OverDressed for Life

Born in Italy to a wealthy family in 1940, Elsa Peretti became a model while living in Spain in the 1960s where she also started playing with jewelry design inspired by objects she found at flea markets. When she later moved to New York City she met the fashion designer Halston and he included her works in his fashion shows. It was then that she created some of her signature designs such as the bone cuff bracelet and the open heart pendant. Liza Minnelli was among the first celebrities to sport her jewelry and I noticed in a recent interview that she’s still wearing her bone cuff bracelets – one on each wrist!

(Later Ms. Peretti designed the teardrop shape bottle for Halston’s perfume.)

Her unusual sculptural pieces caught the eye of many, including Bloomingdales, who bought her line and in 1972 designated a small corner of the store to her wares and called it “Peretti Boutique.” After winning several awards, Peretti contracted with Tiffany & Co. in 1974 to design exclusively for them. She later told a reporter that it was Halston himself who took her to Tiffany to discuss the contract.

While at Tiffany her designs became iconic – the open heart, the bone cuff, mesh necklace – and these modern, simple designs in silver attracted younger clients.

When Ms. Peretti died in 2021 the jewelry magazine, The Aventurine, said that the designer put Tiffany in touch with what was happening on the street by offering more affordable jewelry. I’m not so sure they are affordable now, but they are still selling. All of the Elsa Peretti designs have become classics, worn today by the likes of Meghan Markle, Sarah Jessica Parker (as Carrie Bradshaw), and Margot Robbie. It’s been reported that Ms. Peretti’s jewelry represented 10 percent of Tiffany sales between 2009 and 2011, and when her contract was renegotiated in 2012 she was given a one-time payment of close to 50 million dollars.

I remember the open heart design, which I wanted so badly when I was in high school. At the time I did a lot of babysitting and one of my regular jobs was for the family of the owner of a car dealership in San Francisco. The couple had a baby daughter and the mother hired me to sit one afternoon a week. I really liked the mom, who was super chic with short blonde hair. I looked forward to seeing each week what she might be wearing to wherever she was going – a meeting, a luncheon, a photoshoot at her husband’s dealership. She wore silk blouses with midi-length skirts and boots and she always sported a gold pair of Elsa Peretti open heart earrings from Tiffany.

Oh, how I wanted those earrings too. But I wasn’t making so much money babysitting to buy them for myself. (I’m a little surprised that I didn’t say something to my mother or my father, as I think a pair would have appeared under the Christmas tree one year.) The earrings were too much for my bank account, but back then they weren’t as expensive as they are now. I suppose it was a passing whim on my part, but one that I remember to this day.

Ms. Peretti appeared in the 2019 documentary film Halston (if you haven’t see that, you should!). I would say that her designs have certainly stood the test of time.

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