Top 32 Quotes & Sayings by Elsa Peretti

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Italian designer Elsa Peretti.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Elsa Peretti

Elsa Peretti, OMRI OMM, was an Italian jewelry designer and philanthropist as well as a fashion model. Her jewelry and design pieces for Tiffany & Co. are included in the 20th century collection of the British Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In 1974 Peretti, the “Halstonette” fashion model arrived at Tiffany's with her modern jewelry. Her broadly popular work, including pieces like Bean, Bone Cuff and Open Heart, became as much as 10% of Tiffany’s business and John Lorning's Tiffany Style – 170 Years of Design devotes 18 pages of images to her jewelry and tableware design. Vogue described her as “arguably the most successful woman ever to work in the jewelry field.” As a philanthropist, Peretti supported a wide variety of causes, and also privately undertook the restoration of the historic village of Sant Martí Vell in Catalonia, Spain.

In the '80s, everything became too serious.
I don't have the feeling that I need to add a lot to my collection, because I have an incredibly wide range of things. This is a part of the secret of my things, that they are still valid. When I feel a need, I do something more.
What I want is not to become a status symbol, but to give beauty at a price. — © Elsa Peretti
What I want is not to become a status symbol, but to give beauty at a price.
I always write in pencil, so I can erase.
I design for the working girl.
Most of the time, I'm in the country, and the jewelry I wear I can wear in the country.
I was a baby when I began, but I knew exactly what I wanted to wear myself. I became a jewelry designer because I knew how to do something with a pencil and sketch my ideas.
For me, to put together my museum and all my remembrances was a big effort mentally, physically and monetarily.
I like to push myself to achieve a certain quality, eliminate the excess detail. I always want a high degree of purity.
I like Yorkshire Tea - very strong and English.
I would like to get married, but it must be a man who is part of my work, or me part of his.
The production must be faithful to the line. If the production fails, my work fails.
I can't copy nature.
Bird cages are nothing of incredible value, but I like them.
I keep my hair gray, so I like silver and platinum. For women who dye their hair, they can wear whatever they want.
People surround themselves in their houses with things they don't really need, that they have to dust all the time.
I hated modeling. I was so scared. But as soon as I started doing jewelry, I did better as a model.
You think about the beauty and what you want to transmit. If I think about designing, I can't design.
I like to do things that are classic.
I hate that impeccable, perfectly perfect look, all matched and prearranged.
Good design for the home should be universal. A house should be like old shoes, comfortable, like a good friend... The Japanese aesthetic is important to me. Very organic. They have a sense of the weight of the thing: very balanced.
A big diamond necklace is nouveau riche, really. People who have wealth a long time don't wear such things.
I am jewelry and objects together. This is the Elsa Peretti name to me. It is a very good balance for me to try and create with the person in mind or with the space in mind - to imagine a bowl of fruit or something for water. It is a little bit yin and yang.
I can hold a cup of sake on a full moon in Japan, and the reflection of the moon in that little cup can make me feel so enthusiastic about beauty. That one good, magical moment can give me enough to create other things like the teardrop earring or necklace.
A lot of designers still have nostalgia for the past. As for the furniture in the future, I hope they use less of real wood. Conservation in wood is necessary. — © Elsa Peretti
A lot of designers still have nostalgia for the past. As for the furniture in the future, I hope they use less of real wood. Conservation in wood is necessary.
I am a bull. I am Taurus. My will is awful. If I like something, there is nothing else. I was a pain in the neck. I still am a pain in the neck.
Portofino in the '60s was magic. Women in bright silk, each with a gardenia in their hand. The bottle started then, in my mind.
What can I say about my jewelry? It speaks for itself. To me, style is to be simple.
All my work comes out of my life.
Anyone who was a rebel at one time in life cannot return to being conventional.
I hate that impeccable, perfectly perfect look, all matched and prearranged. Style is to be simple.
I love nature, but I try to change it a little bit, not copy it.
This site uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. More info...
Got it!