Tiffany & Co, started by Charles Lewis Tiffany in 1837 as a stationery company, grew fast and was soon stocking jewellery, clocks, porcelain, cutlery and glass.
As it grew Tiffany & Co promoted its craftsmen, along with its now well-known brand name. Rather than keeping the identity of four of their jewellery designers from the purchasing public, they became synonymous with the brand, and as much a part of the appeal as the little blue box. Elsa Peretti was the second of the four jewellery designers whose signature appears alongside Tiffany & Co on her designs, after Jean Schlumberger and before Paloma Picasso and Frank Gehry.
Elsa Peretti's International Influence
After leaving home at the age of 21, Elsa Peretti moved to Barcelona where she mixed with Dali and his contemporaries and had gathered by osmosis a flair for art, design, architecture (Gaudi’s style in particular) and sculpture. From there she worked her way from Europe via Asia to America. Elsa Peretti was a well-travelled, independent thinker who knew the value of true craftsmanship. As she travelled, she had been exposed to local artisans and their work and she took time to understand and appreciate their talent. She also recognised the importance of the distinct cultures she saw in the during her travels and the human need to transform beliefs and symbols into tangible designs. With her original ideas she revolutionised jewellery design, creating items which were evocative, tactile and beautiful.
“Jewellery is not fashion – it has to last, not be discarded as soon as something else comes along”.
A New York Way of Life
On arrival in New York in 1968, she worked as a model and found her way into the fashionable Manhattan set of the time, dancing the night away at Studio 54 with Andy Warhol, Helmut Newton, Liza Minelli and Truman Capote to name but a few. It was here she met fashion designer Giorgio di Sant’ Angelo and it was for him that she created her first jewellery collection in 1969. She was also a Halstonette – a model and a muse for the fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick. Halston became a friend and she later collaborated with him, creating jewellery and accessories for his ready-to-wear collections. It was for Halston that she first created what would later be referred to at Tiffany & Co as “diamonds by the yard”.
Critical Acclaim
Her now famous Open Bottle pendent necklace was designed in 1971, inspired by the women she has seen in Portofino, Italy carrying gardinia flowers in their hands. She wanted the flowers to live and have water and the design came from necessity, a practical solution to a problem. This creation paved the way to her success and in 1974 she joined Tiffany & Co as their signature designer.
Using silver, which had been phased out of Tiffany & Co pieces in the 1930s, Elsa Peretti’s first collection sold out. It was a brave move, to elevate silver to the luxury high end jewellery market.
Liza Minelli recalled:
“Halston said to me, ‘You can’t afford gold, and men have to give you diamonds, so you’re going to wear silver.’ “My god, I thought. All I could think of was Albuquerque. But then Elsa brought out all these things—the bone bracelet I remember best. Everything was so sensual, so sexy. I just loved it. It was different from anything I’d ever seen, and I’d seen a lot. I’ve only really worn Peretti jewellery from then on.”
The Bone Cuff design began in silver is available in gold. As a child, told not to touch the reliquaries in the local church Elsa Peretti remembers feeling “things that are forbidden you remain with you forever”. The bones she saw as a child transformed into a design that is so exact that the purchaser must decide if they will wear the cuff on the left or right wrist – it is not interchangeable. Moreover, it is designed to be so close fitting that the piece warms up as the wearer wears it and it becomes an extension of the person wearing it.
The women of the 70s were independent, working women who had more freedom and were able to buy jewellery for themselves. She said “I design for the working girl” and “I like to be able to take my sweater off without having to take off my jewellery. I like to be able to shower in my jewellery”. She understood the needs of the time and so her silver designs appealed to a younger, freer clientele, and it was the timeliness and yet the timelessness of her designs that made Elsa Peretti the jewellery genius that she was. In 1971 she was awarded The Coty American Fashion Critics’ Award, the second of Tiffany & Co designers to do so. (Jean Schlumberger was the first in 1958).
She had an intuitive instinct, intellect and empathy that, coupled with her quest for perfection and respect for craftsmanship, meant she created organic, undulating designs that were modern and yet timeless, symbolic and yet functional. The Bean design is a perfect example of this, inspired by Henry Moore’s Oval with Points sculpture, it began in silver, but it is now also made in gold.
The great photographer Hiro, who worked with Elsa Peretti and Tiffany & Co for forty years said,
“I have been inspired by Elsa’s magnificent designs. They are organic and sensual; you can feel the life pulsing through them.”
Her new take on high jewellery and her ability to remain current yet classic meant that she introduced “Diamonds by the Yard” at Tiffany & Co in 1974. Another design idea that has continued after her death to bring success to the company. She embodied the need for the essential saying “style is to be simple. I like to push myself to achieve excellence and eliminate all excess detail”.
Elsa Peretti had the eye of an artist and the brain of a scientist. She captured the meeting of fashion, craftsmanship and lifestyle with her designs. Inspired by nature, the human body and to a certain extent danger, the forbidden and unexpected, her designs were and are still modern, functional and sophisticated and seemingly eternal. “I did something for fun, it became a success”.
Tiffany & Co collaborated with Elsa Peretti for years 47 years from 1974 until her death in 2021.
Image courtesy of VecaLovass
