Dellaluna’s Love Letter to Abu Dhabi
The latest from the Venetian handbag designer celebrates artisan craftsmanship, Louvre Abu Dhabi architecture and the centuries-old dialogue between East and West
The collaboration between Dellaluna and Louvre Abu Dhabi brings together Venetian craftsmanship, museum architecture and a long history of exchange between East and West. Before its official release, the bag even appeared in The Devil Wears Prada 2, seen under Meryl Streep’s arm, an early glimpse of a piece whose references run far deeper than a screen cameo.
For Silvia Paulon, founder and designer of Dellaluna, the project connects directly to the brand’s beginnings in Venice. “Venice was the origin of everything,” she says. “I couldn’t quite believe that the most beautiful city in the world—one of the richest in terms of art, heritage and living craftsmanship—had no contemporary luxury brand translating all of that into objects worthy of it.” Her aim was to create objects that could carry the city’s artistic and cultural depth without flattening it into a familiar image.
That impulse is built into the name itself. Dellaluna refers to the palazzo where the brand was born, a place shaped by travel and encounter. Paulon describes it as “the place where the full moon of the West meets the half moon of the East.” The phrase captures a worldview that has guided the brand from the start, and it also explains why a collaboration with Louvre Abu Dhabi felt so aligned.
The museum, designed by Jean Nouvel, has made cultural dialogue central to its identity. As Lamya Al Nuaimi, Development, Marketing and Communications Director at Louvre Abu Dhabi, explains, “Louvre Abu Dhabi was drawn to Dellaluna’s commitment to craftsmanship, storytelling and cultural authenticity.” She adds that the collaboration created “an opportunity to translate the museum’s architecture and values into a contemporary design object while celebrating the shared principles of creativity, exchange and excellence.”
Those ideas take material form in the Louvre Abu Dhabi bag itself. Its design draws from Nouvel’s iconic dome, particularly its geometry, its stone-grey tones and its celebrated “rain of light” effect. These architectural cues are brought into conversation with Dellaluna’s own visual language, which has long been shaped by Venetian architecture and atmosphere. The result is a piece that carries both references at once, without forcing either one into the background.
For Al Nuaimi, that meeting reflects the museum’s broader curatorial philosophy. “A partnership like this extends that principle beyond the walls: it brings together architecture, craftsmanship and design shaped in different contexts and resolves them into a single, shared outcome.” Her description mirrors the way Louvre Abu Dhabi presents art within its galleries, where works from different periods and cultures are brought into conversation rather than separated by rigid categories.
Paulon speaks about the project through the lens of history. There’s a “centuries-old dialogue between Venice and the Arab world,” she says, shaped the foundation of the collaboration. “People often forget how deep that exchange runs. Much of Venetian architecture bears the unmistakable influence of the East, the trade routes, the visual vocabulary, the philosophical cross-pollination. We didn’t invent this dialogue. We simply gave it a new form.”
The making of the bag reinforces that sense of seriousness and continuity. Each piece takes more than 150 hours to complete, using traditional Venetian leatherworking techniques. The emphasis on time and handwork reflects Paulon’s wider approach to luxury. “I create as an artist first,” she says. “I don’t follow market calendars or seasonal trends. I make pieces designed to last forever, not to respond to what’s selling this quarter.” In her view, pace matters: the object carries the time invested in it.
That attention to craft was central to the museum’s response as well. Al Nuaimi points to Dellaluna’s “focus on artisanal excellence, attention to detail and respect for cultural identity” as qualities that resonated strongly with Louvre Abu Dhabi’s own values. She describes the project as one that “draws inspiration from one of Louvre Abu Dhabi’s most recognisable architectural features, its iconic dome, and transforms it into a handcrafted object of exceptional craftsmanship.”
The collaboration also speaks to the way museums are broadening how audiences engage with them. For Al Nuaimi, projects like this create “additional entry points into the museum’s narrative, enabling people to engage with culture through design, fashion and everyday objects.” The museum’s stories move into a different register here: tactile, wearable and present in daily life rather than encountered only in the gallery.
Paulon places that idea in more emotional terms. “Art is not decoration. It is survival,” she says. Her view of beauty is inseparable from history, feeling and shared human experience. When asked what message Dellaluna might leave through this collaboration, her answer is concise: “That beauty is the oldest bridge between civilizations, and that we still know how to build it.”
The bag’s appearance in The Devil Wears Prada 2 added a layer of intrigue before the public launch, placing it momentarily in a world associated with image, authority and fashion mythmaking. Yet what stays with this project is the care behind it: the architectural references, the historical connections and the insistence on craftsmanship as a form of meaning.
Paulon sums up her position with equal clarity: “That luxury, at its most honest, is not about exclusivity. It is about intention.” Al Nuaimi’s hope for audiences follows a similar line. She wants them to recognize “the cultural exchange, craftsmanship and creative vision that underpin the project.”
Together, their perspectives frame the collaboration around making, memory and dialogue: a piece shaped by Venice, Louvre Abu Dhabi and the enduring conversation between them.
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