Elsa Peretti Diamonds by the Yard

When Elsa Peretti (1940–2021) arrived at Tiffany & Co. in 1974, diamond jewelry was not fashionable with the younger set, especially in the United States, which was still mired in recession. The ornate diamond confections popular in previous decades were neither suited to the office nor the disco dance floor — and they were too expensive for an ordinary person to buy, anyway. That did not deter Peretti. Diamonds by the Yard, which was among her earliest work for the brand, featured a necklace that comprised a dozen small bezel-set stones arranged at uneven intervals on a fine gold chain. Peretti reimagined diamond jewelry as something that could be worn in the workplace and even in the clubs, such as Studio 54, where the model-turned-designer was a regular.

Born in Florence, Peretti studied design in Italy, modeled in Spain and was a ski instructor in Switzerland before she moved to the United States in 1968. Some of her earliest jewelry pieces were for a friend, fashion designer Halston, for whom she also modeled. Peretti brought an appreciation of European design as well as youthful energy to the historic Tiffany & Co. The first Diamonds by the Yard design was characterized by a minimalist vision for luxury. Other pieces followed with varying lengths and carats. These variations put simple designs in the reach of the budget-conscious consumer, with a Tiffany diamond necklace in 1976 suddenly attainable for under $100. As a 1977 Newsweek article reported, “What Peretti had was a whole new idea of what jewelry should be. No longer serious, real jewelry has become accessible and affordable for every secretary and shopgirl.”

Peretti’s designs offered diamonds for everyday accessorizing, not just special occasions. As she told the New York Times in 1974, “I make things that women like to touch and to wear, not things they put in a drawer.”

In an era of social upheaval, venerable Tiffany & Co. designer Elsa Peretti reimagined diamonds as jewelry that working women bought for themselves rather than receiving it from a suitor.

By the time the Italian-born Peretti (1940–2021) arrived in New York City, she’d already studied design in Rome, worked for a Milanese architect and taught Italian, French and skiing in Switzerland. She settled on interior design as her potential career path but then chose an altogether different route: modeling. Peretti modeled in Barcelona, Spain, and on the advice of Wilhelmina Cooper — a former model who’d by then founded Wilhelmina Modeling Agency — moved to Manhattan in 1968. When she relocated, Peretti was inspired to pick up jewelry design.

After modeling for designer Halston, the undisputed fashion king of Studio 54, Peretti became his close friend and collaborator, eventually creating jewelry and teardrop-shaped perfume bottles for him. By way of her association with Halston, Peretti took to the disco scene, flourishing in a social circle that included artist Andy Warhol and fashion designer Giorgio di Sant’Angelo.

It wasn’t long before models on di Sant’Angelo’s runway were donning two-inch sterling-silver vases, complete with a rose stem, suspended on leather thongs around their necks. The accessory was Peretti’s inaugural piece of jewelry — she designed it in 1969 after finding a flower vase at a flea market. It was hardly the only time that Peretti found motifs in nature and in organic forms. In the years that followed, her Bean pendant necklace, Starfish earrings and other sensuous accessories would draw on human emotion as well as the natural world around her. Each evocative and wholly versatile design is universally adored decades later, and each was made for a storied American jewelry house with which Peretti would be associated for nearly 50 years.

It was Halston who introduced Peretti to Tiffany & Co. She had her own boutique at Bloomingdale’s by 1972, and her partnership with the firm, which signed the venturesome and unorthodox designer to an exclusive contract in 1974, would cement her place in the lofty annals of jewelry legend. Peretti’s simple but sophisticated designs — the Teardrop collection, her minimalist Diamonds by the Yard necklace and Open Heart ring, to name a few — elevated sterling silver, previously considered unsuitable for fine jewelry, and created an enthusiastic young audience for Tiffany’s offerings. In 1977, Peretti’s designs earned the jewelry house more than $6 million. (In some years, her work has accounted for 10 percent of the company’s sales.)

In 2012, Peretti signed a 20-year, $47.3 million contract with Tiffany & Co., but she passed away in 2021, at age 80. Today, her designs are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the British Museum.

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