Swedish director Christian Larson has created a rhythmic commercial for Cartier, 46 years after the release of Aldo Cipullo’s “Nail Bracelet”. A cadenced video that stars two young girls on a road trip with an air of contemporary Thelma and Louise — with wild dancing, skate sessions, joy rides in race cars, hotel nights and parties until the break of dawn. The two protagonists take off to a soundtrack composed by Magnus the Magnus, adorned with pink and yellow gold bracelets, head and tip set with diamonds. Half-lucky charm, half-partner in crime, this piece of jewellery is the expression of an audacious generation that flashes across the screen in a video conceived like a shot of youth. An elixir-jewel for the most liberated to wear while they navigate between universes — futuristic architecture with skateboards VS rococo-styled hotel room, sportscar racing on the docks VS choreography in a classical theatre; studio recording scenes VS nocturnal swimming pool dips. These oppositions are highlighted and celebrated, they are the metaphor for a connected generation which more than ever lives in a flow of fluctuating points of reference.
A publicity campaign that echoes the ebullience of early 70s New York, where the first “Nail Bracelet” was born. In 1971, Cartier launches a bracelet with an industrial inspiration: a plain bangle bringing together opposing forces: the rounded and the sharp, protection and action. Luxury Do-It-Yourself. Its creator Aldo Cipullo declares that, “The hardware store is my second home“. This is the moment when Robert Mapplethorpe discovers photography when he borrows his friend Sandy Daley’s Polaroid camera — Patti Smith is his first model; Warhol creates his Flowers series, a symbol of the hippie counterculture of the 60s and 70s. “Just a nail” reflects the anti-conformist energy that fuels New York. A simple nail transformed into a precious object. Sophistication twisted from the casual that echoes with Pop art.
In 1971, this artistic current became widely accepted, this “elitisation” of popular culture that draws its material from everyday objects. Aldo Cipullo revolutionises the codes of classical jewellery and facilitates a critical exploration of the definition of the jewel in the following decades. At the start of the 70s, Cipullo is a regular of New York’s clubs alongside Liza Minnelli, Andy Warhol and Ian Schrager, future founder of Studio 54. Much like Warhol — a major client of Cartier’s — the designer is immersed both in the underground and the establishment. Navigating between both worlds, like “Juste un clou”, the jewel becomes a mise en abyme of his life. A crude and precious piece of jewellery, a stylistic oxymoron. A unisex bracelet — preceding the punk movement — fully relevant in our era.
Cartier’s “Nail Bracelet” charms the new generation that recognises itself in its creative audacity and androgynous design. A generation both heir to and nostalgic of its avant-garde history. Indeed, the 1970s are in the top tier of the nostalgia charts; they appear less corseted and regulated than the 2010’s. It’s no surprise then that this golden age of creativity currently enjoys a resurgence of interest.
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