A Homecoming on Madison Avenue: The Revival of Marina B in New York

Madison Avenue has its own tempo. The traffic glides by, the doormen nod and the avenue’s row of discreet, impeccably kept boutiques projects the kind of polish that you can only find in this part of Manhattan. Walking up from 60th Street towards the quieter blocks of the Upper East Side, I quickly spot the new Marina B boutique on the corner of 673 Madison Avenue. A confident new arrival in a neighbourhood where jewellery is part of the cultural fabric, this New York flagship marks the house’s homecoming to the avenue where Marina Bulgari first welcomed her collectors in the 1980s.

When I step inside, the noise of the avenue retreats. This bijoux boutique is New York-sized, in the best possible way. Creative Director and Chairman Guy Bedarida is already on the floor when I arrive, speaking with the easy familiarity of someone who has spent years rebuilding the dialogue between Marina B and this city.

Inside the Boutique: A Jewel Box of Colour & Memory

Royal blue walls wrap the room in colour, a hot pink rug slicing through the centre. Light bounces off a gold mirror, its gleaming spherical forms projecting into the room, while a lipstick-pink Lucite desk channels the unmistakable spirit of the 80s. Much of the furniture was sourced from Les Puces in Paris, chosen personally by Guy, who combed the world’s largest antiques market for pieces that felt true to Marina’s universe.

My attention naturally shifts to the jewels, showcased in gold-framed cases along the room’s edges — a mix of rich yellow gold, strong silhouettes, precise geometry and cabochon stones in the saturated hues Marina loved. Vintage designs sit beside Guy’s reinterpretations, the continuity between eras so seamless one has to look twice to see where Marina ends and where Guy begins.

I can also sense Marina’s influence in the archival sketches lining the walls, each one a window into an aesthetic that has seduced jewellery collectors for decades. It’s a small boutique, but full of character — contemporary in attitude yet infused with the energy of another decade: the unapologetic glamour of the 1980s, condensed into 320 square feet.

Guy Bedarida: The Architect of the Revival

To understand Marina’s legacy, one must first understand Guy Bedarida. Now Creative Director and Chairman of Marina B, Guy is an internationally acclaimed jewellery designer, with a career that spans Boucheron on Place Vendôme, Van Cleef & Arpels in New York and more than a decade as Creative Director of John Hardy. Even with such a formidable résumé, Marina B offered something entirely different.

Marina B on Madison Avenue

Marina B first arrived on Madison Avenue in 1986, when the designer opened her New York boutique just a few blocks from today’s location. Nearly four decades later, the brand returns to the same street—now at 673 Madison—reclaiming its place within one of the most influential jewellery districts in the world.

Choosing this address again needed little deliberation from Guy. This stretch of Manhattan remains a focal point for luxury jewellery in the city: heritage houses, young independents and specialist boutiques line the avenue, drawing collectors from across the globe. The new flagship re-establishes the house once more in the neighbourhood that welcomed its earliest devotees while opening the door to a new generation.

The Life and Legacy of Marina Bulgari

Marina Bulgari was born into one of the most influential jewellery families of the 20th century, the granddaughter of Sotirios Voulgaris, founder of Bvlgari, and the daughter of his first-born son, Constantino. Art, architecture, mathematics and jewellery shaped her early life in Rome, and by the time she joined the family business, her instinct for design was already unmistakable. In 1973, she stepped into a leadership role at Bulgari, yet it soon became clear that her creative ambition required a realm she could call her own.

That moment came in 1978, when she made the defining decision of her career: she left Bvlgari and founded her own house. In an industry overwhelmingly led by men, the move was unprecedented. It signalled the arrival of a new kind of jewellery — bold, modern and indulgent, yet designed with a profound understanding of wearability. The world was shifting, and Marina created for this emerging client: confident, independent women like herself, who chose jewels for their own pleasure rather than waiting to receive them.

Her creativity was matched by technical innovation. She introduced a proprietary gemstone cut — the Castagna, or chestnut — a form somewhere between a heart and a pear that became an instant signature. She reimagined pavé diamonds, explored the concept of modularity and engineered spring-mounted mechanisms that allowed chokers, cuffs and earrings to sit on the body with surprising lightness. 

Her passing in 2024, at the age of 93, prompted an outpouring of tributes from across the industry — proof of just how deeply she had influenced modern jewellery, as a designer, an innovator and a woman who pushed the boundaries of what modern jewellery could be. 

Introducing the Collections: Marina’s Codes, Reimagined

My eyes are first drawn to Onda, a collection born in 1978 and still one of the clearest expressions of Marina’s ingenuity. Inspired by the perpetual motion of the sea, Onda transforms diamonds into shimmering crests set along textured waves of gold, the pieces moving with the same rhythmic fluidity as water.

The original choker became an instant emblem of the house. Its brilliance lay not only in its silhouette but in its construction, with each segment mounted on springs, giving the necklace an unprecedented lightness and flexibility. Today, Onda extends into cocktail rings, cuffs and earrings, with each piece echoing the sense of motion inherent in Marina’s original designs. 

Ondine, conceived in the late 1970s and revived under Guy, offers a softer interpretation of Marina’s fascination with water. Smooth, undulating contours of yellow gold curve gently around necks, wrists and fingers, often accented with glossy cabochon gems or subtle diamond pavé. Designed to offer absolute comfort, Ondine has become one of the boutique’s most sought-after collections.

Where Rarity Lives: High Jewellery and Vintage Icons

High jewellery at Marina B is not a formal collection as such but an evolving category of one-of-a-kind pieces created by Guy, who draws on the archive as both reference and springboard. Each creation begins with Marina’s design codes — her geometry, her saturated palette, her sculptural approach to form — and is tailored for the Madison Avenue woman who wants pieces she can enjoy, not simply admire.

The Fujiyama Earrings stop me in my tracks. The glossy black enamel curves feel almost molten, punctuated with pink and blue sapphires and constellations of brilliant diamonds. Their removable hoop drop, a detail that converts the earrings from dramatic to day-ready, builds upon Marina’s pioneering transformable designs, reinterpreted by Guy with the same playful engineering and instinctive ease.

Nearby, two new interpretations of Marina’s signature chandelier earrings reveal the breadth of the house’s high jewellery language. The Shirine Earrings pair aquamarines and rubellites in a generous cascade of colour. The transformable Girasole Earrings, meanwhile, shimmer with oval yellow diamonds that catch every glint of light. Designed with versatility in mind, the earrings can be worn in two ways, with the lower section detaching, revealing a floral silhouette for day wear.

There are statements for the wrist and neck, too: the Irreversible Necklace, with its bold triangular geometry and 22.97 carats of Castagna-cut pink tourmalines; and the Sabina Cuff, with a glowing sugarloaf cabochon rubellite centre stone, framed by onyx, amethyst and pavé diamonds. The ultimate power jewel, it’s easy to understand why collectors like Sophia Loren and Grace Kelly gravitated towards Marina B and her talent for creating impactful designs that were a joy to wear. 

Scattered among the new designs are vintage Marina B jewels — rare, covetable pieces that make the relationship between past and present instantly clear. Some are so significant they will never be sold, reserved instead for a future museum. Their inclusion feels particularly apt at a moment when vintage Marina B is surging on the secondary market, as collectors rediscover just how far ahead of her time Marina truly was.

With the 50th anniversary on the horizon, Marina B is stepping into a new era of relevance. Guy continues to mine the archive with curiosity, unveiling pieces that honour Marina’s design language while pushing it forwards. The boutique itself — intimate, vibrant, unmistakably Marina — has already become a haven for private appointments and one-on-one creative conversations.

As I step back onto Madison Avenue, I can’t help but think how proud Marina would be to see her vision, so sensitively advanced by Guy, still speaking to New York women, four decades after it first illuminated this iconic stretch of the city.