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Elsa Peretti’s Diamond-Clad Cabinet of Curiosities
Only Natural Diamonds is looks back on the iconic designers’ most groundbreaking diamond creations for Tiffany & Co.
Updated: November 20, 2025
Written by: Hannah Militano
Descriptors like iconic or legendary may verge on the cliché, but still, they manage to personify designer Elsa Peretti. Few jewelers have permeated the zeitgeist quite as dramatically as Peretti. A tastemaker and trendsetter, the Italian model-turned-jewelry designer joined forces with Tiffany & Co. in September of 1974 and is responsible for some of the jeweler’s most memorable designs.
With the natural world serving as Peretti’s core inspiration, the Tiffany designer’s raw and organic renderings of beans, bones, scorpions, and snakes showcase the artistic versatility of natural diamonds, formed deep within the earth.
LA-based jewelry designer Lizzie Mandler tells Only Natural Diamonds that Elsa Peretti is her ultimate icon. “Her designs have always had a certain movement – an elegant and effortless flow that carries the eye across her pieces.” She explains, “Her work captures a quiet, intimate softness and sensuality that coexists with a striking sense of authority.”
Meet the Experts
Anthony Ledru is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Tiffany & Co., a role he assumed in January 2021. He brings decades of experience in luxury retail, having held senior leadership roles at Louis Vuitton and LVMH.
Lizzie Mandler is a Los Angeles-based jeweler with her own spin on classic diamond jewelry. With an inherent passion for the craft since she was 16, Mandler has taken traditional jewelry-making classes in both L.A. and Florence, Italy, and launched her collection in 2012.
A Creative Life, Well Lived
Born in Florence, Italy, on May 1, 1940, Elsa Peretti spent her childhood in Rome before pursuing an education in Switzerland to study teaching and interior design. By 1968, Peretti’s arresting features caught the eye of just the right people, who encouraged her to model in London, Barcelona, and Paris before she landed in New York City. It was there that she found her niche in jewelry design, creating pieces for fashion designers Giorgio di Sant’ Angelo and the legendary Halston.
In 1974, Peretti locked in on her jewelry journey with Tiffany & Co., introducing the world to her effortless and luxurious Diamonds by the Yard collection. An instant classic, the designer went on to release her Bottle, Open Heart, and Bean collections all in the same year. The pieces sold out in a single day and thereby elevated sterling silver as a luxury material.
Continuing to churn out iconic jewelry staples over and over again, Peretti was awarded the CFDA’s Accessories Designer of the Year Award in 1996. The Metropolitan Museum of Art featured Peretti’s designs in the 2018 exhibition “Jewelry: The Body Transformed.”
In 2021, Peretti passed away at her home in Spain at the age of 80. A rare, once-in-a-lifetime talent, her influence cannot be overstated.
Tiffany & Co. Celebrates 50 Years of Elsa Peretti
It’s officially been half a century since the revolutionary jewelry collaboration between Elsa Peretti and Tiffany & Co. began. 50 years ago, Peretti walked through the doors of the New York jewelry house, swinging them open and making her mark.
In September 2024, the New York jewelry house celebrated 50 years since Peretti burst onto the scene, forever transforming the world of jewelry. To mark the milestone, the house paid tribute to her enduring legacy with special anniversary creations showcasing her iconic design language, elevated with natural diamonds. Reissuing some of Peretti’s most beloved icons throughout 2024 and 2025, Tiffany is offering rare Bone cuffs, hand-set with pavé diamonds, as well as her Open Heart, Starfish, Bean design, Scorpion, Amapola designs, and more.
The house also commemorated the 50th anniversary of the collaboration during the 2024 US Open, showcasing a one-of-a-kind Elsa Peretti Diamonds by the Yard tennis racket inside of an innovative pop-up experience for the event.
Elsa has been one of our most beloved and important designer collaborators for 50 years. Her designs are as modern today as ever—a true testament to her artistic vision and genius.
“Elsa Peretti’s 50th anniversary at Tiffany & Co. is a remarkable testament to the House’s heritage of collaborating with the world’s greatest artists,” said Anthony Ledru, the brand’s President and CEO. “Based on shared ideals of inventiveness and obsession with craft, Peretti was able to create an extraordinary universe of groundbreaking designs that changed the course of Tiffany’s history and continues to resonate to this day.” Ledru continued in a press release, “Elsa has been one of our most beloved and important designer collaborators for 50 years. Her designs are as modern today as ever—a true testament to her artistic vision and genius.”
Elsa Peretti’s Diamonds By The Yard
For her very first Tiffany design in 1974, Peretti placed 12 small diamonds, set in gold bezels at varying lengths, on a 36-inch chain. She was tasked with creating a simplified diamond jewel, accessible to women on a budget. When her longtime friend and frequent collaborator, fashion designer Halston, first set his eyes on the piece, he dubbed it “Diamonds by the Yard.” Since then, “Diamonds by the Yard” has become a jewelry staple. Anya Taylor-Joy, Hailey Bieber, Zoë Kravitz count themselves fans.
Beyoncé even wore a custom “Diamonds by the Yard” dress by Tiffany & Co. during her Renaissance tour in 2023. While performing in Toronto, she dazzled in a one-of-a-kind dress, adorned with more than 150 feet of Diamonds by the Yard and intricate mesh detailing—a piece that took over 200 hours to create and is valued at more than $1 million.
Recalling the moment she first became familiar with Peretti’s work, Lizzie Mandler explains,“Elsa Peretti’s single diamonds by the yard necklace became the symbol of a sacred tradition in my family. My mother wore one when she met my father. When he later surprised her with a slightly larger one, she entrusted her original to my sister for her 13th birthday. Eight years later, on my 13th birthday, the ritual unfolded again- my sister passed hers to me, my mother’s went to my sister, and my father gifted my mom a new one.”
Proving to be the ultimate family heirloom and an incredibly chic matching opportunity, the Mandler says, “The three Mandler women, linked by a delicate chain and a single diamond. It was through this ritual that I first understood the quiet magic of jewelry, its ability to hold our most intimate and precious memories and to connect generations of its wearers- it’s part of what inspired me to go into jewelry design.”
Elsa Peretti’s Bone Cuff
When designing the Bone Cuff, Peretti took inspiration from the bones of monks she saw as a child in a 17th-century Capuchin church in Rome. Fresh and organic, the cuff is molded to reflect the human form, sensuously following the shape of the wrist. Peretti first introduced the bone cuff during a Halston runway show in 1970. A revered craftswoman, Peretti was known to sit on the floor or at the bench, collaborating with sculptors and artisans to create a perfectly ergonomic design.
Beloved by Grace Jones, Liza Minnelli, and Sophia Loren, the Bone Cuff remains among the most important design icons in jewelry history. Now available with a teardrop of pavé diamonds, Shakira wore a pair of silver and diamond bone cuffs during a performance in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, earlier this year.
Elsa Peretti’s Bean Design
Peretti’s Tiffany Bean design was inspired by seeds, a powerful symbol of life’s origins and new beginnings. Elegant in its simplicity, the piece is designed for everyday wear. With a discreet opening on either end, the diamond-accented bean effortlessly slides onto the chain of your choice, making it as versatile as it is meaningful.
Elsa Peretti’s Scorpion Design
Peretti often turned to nature as her muse, once noting, “Ideas come to me when I’m sitting outside and relaxed. Most of my designs are nature-inspired—for example, beans… as well as scorpions and snakes.” One of her most striking creations, the Scorpion necklace, was reimagined in natural diamonds and worn by Kate Hudson at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival. It was a bold, glittering homage to Peretti’s fascination with the natural world’s unexpected beauty.
Shop Our Favorite Elsa Peretti Staples
Timeless, sculptural, and instantly recognizable, these Elsa Peretti essentials capture the magic that made her a design legend.
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Bone Cuff in Yellow Gold with Pavé Diamonds, $63,000, tiffany.com
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Bean design Necklace in Platinum with Diamonds, $220,000, tiffany.com
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Bean design Wire Necklace in Platinum with Pavé Diamonds, $12,300, tiffany.com.
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Bean design Necklace in Yellow Gold with Diamonds, Price Upon Request, tiffany.com
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Bean design Wire Necklace in Gold with Pavé Diamonds, $11,500 tiffany.com
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Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Open Heart Pendant in Platinum with Pavé Diamonds and Black Silk, $74,000, tiffany.com
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Open Heart Pendant in Yellow Gold with Pavé Diamonds, $17,000, tiffany.com
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Mesh Necklace In Sterling Silver in Diamonds, $6,900, tiffany.com
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Mesh Earrings in 18k Gold with Diamonds, $2,750, tiffany.com
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Diamond Starfish Brooch, $13,500, tiffany.com
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Amapola Brooch with Diamonds and Red Silk, $40,000, tiffany.com
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Sevillana Diamond Ring, $20,000, tiffany.com
Tiffany & Co. by Elsa Peretti® Sevillana Diamond Pendant, $20,000, tiffany.com
