Jewelry News

How Instagram Memorialized Elsa Peretti

Designers, stylists and editors paid tribute to the Tiffany legend

by Marion Fasel

March 20, 2021—As the news spread around the world yesterday that the jewelry world had lost a legend, designers, stylists and editors paid tribute to Elsa Peretti on Instagram. Following are some of the many posts we spotted on the social media app.

From stylist Kate Young: #elsaperetti … what a loss. Truly an icon and an inspiration. I admired your style and swagger. Your insistence on rigor and design. Reducing things to their most primal and simple forms. Making a simple open heart into a poem about what the heart contains. You represent so much of what I love – elegance, sensuality, minimalism, decadence and fun. The world is more beautiful because of you 🕊

From stylist Danielle Goldberg: forever favorite. #elsaperetti important to note my first email address was bean711@aol.com because of my beloved kidney bean necklace by elsa peretti @tiffanyandco

Jewelry designer Kim Dunham posted the above 1970s image of Elsa working with the caption: Elsa @elsaperettiofficial was not only a brilliant, jewelry designer but a compassionate humanitarian. A true inspiration. I’m sadden to hear about her passing today. The world was a more beautiful place because of her.

From photographer Raymond Meier: Saddened to hear the loss of a legend today. You will be missed @elsaperettiofficial @tiffanyandco

Jewelry designer Bernard Cohen posted the delightful image of Elsa above with the caption: My photograph of Elsa Peretti and Henry Platt at the International Ball, Atlanta. Late 20th C.

One of many photos posted by jewelry designer Sophie Buhai shows a view of Elsa’s home in Spain. Sophie captioned the gallery of images simply 💔RIP ELSA💔

Jewelry designer Pamela Love posted 1970s image of Elsa in Spain with the caption: There will never be another one like you – RIP @elsaperettiofficial #elsaperetti

Taffin jewelry designer James de Givenchy posted a detail shot of Elsa’s bone cuff with no caption just showing off those amazing curves.

Town & Country posted a 1970s image of Elsa with the following caption:

#ElsaPeretti, legendary Italian jewelry designer and visionary, has died. She was 80 years old. As @babylynnieland [aka journalist Lynn Yaeger] wrote in our November issue, “When Elsa Peretti crafted her beloved Bone Cuff from silver exactly 50 years ago, she became the matriarch of truly modern, groundbreaking jewelers. Her ingeniously sculpted masterpieces happily traded faceted gems for formidable shine, giving permission to all who followed to make beautiful things out of materials other than high-carat stones or precious metals. With that bold choice Peretti also made clear you didn’t have to be named Minnelli or Berenson to flaunt your Bones. Everyone was welcome to the party, preferably with dancing shoes on.”

Stylist Thomas Christos Kikis posted one of Elsa Peretti’s bean boxes artfully photographed on a nightstand and captioned it simply #elsaperetti 🖤

David Webb archivist Levi Higgs posted the above image of Elsa Peretti modeling the American designer’s jewels in 1971.

From Jewelry Advisor/Seller Shelly Branch:

Elsa| Years ago, I had the bittersweet task of selecting a gift for a high school valedictorian in Oklahoma. She had just lost her entire family—both parents and two brothers—and trusted me to tell her story. The magazine I worked for agreed that our intrusions warranted a graduation present. So before boarding the plane to visit her one last time, I was off to Tiffany to buy an Elsa Peretti open heart pendant. I will never forget the girl’s face when she opened the box. This bright teen, who had aged and matured too many years in the span of a few months, smiled and screeched with youthful abandon. It was the first time I saw her act her age, the first time I saw her come out of her mournful shell. She studied the jewel’s curious shape and asked me to please secure it around her neck. We both cried. Elsa Peretti’s jewels have always held that transformative power. The woman who found inspiration in bones and skulls, and who struggled with her own commercial success, invariably moved people with her work. Gone today at 80, she leaves us all with a better understanding of the interplay between nature and art, jewelry and sculpture—and how sensual adornment for the body is an eternal concept. Thank you, Elsa, for the everlasting gift of beauty, of emotion—and power. (Photo: Hiro, 1989)

Vogue magazine posted the following and linked to their obituary for Elsa Peretti here:

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