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Lucky
Wishes

A Wish is a Dream Your Heart Makes

Published on 5 minutes read
Lucky
Wishes
Words by Emma Firth
"Whether blowing on dandelions or making daisy chains in her family garden in Florence, pulling wish bones with her siblings with the same enthusiastic zeal as a Christmas cracker, or the annual romantic ritual of watching shooting stars on The Night of San Lorenzo, an upbringing filled with wish-making has been instrumental in shaping how Carolina moves through the world. Full of possibility and wonderment."

“My desert-island, all time, top five most memorable split-ups, in chronological order.” If there’s one opening line I can recite verbatim it would be this, taken from Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. Up there with some of the greats. Apologies Hornby, while I semi-steal your gambit for a beat, for here are my top five, most memorable wishes, in chronological order. 

Britney Spears’ ‘…Baby One More Time’ album to miraculously appear in my Christmas stocking in the morning 

To become a writer 

That my big brother is going to be OK 

To meet a great love: my forever crush and a kind person, who makes me laugh the hardest, who colours in the dullest of days 

My family’s good health and happiness

All of the above have, thankfully, been granted to me over the years. If this is hanging titillatingly on the edge of smug, do not worry, there are plenty that have still yet to come to fruition (a far longer list). It doesn’t matter though, if we are to really pick them apart, the DNA of a wishes is that they are almost entirely good and future facing. Willing something, some mercurial thing, into being.

“This is very cheesy but my favourite cartoon growing up was Cinderella and there’s that song she sings in it, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” Carolina Bucci tells me in the office of her Motcomb Street store, with walls and shelves decorated in nostalgia (including a mood board featuring one of her sons playing as a child, teenage scrapbooks full of torn out vintage magazine pages, and sculptural floral keepsakes she’s commissioned and collected over the years).

"It’s something you want, definitely, but I think it goes deeper than that. It’s more feeling, happiness-based. It’s from the heart."

Whether blowing on dandelions or making daisy chains in her family garden in Florence, pulling wish bones with her siblings with the same enthusiastic zeal as a Christmas cracker, or the annual romantic ritual of watching shooting stars on The Night of San Lorenzo, an upbringing filled with wish-making has been instrumental in shaping how Carolina moves through the world. Full of possibility and wonderment.

The origin of such expression remains inconclusive, steeped in centuries-old tradition, superstition, Celtic folklore, and religion. Ancient Germanic tribes, for instance, treated trees and river springs like altars, viewing them as sacred. In Japan, worshippers can write their wishes on an ema (a small wooden plaque) outside a Shinto temple before hanging them on a wall. For some, these notes to self are a form of private prayer. Or a symbol of protection. For others, it is simply a promise to keep. 

We write lists. We blow out birthday candles and blow on fallen eyelashes. We throw loose coins into the Trevi Fountain and stones into the sea. We wish someone well. For the best. For something thing yet to be answered. For luck.

The more time spent in Carolina’s company, the more obvious it is that the first item of jewellery she would launch in 2002, the iconic Lucky Bracelet (beloved by the next generation over 20 years later as much as the It girls of Y2K yore: Sarah Jessica Parker, Paris Hilton, The Olsens et al), would be imbued with a karmic energy, advising the wearer to make a wish when they double knot it. Elsewhere, today the brand is now offering a bespoke service of their clasped Multi-Wish Lucky Bracelet, giving clients the freedom to pick ‘n’ mix various colour combinations of silk that correspond with their chosen wishes (i.e. red = love; blue = sprezzatura, translated as ‘the art of effortlessness’ and one of Bucci’s personal favourites; violet = freedom etc.). “Jewellery has always carried so much emotion for me,” Carolina explains, herself born into a family of Florentine fine jewellers since 1885. “Each piece has a memory attached to it.”

Carolina Bucci's latest Bespoke piece, the Multi-Wish Lucky Bracelet.

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There’s a character description that has stuck with me since reading Sloane Crosley’s memoir Grief is for People, a startlingly vivid meditation on both the loss of 41 stolen treasured family heirlooms and the death of her best friend, Russell. He believed in the souls of objects. These keepsakes are not just aesthetically pleasing but purposeful. Acting as a bridge to a past and future self. Tethering us to an alternative reality, to someone else. Holding a kind of magic inside of them, to motivate us, make us feel uniquely better, not totally void of optimism. Whichever way that meaning arrives is inconsequential. The point is they mean something.

Of course, jewellery, any excuse really, is by no means an essential ingredient in order to hope. “Any opportunity is good to make a wish,” Bucci says, stressing one should not have to either wait for permission or special occasions in order to do so. Now is not the time for restraint. “And often, the best wishes are selfless, for someone else.” 

Sharing our wants, instead of keeping them caged in our inner world can be the most liberating and beautiful thing too. Take Yoko Ono’s ongoing Wishing Tree installation project, which she created in the 1990s, where strangers can write their wishes on a piece of paper, fold them up, and tie it around a branch of a live tree until the branches are fully covered. She has now collected almost 2 million wishes. 

I’ve always considered the fanciful face of wishes to be at odds with what they actually symbolise. The significant role they play throughout our lives, how they make us feel when we return to them. Yes, it may not follow logic, and you may not see it (yet) but be sure they are grounded in truth. A doubtlessness. And, more vitally, hopefulness. You wouldn’t see a genie bottle and waste three wishes on something you were only really half-sure you wanted. Nope. Please don’t waste ‘em, dear reader. As Ono once wrote:

"Wishes come true, no matter what you wish upon."

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Bespoke Multi-Wish Lucky Bracelet

Bespoke Multi-Wish Lucky Bracelet

Starts at €8.500
Lucky Bracelet with Love Charm Lucky Bracelet with Love Charm

Lucky Bracelet with Love Charm

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Lucky Bracelet with Health Charm Lucky Bracelet with Health Charm

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Lucky Bracelet with Happiness Charm Lucky Bracelet with Happiness Charm

Lucky Bracelet with Happiness Charm

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Lucky Bracelet with Friendship Charm Lucky Bracelet with Friendship Charm

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Lucky Bracelet with Peace Charm Lucky Bracelet with Peace Charm

Lucky Bracelet with Peace Charm

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Lucky Sprezzatura Bracelet with Bee Charm Lucky Sprezzatura Bracelet with Bee Charm

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SuperLucky Bracelet SuperLucky Bracelet

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Lucky Bracelet with Freedom Charm Lucky Bracelet with Freedom Charm

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Lucky Bracelet with Strength Charm Lucky Bracelet with Strength Charm

Lucky Bracelet with Strength Charm

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Limited Edition Lucky Bracelet with Balance Charm Limited Edition Lucky Bracelet with Balance Charm

Limited Edition Lucky Bracelet with Balance Charm

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Carolina Bucci x Pineider Lucky Stationery Set Carolina Bucci x Pineider Lucky Stationery Set

Carolina Bucci x Pineider Lucky Stationery Set

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