It’s been over four decades since Paloma Picasso first debuted ‘Graffiti’, the pioneering range of street art-inspired fine jewellery she created for Tiffany & Co., which became a huge success. Now, the American jewellery house has unveiled new additions to Picasso’s Graffiti collection, as well as her Olive Leaf and Olive Leaf Amethyst lines.
The daughter of artists Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot, Paloma Picasso could be said to creativity in her DNA. Born in Vallauris, France in 1949, she began her career in Paris, up-cycling flea market finds to make avant-garde theatre costumes. This led to her studying jewellery design, and soon she was producing pieces for her close friend Yves Saint Laurent, and the Greek jewellery company Zolotas.
Alongside Saint Laurent, Paloma’s glamorous crowd included Karl Lagerfeld, Andy Warhol and Loulou de la Falaise. After first meeting Tiffany & Co.’s then-design director, John Loring, as a teenager, she began designing for the house in the 1980s. Inspired by the city’s urban culture, neon lights and illicit graffiti art, Picasso first imagined the ‘Graffiti’ fine jewellery line, and has since designed the ‘Loving Heart’ collection, the ‘Olive Leaf’ collection as an ode to her home in Morroco, and the ‘Paloma Picasso Studio’ line, with strong, geometric shapes and vivid gemstones. Viewed as a progressive choice for a Tiffany designer, her silhouettes channelled the dynamic artistic and cultural shifts of America in the 1980s.
Now, Tiffany & Co. has launched new additions to some of Picasso’s most successful fine jewellery collections, including her Graffiti line (including expressions captured in her own handwriting), her botanical Olive Leaf pieces and her Olive Leaf Amethyst line, the latter designed to frame the natural beauty of the vibrant purple stone – a more accessible gem that has become one of the trademarks of her bold, polychromatic style at the house.
Like this? Take a closer look at the rare Tiffany & Co jewels that appear on screen in ‘Frankenstein‘.
