What do you think of Elsa Peretti designs?

Are we reaching the bottom?

I have to respectfully ask the members of Orchid if in fact we have
reached the bottom of corporate dumbing down.

What do you think of Elsa Peretti designs?

Type her name in Google and then look at images,

Check out Jewelry News Network: Tiffany to Pay Elsa Peretti Up to $436 Million Over 20 Years, Maybe More

meevis.com

What do you think of Elsa Peretti designs? 

Heh. I checked to see if this was dated April 1.

Al Balmer
Pine City, NY

Check out http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep7zvh

Looks like varnished kidneys.

Hans Durstling
Moncton Canada

If judged in a competition of ten pieces with nine creative Orchid
members Elsa would be the first artist to be eliminated from
competition.

Sorry Elsa.
MA

Hello,

Check out http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep7zvh

No, we are not reaching the bottom.

I’ve seen very beautiful work from fellow jewellers here and in my
country. One jeweller/goldsmith -male or female- is not mirroring the
craftmenship of all goldsmiths.

Here production line is not my style but that’s not the point. Fact
is if she can make a living out of it and if she is selling here
collection. That is, for sure, not up to me to decide.

Have fun and enjoy.
Pedro

Tiffany has not been a real fine jewelry house for decades. I believe
Avon bought them a number of years ago. I don’t know who owns them
now. I still love their vintage stuff though. Both jewelry and table
ware. By the look of their new stuff I’m willing to bet that it’s all
done by CAD now. Just look at Frank Ghery’s work for them these days.
It’s a place where folks who are obsessed with “designer labels” shop
so that folks will think they are sophisticated. I seem to remember
reading that Faberge dubbed them and the other famous jewelers of the
time as “Mere diamond merchants.” He didn’t think there was much art
in making stuff that’s expensive for the sake of conspicuous
consumption. He was really famous for making beautiful things out of
what was then thought of as inexpensive materials. Some of his finest
pieces were simple carved figures from semi precious stones. Have fun
and make lots of jewelry.

Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com

Hmmm. While there is something nice about simplicity, these designs
rely more on the Tiffany cache’ than on creativity. Dare I voice the
thought that there is nothing much original about them.

Just MHO,
Judy in Kansas, where the next two days should see the snow melting.

Don’t get me going. marketing, marketing, marketing. Put Tiffany’s
stamp on anything and there it goes to the moon and back. People
buying the Tiffany stamp on Mexican made jewelry, small piece that
can be easily reproduced with something as simple as a rubber mold.
O. K. Life aint fair. Try to tell the people that are buying it what
they are getting and then you have to explain the whole jewelry
industry. Why are diamonds so exspensive, etc., Rolex watches,
anything that is a recognizable status symbol that indicates the
wealth and good taste of the person wearing it.

Peretti has always had her finger on the pulse of the times. Some of
her designs have become classics others have fallen by the wayside.
When her first collection premiered, jewelry chums were aghast at how
much T&Co. was charging for that little sterling bean on a chain, and
more surprised that anyone was buying it. Yet it still sells, and is
likely the oldest design in the collection. The horseshoe buckle was
always a favorite of mine but it has fallen by the wayside. Unlike
the bean, which as a purely natural form is fairly immune to the
style zeitgeist, the horseshoe buckle was very much a piece of its
time and today would look dated. So it has been replace with the
heart buckle, a much less interesting form but more accessible to
the current consumer. What do I think of Elsa Peretti’s designs? I
enjoy most of them, and even the ones about which I was of two minds
originally have grown on me over the years. She is a designer with
staying power.

No, I don’t particularly like the Elsa Peretti designs, especially
the one shown in the link. On the other hand I’ve been receiving a
catalog from Tiffany at the holidays for many years now (none this
year) and frequently her designs are some of the best in the Tiffany
catalog. Tiffany gluts their holiday catalog with extremely ordinary
overpriced jewelry with their name and/or a logo prominently
stamped, or very expensive not so lovely designs covered in gems, or
Elsa Peretti. Of these 3 choices her work is often the best of the
offerings.

It’s not just the catalog. Tiffany may reserve their best for rich
and celebrity customers, but when you and I go there to peruse
what’s on display, or even for a custom design (in my case a wedding
ring) it’s an underwhelming experience. The work I’ve seen by Orchid
jewelers is much more artistic and beautiful than Tiffany’s
selection or designs.

Perhaps Tiffany and Elsa Peretti deserve each other?

Mary Partlan, White Branch Designs
whitebranchdesigns.com

Hi

yes this is the worst of cad the “Sevillana’” pendant looks VERY
similar to one Oroton made years ago. It is mass production. But what
the heck it is all about self promotion and money these days LOL.

I doubt sophisticated buyers would touch this stuff, they like hand
made one of a kind IMHO.

Richard

Hans said, “Are we reaching the bottom?”

Yes. That looks like some stuff they had at my Wal Mart. Seriously.
I’m sure the materials are better (18K vs 10K or plate), but it
doesn’t look that different. I guess it’s supposed to be
cleverly-simple. It’s not that the stuff is really ‘bad,’ it’s just
not $436 million ‘good.’

Don’t get me started!

Two words: Paloma Picasso. If her name had been Smith her designs
would never have been produced. Talk about trading on family fame!

One of my other pet peeves is the “stars” who suddenly come out with
jewelry lines in major chain stores.

Janet Kofoed

“W” magazine had a fabulous article about Elsa Peretti about a
decade ago. Wild lady who seemed to fun to the core. Can’t help but
like a person like her just through the article. Ran with the wild
crowd in NYC at the right time. I am so glad that we have had her in
our life time. She will makethe record books for sure. I am happy
for her success and hope she continues. Seems like some people get
the whole picture at the very beginning and run with it. I truly
admire her and in the mean time have a twinge of envy.

I have made prettier stuff out of steel washers.

Can it be possible that Tiffany intends to expand their market and
to flood KMart, Walmart, and others with the Peretti designs? Alma

Rather, the stuff at your Walmart looks like the things Peretti
designs for Tiffany. As to whether her stuff is worth the money, keep
in mind her pieces are not exorbitantly expensive. There are no $1M
parures in the Peretti collection. She makes Tiffany all that money
because her things sell at a low to middle level price point and
T&Co. sells a lot, really a lot, of them.

This cuff, for instance: http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep7zw1 It’s an
elegant organic shape, and makes quite a bold statement on the wrist.
At $575 it’s not inordinately expensive, even though it is copper.

As I said, not all her designs are winners, but the ones that work
really have legs.

I once read a fairy story called “The Emperor’s New Clothes” - I see
reminders in all sorts of places.

Regards, Gary Wooding

Interesting- Exactly what I was going to bring up re: Tiffany and the
designers you mentioned (along with Paloma Picasso) Chinese
manufacturers have copied relentlessly Tiffany & CO. NY designs
since around 1997- and sell them widely on EBay and other “on line
auction” sites. I had a few pieces I inspected and bought from
"collectors" to resell, or melt down for the.925- turned out more
than half of the “Sterling” as stamped, was not even silver. but a
plated alloy I discovered when I put a torch to it.(It seemed a bit
heavy I must admit, but it was from their 1837 line with heavy
links-so no cause for a second look- I thought!). As for Peretti,
just goes to prove having a name doesn’t equal having talent. rer

Interesting story about Paloma Picasso. Her becoming a jewelry
designer can be credited directly to John Loring.

Loring was at the time Director of Design at Tiffany. He met Ms.
Picasso in Venice at a party or the Bienniel, I forget the exact
instance. Hearing that he worked at Tiffany she mentioned that she
had taken some jewelry classes. She wasn’t actually looking for a job
or a connection, just making small talk.

Loring is not a jewelry designer. He trained, I believe, as a
printmaker and spent many years as a journalist for Architectural
Digest before going to work for Tiffany. He is, however, a perceptive
and effective marketer. He realised that on her own Ms. Picasso’s
designs might or might not succeed. People would invariably accuse
her of simply cashing in on her name. But if she designed for Tiffany
then the cach? of the two names would support each other.

After all, so goes the reasoning, if her designs weren’t any good
Tiffany wouldn’t hire her; it’s not like the store was losing money.
And the fact that the name Picasso would be attached to the
collection would make it memorable. And so a group of generally
uninspiring designs became a great financial success.

FWIW, unlike Elsa Peretti, Paloma Picasso didn’t spend time with the
model makers and jewelers working out the designs. She submitted
some quickly doodled sketches which the designers at the store had to
rework and render so that they could be made into actual jewelry.

This is not to say that she is not interested in design or doesn’t
work at it, just that jewelry is not her primary interest. Some years
ago I was designing hardware for an accessories company and one of
the owners mentioned that when she was at their leather maker in
Italy there at one of the benches in the workroom was Paloma Picasso,
working out the buckles and catches for her bag collection.