Italian jewelry designer and former model Elsa Peretti, the flagship of Tiffany & Co., for which she worked since 1974, died on Thursday, at the age of 80, at her residence in the city of Sant Martí Vell (Girona, eastern Spain).) The jewelry company reported on Saturday in a statement.
“Elsa was not just a designer, but a way of life,” says Tiffany & Co., adding that as a “master craftswoman, she was responsible for a revolution in the world of jewelry design.”
“Her collections of organic and sensual shapes have inspired generations,” the company continues, noting that over the past 50 years, Elsa has created some of the world’s most innovative jewelry and object designs, “exploring nature” with the insight of a scientist and the vision of a sculptor ”.
She also points out that, as president and founder of the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation, dedicated to her father’s memory, “she is committed to supporting the environment, social welfare, human rights and the preservation of art and culture.”
Born in Florence (Italy) on May 1, 1940, she was the daughter of Ferdinando Peretti, a businessman who founded the oil company Anonima Petroli Italiana (API) in 1933 and was educated in Rome, Switzerland and Milan, where he studied the interior. designed and worked for architect Dado Torrigiani.
In 1964 she became a model and worked in Barcelona, posing for the painter Salvador Dalí and photographers Oriol Maspons and Leopoldo Pomés, forming part of the so-called “Gauche Divine” in Barcelona.
Four years later, on the advice of his modeling agency, she settled in New York, and in the early 1970s became one of the favorite models of designer Halston, posing for photographers such as Helmut Newton.
He started creating jewelry in 1969 for fashion designers in New York, in 1974 he signed a contract with Tiffany & Co to design silver jewelry and until 1979 he was the main creator of the company, for which he designed over 30 collections. .
In 2012, Tiffany and Elsa Peretti expanded their professional relationship by another 20 years.
Some of his jewelry designs are in museums such as the British Museum and the Fine Arts Museums in Boston, Houston or Indianapolis.
Peretti bought a house in the town of Sant Martí Vell in 1968, which he restored for years, to later acquire and rehabilitate other buildings and even the parish church, after settling in this Spanish town in the 1980s.
Through its founding, it has supported various cultural, scientific, humanitarian, educational, environmental and human rights projects.
The jewelry company to which she was associated for most of her life expressed, when she communicated her death: “our hearts go to her family, her friends and the family of the craftsmen who made her fantasies come true. Everyone who is part of Tiffany & Co. he will miss her very much. “