Vintage Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co. Diamond Heart Necklace

As Italian jewelry designer Elsa Peretti (1940–2021) told the New York Times in 1978, “All my work comes out of my life; I’m gifted and see lines and shapes where no one else does.” For her Open Heart necklace, that shape was in the void of a semi-abstract sculpture by English artist Henry Moore, an open space that, to her, resembled a heart. The undulating lines of Peretti’s heart pendant are open so that a chain can be pulled right through and it can move freely with the wearer, one of the many unexpected touches that the designer brought to her practice of meaningful adornment. Slightly asymmetrical, with hard edges that contrast its sensual curves, the heart is simple but boldly original.

Born in Florence, Peretti studied interior design before becoming a fashion model. She initially moved to New York in 1968 to continue her runway career. By the end of the decade, however, she was creating her own jewelry for designers like Giorgio di Sant’Angelo and Halston. The Open Heart necklace was introduced shortly after Peretti joined Tiffany & Co. in 1974 and was later featured on the cover of Newsweek. She brought a fresh sensibility to the historic American jewelry house, and within a few years Peretti’s work for the brand became immensely popular.

Peretti immediately recognized that 1970s’ women didn’t want hefty diamonds or cumbersome brooches laden with precious stones; they wanted jewelry they could wear from day to night, ready for the office or the dance floor. Although Peretti embraced minimalism and rejected frivolous detail in her designs — such as the Diamonds by the Yard strands, with their sprinkles of diamonds on gold chains — they always had deep personal meaning. She also drew on the organic shapes of nature, including starfish and bones, reinventing their forms in designing versatile jewelry. Pieces like the Open Heart necklace helped elevate sterling silver and its sculptural possibilities into luxury jewelry status. The material additionally meant her jewelry was more affordable than most Tiffany wares, rendering the pieces some of the retailer’s most popular designs.

Peretti’s partnership with Tiffany & Co. continued for decades, with her sophisticated designs remaining timeless favorites. The Open Heart necklace is one of her most enduring creations for the luxury brand, which still produces it in numerous variations, from examples in gold and those decorated in diamonds to earrings, rings and bracelets. They are objects meant to be worn, cherished and loved. In that spirit, Peretti’s designs have helped change modern jewelry.

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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