As she designs new pieces for Tiffany & Co, Paloma Picasso on a process for happy surprises
![On left side She is wearing hat and on right side there is a beautiful flower.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/bE2ZAzKGpLzPuY5L6bm6CE-415-80.jpg)
I didn’t know then what I was going to be, but I was so afraid to be compared to my parents [Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot], it became an obsession: whatever I did there would be no aesthetic links to what they did, so that people could see my work as something of its own. This was a springboard for me to be my best. I knew I didn’t have room to make errors, because everybody would be pointing and looking at the faults.
It was while I was living in Venice as a teenager that I started having ideas about jewellery design. It was the 1960s and women wore crazy jewellery. You would say hello and then, ‘Aah!’ – you would be attacked by a brooch or a necklace. I used to think, this is so wrong, jewellery should be something that feels good on the skin. Now, of course, I know the skill it takes to engineer jewellery to sit with the body.
My first Venice designs were shooting stars – colourful custom pieces that I manufactured myself. I took them to Paris to try to sell them. After the first meeting, they said ‘put a price on this’, but I had no idea how. That evening, I was at dinner at La Coupole in Montparnasse and Yves Saint Laurent was there. It shows how little I knew him at the time, because I thought, ‘Oh, I can ask Yves!’ I went over to his table and, after we’d had a chat, I said, ‘I need to put a price on my jewellery; I don’t know what to do.’ Yves said, ‘Come to the couture house tomorrow and we’ll talk about it.’
Of course, we never discussed prices because that is something Yves never cared about. But when he saw the drawings, he said, ‘They are really wonderful, I’d like you to come and work for me.’ That’s how my first designs came to be in Yves Saint Laurent boutiques.
‘Paloma’s Melody’ pendant in gold; nine-band bangle in sterling silver, both as before; ‘Paloma’s Groove’ rings in gold, £1,975; ‘Paloma’s Melody’ five-band bangle in gold; ‘Paloma’s Sugar Stacks’ earrings in gold and diamonds; ‘Paloma’s Melody’ five-band bangle in gold and diamonds; ‘Paloma Picasso’ rubellite ring in gold, all as before, all for Tiffany & Co
By that time, I had become friendly with John Loring, a painter and writer. John knew I designed jewellery – I had even designed a piece for him. He was living in New York and one day he called to tell me some news. ‘The people from Tiffany are looking for a design director and they have contacted me. What do you think?’ he said. I told him it sounded fabulous. This was the late 1970s and I was in New York quite a bit. Just after John got the job, he told me Tiffany was looking for a new jewellery designer and I should apply. Tiffany was the epitome of America to me – the Eiffel Tower of New York. To be part of that was so liberating.
In New York, people judged me on what I created rather than my name. There was not much colour in jewellery design in the 1980s, so when I created these big pieces in semi-precious stones, people were surprised. My designs were bold, with a certain simplicity and strength, and a strong point of view.
Today feels like a new era for me in design. This year I am relaunching an existing Tiffany collection, the ‘Melody’, in a new guise, plus the new ‘Groove’ design. There is a sensuality to my work and the circle has always been a primary shape. I like its perfection, its voluptuousness. With the new collection I have also been able to add pavé, in diamonds and black spinel, which was not something we were able to do before, technically. We did try to add diamonds ten years ago, but the results were not good. Knowing we can now do a perfect job made me interested in revisiting ‘Melody’.
‘Groove’ has been a more personal process. I wanted to design a wedding band for my husband. He felt rings didn’t look good on his fingers, but I told him, ‘I’m going to design one that I think you would want to wear.’ I made these grooves, like tiny circles. There are eight grooves, which stand for infinity and a long-standing relationship – and the wedding band can stand up on its own. Isn’t that great?
I didn’t realise it was going to stand up, so it was a happy accident. But when you are designing with the right thing in your mind, you get these little surprises, these questions and answers as you go along. That’s what makes me happy as a designer: that I am still learning, that I surprise myself. It keeps you alive.
As originally featured in the Precious Index, our new watches and jewellery supplement (see W*218)
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Tiffany & Co website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
-
Feel at home at Auberge, Château La Coste's new inn for culture lovers
Auberge La Coste sits at the heart of the art-filled estate, minutes away from the joyful town of Aix-en-Provence
By Harriet Thorpe Published
-
This Nova Lima apartment is a Brazilian family oasis with striking Minas Gerais views
A Nova Lima apartment designed by Jacobsen Arquitetura celebrates its long, natural Minas Gerais vistas
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
Tiffany Wonder in Tokyo is ‘intimate, cinematic and refined’
‘Tiffany Wonder’, an exhibition at Tokyo Node Gallery, is a sparkling journey through the history of Tiffany & Co, designed by architects OMA
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
All smiles: How a grillz jewellery making class in London became an international hit
What started as a passion project quickly exploded in popularity. We get the story behind the grillz-making workshop at Cockpit London
By Elisa Anniss Published
-
First look at Pharrell Williams and Tiffany & Co’s punkish titanium and gold jewellery
Pharrell Williams and Tiffany & Co reveal first jewellery collaboration, ‘Tiffany Titan’, featuring 19 yellow gold and titanium pieces
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Tiffany & Co nods to its theatrical history with a surreal new campaign
Tiffany & Co campaign ‘With Love, Since 1837’ sees Dan Tobin Smith and set designer Rachel Thomas create an offbeat set
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Emerging jewellery designers to get to know
These independent, new and emerging jewellery designers and brands from New York to Paris are firmly on our radar
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Jewellery designers share their most precious personal pieces
A host of jewellers give us a peek at the jewellery which brings them joy and solace
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Rimowa and Tiffany & Co are the gleam team behind this luxurious luggage
A new partnership between Rimowa and Tiffany & Co encompasses a suitcase and a jewellery box
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Playing it cool: pearls are having a moment
We've been deep-diving into boutiques around the world to find the very best calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form. It seems jewellers have been busy rethinking pearls, with contemporary (and often affordable) results
By Hannah Silver Published