Yoon Ahn Trawled Online Reptile-Owner Forums To Create Her New Bulgari Collaboration

“As long as they’re not poisonous, I’m okay with snakes,” says Yoon Ahn, the effortlessly cool co-founder of Tokyo-based brand, Ambush. Reptile-owner forums and video imagery of serpents were on the mood board for her new “Serpenti through the eyes of…” collaboration with Bulgari, which sees the multifaceted designer reimagine the brand’s famed Serpenti bag. Previous collaborators include Alexander Wang and Nicholas Kirkwood, who each had their own inimitable take on the accessory.

De-stigmatising the fear associated with snakes was a focal point for Yoon, who instead wanted to celebrate their beauty and power. “After watching, looking and seeing all sorts of snakes, I realised how beautiful they were. Some of them are so beautiful, they look fake,” she tells British Vogue.

When it came to the bag itself, she loosened up the silhouette. Leather wraps and bright palettes comprise Yoon’s spin on the Serpenti, and she has released three new shapes as part of the capsule. First up: a luxurious scale-texture, top-handle bag fashioned in a quilted nappa leather, which also features bold metallic accents and a detachable shoulder strap.

Next: the Serpenti Minaudière, inspired by photographs that Yoon found on snake-owner forums (from Ssnakess.com to Ourreptileforum.com, the internet caters extraordinarily well for snake owners worldwide), showing the animals curled into the shape of a heart. She laughs, “We need to tell this adorable side of snakes more!” Available in both black leather and aluminium iterations, the unique piece is a nod to both Bulgari – and Yoon’s – DNA as jewellers. 

A multifunctional belt bag is Yoon’s favourite piece in the collection: “Girls go from day to night, we don’t go home to change to go out [again]. These bags be worn with sneakers and heels then transform into a different look, depending on the lifestyles and how we dress up.”

Each bag is complete with a camouflage snakehead closure, and an array of smaller accessories also feature in the capsule, such as a heart-shaped coin case, a trio of credit-card holders adorned with the Bulgari X Ambush logo and a coiled Serpenti bracelet wrapped in nappa leather.

Yoon has serious experience in creating instantly recogniseable designs. Known for her industrial chains and safety pin jewels that she designs with her rapper husband, Verbal, under their joint label, Ambush, Yoon is also a great friend of Kim Jones.

When the Brit designer was based at Louis Vuitton, he asked the Korean-American designer to create a wearable MP3 player that was named the “playbutton”. And when Jones was appointed creative director of Dior Men, he enlisted Yoon to head the jewellery department. Chunky “CD” monogram chains, etched gold rings and shiny silver duo-finger rings were styled alongside Jones’s soft, pastel-heavy spring/summer 2019 debut collection for the maison. Nike, Undercover, Rimowa and Converse are a handful of the other big-name brands that Ambush has collaborated with.

Campaign shots photographed by Tyler Mitchell show Bella Hadid, Ellen Rosa and Xiao Wen in front of luscious leafy backdrops, modelling the lively, versatile pieces styled by Carlos Nazario, in a shoot where Yoon had creative oversight. And there’s not long to wait if you’re tempted to make a new-season bag purchase: the “Serpenti through the eyes of Ambush…” collection is available to pre-order at Bulgari.com from 11 August and will be launched in-store from 3 September.