Marina B Mei — Modular Jewellery as a Personal System
Marina B Mei — Modular Jewellery as a Personal System
The 1980s clip-together collection that lets the wearer reconfigure the piece
The Mei collection is the modular jewellery system introduced by Marina B in the early 1980s and continuously produced by the maison since. The design premise is that gold and gem-set elements clip together using a proprietary linking mechanism, allowing the wearer to assemble rings, bracelets, necklaces, and earrings from a kit of interchangeable parts. The name Mei is taken from the Italian miei (mine) and is a deliberate reference to the personal-customisation logic of the line: the wearer composes the piece, rather than choosing between fixed designs.
The system
A Mei piece is built from individual gem-set or polished-gold modules — typically cabochon coloured stones in 18-karat yellow or rose gold settings, designed to clip into adjacent modules through a hinge or pin mechanism that is concealed in the gold of the setting. The mechanism allows units to be added, removed, or reordered without tools, and the wearer can rebuild a bracelet into a necklace, lengthen a necklace by adding modules, or substitute one gem for another. The mechanism is sized for hand operation; nothing in the system requires bench-jewellery intervention to reconfigure.
Design vocabulary
The Mei modules are typically architectural in form — geometric profiles in the Marina B house style, with cabochon stones in the saturated colours that characterise the broader Marina B work (sapphire, ruby, emerald, tourmaline, citrine, topaz, onyx, lapis lazuli). The polished-gold modules between gem-set units provide rhythm and proportion. Most Mei production uses 18-karat yellow gold; rose gold and white gold appear in smaller numbers.
Wearer engagement
The customisation premise has practical consequences for how Mei is bought and worn. A typical client buys an initial kit — the modules required to assemble a bracelet or short necklace, with one or two configurations in mind — and adds modules over time, building toward a longer necklace or toward an alternative configuration. The kits are sold with documentation showing assembly options, and the maison's boutiques have historically supported clients in selecting additional modules.
Position in the line
Mei sits alongside the Cardan rotating settings as the second of the major Marina B signatures and is, in commercial terms, the more important of the two. While the Cardan is a single-piece setting innovation that appears across many of the maison's pieces, Mei is a coherent collection that has structured a substantial part of the maison's production for forty years. The economics of Mei — a returning client who builds the kit over time — are also attractive from a maison perspective.
Position in the market
Original Marina Bulgari-era Mei pieces from the 1980s and 1990s appear regularly in the secondary market and trade in the four- to five-figure range for kits of moderate size, with major multi-module necklaces and bracelets reaching higher. The modular construction means that incomplete kits are common in the secondary market and trade at a discount to complete kits; collectors building their own configurations sometimes source modules separately and assemble them, which is supported by the consistent dimensioning of the system across the production years.
Identification
Mei modules carry the Marina B hallmark and the gold karat mark, typically on the reverse of the module or on the linking mechanism. The proprietary clip mechanism is the principal authentication point — the action of the clips, the precision of the joins, and the consistent dimensioning across modules of the same generation are difficult to replicate outside the maison's workshop.
In the trade
For dealers handling Marina B in the secondary market, Mei is the line that turns over most regularly. The modular construction creates ongoing demand for individual modules to complete or extend existing kits, and the maison's continued production under the post-2012 ownership has maintained the supply of compatible new modules for clients building on older kits.