Marina B

Marina B was founded in Geneva in 1977 by Marina Bulgari — born in Rome in 1930, granddaughter of Sotirios Bulgari, who founded Bulgari in 1884. After a growing divergence from the rest of the family, she chose to leave the dynasty and build a house under her own name, in an industry then run almost entirely by men.

Her innovations were real: the Chestnut cut, a triangular stone with softly rounded edges she developed in 1980; threadless bead stringing that defied conventional construction; the spring-mounted Cardan collection, born of her love of sailing — she remains the only female sailboat owner in history to win a world sailing championship, at Porto Cervo in 1973. Jackie Onassis wore her heart-shaped gold ear clips; Elizabeth Taylor, the ‘Pneu’ earrings; Taylor Swift, decades later, the ‘Troc.’ The house continues today, drawing on an archive of more than 12,000 of Marina’s own sketches.

Marina B is one of the few designers I’d call a personal hero. To walk away from a name like Bulgari — to give up that prestige and build something entirely her own, as a woman in a world that had made no room for her — takes a rare kind of courage. That independence is what the work carries, and it is why it belongs at Cayen.