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SERENDIPITY AND ELSA PERETTI
I recently watched the Halton miniseries on Netflix and was totally wowed by the the fashion and his story which wove many other famous artists of the day. When I do watch these biopics I find myself pausing and fact checking on google. Learning that one of my favorite jewellery designers Elsa Peretti was his model and actually designed for Halston. Halston was one of the most influential American designers, his elegant yet sexy dresses were staples during the disco era.
Back to Elsa, she is well known for her iconic jewellery designs. Her modern minimalistic and organic designs caused a sensation in the jewellery world in the 70's and changed the concept of jewellery. She went onto design many iconic designs for Tiffany & Co. that are still sold today. The open heart design below, is an Elsa Peretti design.
In the series, there is a scene where Elsa buys a small bud vase in a flea market, she had noticed young girls who carried gardenia flowers in these bottles around their necks to keep the flowers fresh. Halston, notices her wearing it and loves it so much he commissions the design for his collection and then it becomes the inspiration for his perfume bottle design (main post image of bottle necklaces).
I got goose bumps in this scene, this is how I find inspiration for my designs, not by drawing in a sketch book, but by serendipitous finds in objects or noticing small details in the sometimes mundane things. It could be a curve or an angle or the feel of a surface that I keep getting drawn to. It's always the little things, I don't do busy or complicated.
My Fabric and Lace collection was inspired by the feel of my mums stash of lace and ribbons. There was always so much of it around and some of the lace followed me to my home as my dowry. Yep, at the time it was eyerolling and almost embarrassing. So old world, so Greek. I've got enough of it to drape all over my house twice over. All lovingly handmade in Greece. I still use the pillowcases and tablecloths, the beautiful doilies are stored away. Then, that spark happened, an idea to work the lace into jewellery. So I made a mould out of a piece of lace and made silver jewellery.
Elsa designed for women such as herself – bold strong and modern. Her designs are as fresh today as they were 40 years ago. I design jewellery with simple lines that will endure trends. Jewellery that makes a statement, not ostentatious in size but big in meaning.
