Elsa Peretti, who went from being a Halston model and a regular at Studio 54 in the 1960s and 1970s to one of the most famous jewelry designers in the world with fluid and timeless collections by Tiffany & Co., often inspired by nature, has died. She was 80 years old.
She died on Thursday night while sleeping at home in a small village 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 heart pendants are among his most recognizable works. She lent her classic aesthetic to functional products too, including bowls, magnifiers, razors and even a pizza cutter made of sterling silver, a metal she favored and helped popularize as a luxury choice.
“Elsa was not just a designer, but a lifestyle,” said Tiffany in a statement on Friday. “Elsa explored nature with the insight of a scientist and the vision of a sculptor.”
Born in Florence, Italy, to wealthy and conservative parents and educated in Rome and Switzerland, Peretti moved to Barcelona at the age of 20 and started working as a model, where she benefited from a community of artists that included Salvador Dali, according to with an August profile in The Wall Street Journal. Shortly thereafter, she moved to New York and started modeling for Halston and other top designers, entering the art and fashion jet set. It was then that she started making jewelry, using the designers she worked for to incorporate her pieces.
It was Halston, a close friend, who introduced her to the highest echelons of Tiffany, an exclusive collaboration that lasted throughout her career.
Frank Peretti started designing for Tiffany in 1974. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of his signature Bone Cuff, which hugged his wrist, Tiffany launched new versions, including some with turquoise and jade stones.
Describing herself as a “retiree” for the Wall Street Journal, she kept her hands on the ground, communicating with artisans from around the world and checking out the work of her ateliers.
“Her inspiration often came from everyday items – a bean, a bone, an apple could be turned into cufflinks, bracelets, vases or lighters,” said the family’s statement. “Scorpions and snakes were made into attractive necklaces and rings, usually in silver, which was one of their favorite materials. She said, ‘There is no new design, because good lines and shapes are timeless.’ “
About 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 established her in luxury, but she also understood the need for budget flexibility among consumers. She was behind Tiffany’s Diamonds by the Yard line, which started in 1974, based on the idea of spreading the stones in a simple chain and offering them in a price range. Today, the line goes from US $ 325 to US $ 75 thousand.
“You need to be able to go out in the street with your jewelry,” she told the Journal. “Women can’t go around with $ 1 million.”
Peretti’s designs are in the permanent collections of the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among others. In recognition of his work, Tiffany established the Elsa Peretti chair in jewelry design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the first chair in FIT’s history.
She was also a philanthropist, establishing her foundation in honor of her father in 2000. She supports a variety of projects, from human and civil rights to medical research and wildlife conservation.
The small village of Sant Martí Vell, where she died in Catalonia, has always been in her heart, according to the family statement. In 1968, she bought a mustard-yellow house and lovingly restored it for the next ten years. It now has entire stretches of the village restored, acquiring and preserving buildings, including a church. She also supported the excavation of Roman ruins and the archiving of the village’s history and established a vineyard that has produced wines under the Eccocivi label since 2008.