In 1974, Tiffany & Co – the jeweller famed for its little blue boxes – scored a major coup. The brand was in need of an image overhaul, being perceived as a little too conservative, and had convinced one of New York’s most fashionable residents to join its ranks: the inimitable model-turned-designer Elsa Peretti. This union would not only make Peretti one of the most successful jewellery designers of all time, it would also change how women perceived and wore fine jewellery.
The Italian-born beauty was at the beating heart of New York’s hedonistic Studio 54 disco scene, having moved to the city in the late 1960s to work as a model. She was stylish, elegant… and wild. Her antics when partying with the likes of Andy Warhol, Cher and Liza Minelli, were the stuff of legend.
One of the many eyes Peretti caught during her modelling days was that of fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick, known simply as Halston. She became his muse and his friend, and in 1971 Peretti started to design jewellery collections for his brand. She developed a signature sensuous style, with her trademark design a small, bulbous silver vase worn around the neck on a leather thong.
This revolution in jewellery design did not go unnoticed by Tiffany & Co, which approached the tastemaker to design a silver jewellery collection for the brand – at that time Tiffany’s jewellery department had not designed in silver for 25 years, such was the low demand. In the autumn of 1974, Elsa Peretti’s debut collection for Tiffany & Co launched, and the sinuous silver jewels sold out on the first day. The success of the collection made silver jewels luxurious overnight, and kickstarted a relationship between Tiffany & Co and Elsa Peretti that marks 50 years in 2024.
As a designer, Peretti favoured organic forms and smooth silhouettes in both the jewellery and homeware collections she created for Tiffany & Co. As she once said: “For me, good line and good form are timeless.” Her designs were minimalist, but at the same time provocatively fresh.
Just as she had made silver fashionable once again, Peretti found a new way for women to wear diamonds when she created Tiffany & Co’s iconic Diamonds by the Yard. She adorned delicate gold chain with bezel-set diamonds, which could be cut to size for necklaces, bracelets, or even rings and earrings. It was up to the customer how many yards of diamonds they wished to be draped in; making it a collection that could be relatively affordable or totally lavish. It is said it was Halston who came up with the humorous collection name, after exclaiming it when he first saw what Peretti was working on. The name stuck, and Diamonds by the Yard remains of Tiffany & Co’s most popular collections to this day.
Another Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co icon soon followed – the Bone cuff. This ergonomic statement cuff, crafted in heavy silver or gold, is formed to accentuate the bones of the wrist, not hide them. Peretti took inspiration from the Capuchin crypt in Rome, which is decorated with thousands of human bones. The Bone Cuff has long been seen as a bold statement of female empowerment (so much so that Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins insisted Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince should wear one during the film).
So many more timeless Elsa Peretti jewellery icons followed. Each encouraged women to buy jewellery for themselves that spoke to their personalities, rather than wait to be gifted.
Eternally popular are: the sleek fava-bean forms of Bean; Open Heart – her twist on the eternally popular heart-motif jewellery; and Bottle, which harked back to those early silver vases she wore on her neck when she first started out. Each is effortless to wear, yet carries Peretti’s undeniably stylish signature.
For the bold-of-heart jewellery lover, the Snake and Scorpion collections are provocative conversation starters. And the Mesh collection of fabric-like gold and silver designs is timeless and insanely chic – never more so when worn as a bra, as the models on Halston’s 1975 runway show did, and later Zoe Kravitz at Vanity Fair’s 2019 Oscars party.
Peretti’s contribution to both jewellery history and Tiffany & Co’s legacy is immeasurable. The designer worked for the jeweller right up until her death in 2021, and the popularity of her timelessly chic creations lives on.
To mark the 50th anniversary of Peretti’s first collection for Tiffany & Co, the jeweller has this year released special celebratory editions of some of her most iconic creations. These include limited-edition Bone cuffs set with diamonds, rubies and cabochon gemstones, as well as rings inspired by the design. New high jewellery Mesh pieces, including a set of cocktail rings, are adorned with tanzanites, rubellites, emeralds and diamonds. The 2024 collection also includes lavish twists on Open Heart, Starfish, Bean, Scorpion, Snake and Diamonds by the Yard.
“Elsa Peretti’s 50th anniversary at Tiffany & Co is a remarkable testament to the house’s heritage of collaborating with the world’s greatest artists,” says Tiffany & Co president and chief executive Anthony Ledru. “Based on shared ideals of inventiveness and obsession with craft, Peretti was able to create an extraordinary universe of groundbreaking designs that changed the course of Tiffany’s history and continues to resonate to this day.”
As to what makes Elsa Peretti’s jewellery so iconic? It seems fitting to let the craftswoman, as she preferred to be called, have the last word: “What can I say about my jewellery? It speaks for itself. For me, its style is to be simple.”
