Jewelry Highlights

Paloma Picasso for Tiffany available on Deleuse.com

By Janet DeleuseOct 11, 2022

In 1985, Paloma Picasso posed wearing her large citrine necklace in her New York apartment for Vogue lensman Horst P. Horst. Photo Getty

A Look Back at The Artistry of Paloma Picasso

Her bold jewels and artistic ready-to-wear pieces are the best of 80’s style

by Marion Fasel

Right before the pandemic shut everything down in New York, I received a special gift of a Paloma Picasso silver Scribble brooch. The jewel was such a surprise, I well-up after I opened it. The design is one I have long loved, but it never occurred to me to buy one. Once I started wearing it pinned to my beloved puff sleeve Ulla Johnson grey sweatshirt for walks with my dog Hunter to the park and trips to the grocery store, I realized what a great treasure it is. The weight of the piece is magnificent. All of it got me to thinking back to Paloma Picasso’s heyday at Tiffany & Co.

When Paloma Picasso debuted her first collection for Tiffany in 1980, Vogue said, “It redefined ‘real’ jewelry in a modern sense.” At a time when “real” jewelry was expected to have diamonds, Picasso designed with semiprecious stones. The sophisticated way she handled the gems infused the stones with glamour. “She would take a citrine and make it look as important as a canary diamond,” proclaimed legendary Vogue accessories editor Candy Pratts Price.

What the press saw as a bold move away from diamond jewelry was intuitive for Picasso. “I like big stones and with semiprecious stones you can work in really large sizes,” explained the designer when I interviewed her for Bejeweled, a book I co-authored with Penny Proddow. “I guess that comes from being the child of two painters.” read more.....