Elsa Peretti

Elsa Peretti is a jewelry designer, philanthropist and former fashion model.

Early life

Peretti was born in Florence, Italy on May 1, 1940, as the youngest daughter of Ferdinando Peretti and Maria Luisa Pighini. Her father Ferdinando Peretti (1896-1977) was a businessman who built Anonima Petroli Italiana (API) into one of Italy’s leading oil companies.

Educated in Rome and Switzerland, Peretti initially made her living teaching Italian and working as a ski instructor in the Swiss mountain village of Gstaad, before moving to Milan in 1963 to pursue a degree in interior design and to work for the architect Dado Torrigiani.

One year later she decided to embark on a new career path as a fashion model. After having spent her first couple of years in Barcelona, she followed Wilhemina model agency’s suggestion to move to New York in 1968. While modelling in Manhattan, she began creating new jewelry styles for a handful of top fashion designers, i.e. Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Giorgio di Sant’Angelo and, since 1974, exclusively for Tiffany & Co. In 1999 Peretti explained how it all started to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "In 1969, I found a tiny flower vase in a junk shop and was inspired to design a bottle on a chain for the designer Giorgio di Sant’Angelo", before she went on to design belts for Halston – whose minimalism was a touch stone for Peretti.