Elsa Peretti who was best known for her jewelry designs for Tiffany & Co dies in her sleep at the age of 80.
The following written content by WWD Staff
Elsa Peretti, known worldwide for her jewelry designs for Tiffany & Co., as well as for her previous career as a fashion model, died in her sleep Thursday night at age 80.
Further details could not immediately be learned.
Peretti first entered the fashion world in the early 1960s as a model in Spain, moving to Manhattan later that decade and joining the Wilhelmina Modeling Agency. In the early ’70s, she became one of Halston’s favorites along with the likes of Anjelica Huston and Pat Cleveland.
Even as she was modeling, however, Peretti was designing jewelry for fashion designers including Giorgio di Sant’ Angelo in 1969 and, two years later, Halston. She won a Coty Award for jewelry design in 1971 and Bloomingdale’s opened an in-store boutique dedicated to her collection the following year. She signed on with Tiffany in 1972, and her designs immediately became a core part of the iconic jeweler’s offering — at one point representing up to 10 percent of its revenues. Read more from WWD.