#elsaperetti

1975

New York

Elsa Peretti in Halston

Halston

Elsa Peretti, Star Designer of Elegant Jewelry, Dies at 80

NYT: “After arriving in New York in the late 1960s, Ms. Peretti was an immediate hit as a runway model for designers like Halston, Issey Miyake and Giorgio di Sant’Angelo. One day she decided that she wanted to try her hand at designing a piece of jewelry, inspired by something she had seen at a flea market.”

It was a time for hyper-creativity; its echoes reach us today. It was the 1970s: New York, Studio 54, Warhol and Halston and Minnelli… and Elsa Peretti.

Elsa was a transplant to the scene; it was part of her allure. Born in Florence, she lived in Italy up to the early 60s. Her family’s conservative attitude repelled her free spirit to Barcelona before making the pilgrimage to New York in 1968. It was these first few years in the city that came to dictate her legacy. This was when she met her greatest collaborators (i.e. Halston) who became catalysts for her lifelong career as Tiffany & Co designer. Her iconic jewelry designs are still best sellers, but we’re partial to her homewares, a few of which are included below.

Eventually, Elsa’s frenetic life in New York led her to seek everything that it was not. With savings from a saturated modeling career, she purchased a few buildings in a village north of Barcelona: SANT MARTÍ VELL. Here, Elsa built a world for escape and for cultivation. She could be immersed in natural forms (nature was a through line underscoring each collection for Tiffany) but surround herself with her eccentric taste. It became a village just for her, telling the tale of a woman who lived with open arms. She collected artwork from her friends and special pieces from her travels, and found homes for them in this compound in the most thoughtful way. Her storied life built this place.

Images here are from Elsa’s village home as well as a family retreat she inherited in Tuscany.

Above images by Alvaro Bujons: https://www.alvarobujons.net/elsa-peretti-sant-marti-vell/