like rings. They would each close the other’s circle with the screwdriver and never take off their bracelets. Cartier initially offered the bracelet exclusively to famous couples such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Nancy and Frank Sinatra. The love bracelet became so popular it is still a best seller at Cartier.
This iconic piece underscored Cipullo’s more modernist eye and marked his trend to use the ordinary as inspiration for extraordinary pieces. The playful side of Cipullo led him to use everyday objects like nails, knots, dollar sign, and even games as the themes for his designs. For Cipullo, “to repeat the past is an easy way to get out of thinking, it’s an escape. The important thing is to reflect the present,” he says.
Little known Cipullo career move...jewelry designer on the 1973 movie “The Exorcist”. In this photo, actress Ellen Burstyn wears a Cipullo Hamsa necklace similar to the one pictured below.
