Tiffany & Co. Focus
Italian designer Elsa Peretti's arrival into the Tiffany & Co family over four decades ago marked one of the most fruitful and enduring collaborations in contemporary luxury, and it continues to set its designs apart from the rest
The year was 1974. The world population had just reached four billion. Stephen King published his first novel, Carrie. Volkswagen launched the Golf. Harold Wilson became British prime minister for a second time. Waterloo by Abba won Eurovision. The Rubik’s Cube was invented. Nixon resigned the US presidency in disgrace. And just as pivotally, Elsa Peretti joined Tiffany & Co…changing our conception of jewellery forever.
By this time, the Italian-born Peretti had been dabbling in jewellery design for a number of years, while earning her living as a leading New York model. Designers such as the disco-era icon Halston, a close friend who’d long employed Peretti’s talents on the catwalk, began showcasing her accessories at fashion shows. After her designs won an important critics’ award, Tiffany’s interest was piqued, and soon, Peretti was engaged to create silver jewellery for the legendary maison.
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It was the start of one of the most fruitful and enduring partnerships in contemporary luxury. For Tiffany, Peretti would go on to create dozens of the jeweller’s most popular collections, dreaming up such seminal items as the Bone Cuff, following the curvaceous shape of the wrist; the Bottle Pendant, inspired by Italian girls who carried flowers in small vases around their necks; the fluid Open Heart pendant and organic Bean, a symbol of life’s origin; the decadent gold Mesh Scarf necklace; and perhaps her best-known creation, the epitome of everyday glamour, Diamonds by the Yard.
The latter design, a necklace punctuated at regular points by bezel-set gems, is—as its name suggests—available in an array of various lengths. Peretti would wear a long strand looped and layered, the piece carrying her effortlessly from day to night, from the Tiffany design atelier to legendary nightclub Studio 54 (where Elsa was a regular, partying the evening away with Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, BFF Halston and her fellow ‘70s supermodel, Anjelica Huston).