ICONS: The Juste Un Clou by Cartier

When a product is no longer defined by the common name of reference, but rather by its trademark, it means it’s become a symbol. An industrial product that has acquired a specific identity, a status and that has been able to permeate the collective imagination, is configured as an icon. Object of desire, point of reference and often also of copying and counterfeiting, an icon stands out for being - in its real spirit - inimitable.

Let’s start this column with a piece so iconic that, despite having been designed in 1971, it has already lived many lives. The Just Un Clou by Cartier, that after forty years from its birth is now back among the company's available products and is still among the best sellers.

Designed by Aldo Cipullo, the bracelet fits perfectly into the spirit of its time. Its author, who moved from Italy in 1959 to study at the New York School of Visual Arts, brought with him the experience of his father, owner of a small parts company for costume jewelry in Rome, and the deep passion for materials and the precious forms.

His talent did not take long to get noticed, so much so that he started collaborating with David Webbs and Tiffany & Co. at a very young age, but above all, at the age of 33, he became creative director of Cartier.

In 1969 he began to get noticed by distinguishing himself in his new way of conceiving the jewel with the Love Bracelet, made up of two gold bands held together and tightened to the wrist by a small screwdriver. To launch it, Cartier developed a strategy never seen before, which involved the “influencers” of the times: it gave 25 pairs of bracelets to as many famous couples, including Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who were then happily married. She wore the Love Bracelet in “X, Y & Zee” and Cipullo - they say - will see the mobie four times just to admire his creature shine on the big screen.

Aldo is also a regular visitor to Studio 54 and the entourage of Andy Warhol, and the connection with the father of Pop Art arrived in Juste Un Clou, two years later. The idea of ​​adopting objects and models known to everybody, mixing languages ​​and signs, which gave life to the series by Marylin Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor for Warhol, does not leave Cipullo indifferent.

The inspiration was then combined with his cultural background and in particular with the experience of his father, a small parts dealer. Fascinated by his dexterity and attention to materials, the designer didn’t forget to pay attention to the tools of the trade, developing a real obsession for bolts, screws and hammers.

Precisely from the nail, the basic element of any construction, the first brick of any design project, a very precious jewel was born. The process is simple: he took an existing shape, a sort of pop-inspired Duchampian ready-made, folded it so as to join head and tip and turned it into gold. A mundane object thus become a high jewelry bracelet.

What was born is immediately configured as a real novelty in the sector, a bracelet with unprecedented lines, innovative and irreverent, but always made in the highest quality. A jewel that went beyond the etiquette’s rules that divided day from night jewelry, everyday accessories and those for special occasions.

The Nail Bracelet, this was its original name, breaks these rules and stands as a bracelet to be worn every day, on every occasion, without any boundaries. Minimal but not obvious, elegant but cheeky at the same time.

A jewel that has become a symbol and so sought after that it returned to production by Cartier in 2012 with a small rebranding operation, which broadens the range of colors (from classic yellow gold to pink and diamond-encrusted white), reduces its thickness and expands the range of products to rings, necklaces, earrings and brooches, following the desire of the international public for this product.

Even today, the Cartier nail collection is among the favorites of the brand, which continues to update and evolve it, respecting its first, essential aspect. And if even today the distinctions on which the irreverence of this jewel relied no longer exist, its spirit remains - and will always remain - unique and unchanged.