On Elsa Peretti

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Last Thursday (March 18th), Elsa Peretti passed away. I’d just been thinking about her quite a lot in the months before and so it was a shock to see her name. Elsa Peretti is one of those women, like Marella Agnelli, who I find as fascinating as any celebrity or other public figure – her life was so colorful and she was such a vibrant figure who accomplished so much, and seemed to live life precisely on her own terms, and never took the “established” route. And she was a true artist. I thought about her over the weekend and wanted to share a little about why I admired her so very much.

My first piece of Elsa Peretti was also my first piece of Tiffany jewelry. It was the small sterling silver heart on a chain and my mom bought it for me at the store in Stanford Shopping Center. It cost exactly $50 (plus tax) at the time. I went home and stared at it and wore it for years. I was curious about who the designer was, and so the next I was at the library somehow found the book, the only one she ever wrote, Fifteen of my Fifty with Tiffany. I read through it over and over, staring at the photos and illustrations. A few years ago I remembered it again and thought about getting a copy for myself and found it was only available on the used market and for around $200 or so. I should have snapped it up because it’s about five times more now.

One thing I love about Elsa Peretti: to me at least, she became more interesting the older she was. I love the idea of “old” age being something to truly look forward to, because that’s when you’ll become your most interesting self. And that the path there is a journey, and that it’s really the journey itself that is most fulfilling. Cliche I know. But still. To go from a young woman partying with Halston and Andy Warhol and starting to design and dream…

…to buying a house in a small village in Catalonia, and over the next decades restoring the entire village. Crafting your life exactly how you like, taking breaks when you want, when you feel creatively or spiritually depleted, until you feel ready to return to “regular” life. Peretti was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist (always helpful in life, let’s be honest) but I love that she was ambitious in her own right. She made her own money.

Over the years I have collected a few Peretti pieces. It’s not really a collection as much as a few pieces I’d like. A few years ago however, I was back in a Peretti phase, and read that the “bottle necklace” was one of the first jewelry pieces she’d ever designed. She’d had the inspiration, and thus gone to a random smith to make her bottle out of silver.

The bottle was a little more avant garde than the sort of jewelry I like – it’s a little bold and I couldn’t imagine wearing it as she envisioned, with a tiny flower in it. Something about it kept calling to me however, its fluidity, and so a few years back I finally treated myself to this small gold bottle necklace.

And I love it, naturally. It’s design, it’s length (the perfect size to go over the head without unclasping), and the impression in the design of liquid gold. It picks up fingerprints like no other, and plus I like to rub it and so it naturally gets a little smudged. I will say that it isn’t the sort of piece I would have picked if I hadn’t read about the connection to Peretti, but in that way I feel that it is even more special, in that it’s a memory of how much I admire the artist. A true icon.

Do you have any Elsa Peretti?