Elsa Peretti, who regularly went to one of the world’s most famous jewelry designers in the 1960s and ’70s from Halston Model and Studio 54 with timeless, fluid Tiffany & Co. collections often inspired by nature, has passed away . She was 80.
She died Thursday night in her sleep at home in a small town outside Barcelona, Spain, according to a statement from her family office in Zurich and the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation.
Peretti’s sculptural bracelets, bean designs and open hanger pendants are one of her most recognizable works. She also lent her classic aesthetics to functional goods, including bowls, magnifying glasses, razors and even a pizza cutter in sterling silver, a metal she favored and made popular as a luxury choice.
“Elsa was not only a designer, but also a way of life,” Tiffany said in a statement Friday. “Elsa explored nature with the skill of a scientist and the vision of a sculptor.”
Peretti, born in Florence, Italy, to wealthy, conservative parents and educated in Rome and Switzerland, moved to Barcelona in her twenties and began working as a model, where she included a community of artists that includes Salvador Dali, according to a profile of Augustus. in The Wall Street Journal. A while later, she moved to New York and started modeling for Halston and other top designers and jumped into the art and fashion jet set. Then she started making jewelry and typing the designers she worked for to record her pieces.
It was Halston, a good friend, who introduced her to the highest bodies in Tiffany, an exclusive collaboration that lasted throughout her career.
The outspoken Peretti began designing for Tiffany in 1974. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of her distinctive Bone Cuff on the wrist, Tiffany has unveiled fresh versions, including some with turquoise and jade stones.
Describing herself as ‘retired’ at the Wall Street Journal, she holds out her hand, communicates with artisans around the world and looks at the work of her studios.
“Her inspiration is often drawn from everyday items – a bean, a bone, an apple can be transformed into cufflinks, bracelets, vases or lighters,” the family statement said. ‘Scorpions and snakes were turned into attractive necklaces and rings, often in silver, which was one of her preferred materials. She herself said that “there is no new design, because good lines and shapes are timeless.” ‘
Regarding Peretti’s designs, Liza Minnelli told Vanity Fair in 2014: “Everything was so sensual, so sexy. I just loved it. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. ”
Peretti’s more than three dozen collections for Tiffany have put her in luxury, but she has also realized that the need for flexible budgeting is among consumers. She was behind Tiffany’s Diamonds at the Yard line that started in 1974, based on the idea of spreading the stones in a simple chain and offering them at different price points. Today, the line ranges from $ 325 to $ 75,000.
“You need to be able to go out on the street with your jewelry,” she told the Journal. “Women can not carry $ 1 million.”
Peretti’s designs are in the permanent collections of the British Museum in London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. In recognition of her work, Tiffany founded the Professorship Elsa Peretti in Jewelry Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the first professor in the history of FIT.
She was also a philanthropist who founded her foundation in 2000 in honor of her father. It supports a range of projects, from human and civil rights to medical research and nature conservation.
The small town of Sant Martí Vell, where she died in Catalonia, has always been close to her heart, according to the family statement. In 1968, she bought a mustard yellow house there and lovingly restored it over the next ten years. She had the whole pieces of the town repaired, acquired and preserved buildings, including a church. She also supported the excavation of Roman ruins and the archiving of the town’s history and established a working vineyard that has placed wines under the Eccocivi label since 2008.