Tiffany has chosen Francesca Amfitheatrof, a cosmopolitan designer with an eclectic background, to introduce a new course. The new design director of the American giant tells Enrica Roddolo, of the Corriere della Sera newspaper, what she tried to translate into creativity by designing the new Tiffany T line.
Here is the interview.
«I saw the most beautiful women, the most extraordinary haute couture dresses in the 70s when – very young – I accompanied my mother to the Valentino fashion shows. And then Giorgio Armani, for whom mother Elvira, from Rome, worked for a long time». Francesca Amfitheatrof, the first woman to lead the creative team of Tiffany & Co as design director, speaks from her office in New York. She is «the cool factor», the most contemporary element of the maison that has 177 years of history. But she is also, surprisingly, «the Italian factor». “Tiffany has always had a cool soul: Charles Tiffany was cool like Elsa Peretti, she adds in fluent Italian, which betrays a slight Roman accent, even though she was born in Tokyo 44 years ago, and grew up between New York, Rome, London and Moscow. I think of Elsa’s creative work, always so contemporary, indeed, I would say adventurous”.
Speaking of adventures. Is it true that she started with the talents of contemporary art, the provocative Young British Artists like Damien Hirst or the Chapman brothers?
“YES, and to think that my father Erik, a journalist for Time magazine who was the magazine’s bureau chief in Moscow when the USSR still existed, as a good Wasp dreamed of a future as a lawyer for me, and a job as a doctor for my sister, and when I was maybe 11 he took us on a tour of the IVV League universities hoping that, like him, we would choose Harvard. But I had something else in mind. I chose London. In short, I went to art school, Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, in the Thatcher and Yuppie years when those who were chasing success certainly didn’t make that choice.”
In reality, Hirst is now a celebrity with extraordinary financial success.
«In fact, that circle of people was the one least projected towards success and instead it was precisely the one that conquered him. The extraordinary thing about artists is their ability to see the world in an irreverent way. I still remember when Jay Jopling opened the White Cube art gallery in London, what happened at the vernissages was phenomenal. Around that world also revolved fashion talents like Alexander MacQueen or Philip Treacy, capable of creating in an eccentric way. Lastly, in China, I also met the artist Ai Wei Wei who showed me amazing ancient jewels. I metabolized all of that: fashion, art and specific know-how»,
Yes, she has a degree as a jeweler but also as a silversmith. In short, she knows the jewelry trades from the raw material.
«Oh yes, I also did 6 extraordinary months of apprenticeship right here in Italy, years ago, near Padua with some master craftsmen who taught me to mix different golds, silvers. It’s a lesson that I’m putting to good use now with my first Tiffany T collection. I chose to use all the golds, from yellow to pink to white and up to silver, but also diamonds and even ceramics, which I learned about during the years I worked for Wedgwvood Stoke and Alessi: I had just graduated and Alberto Alessi suggested I go and work with them. Then the contaminations continued with the sunglasses I designed for Marni and the buttons for Chanel».
Before Tiffany, he also worked for Fendi and Alice Temperley, created jewelry for Asprey & Garrard. An eclectic training ground.
«After all, Tiffany is not just jewelry, which still makes up about 90% of the business. But the
maison also means accessories and much more».
And perhaps it is no coincidence that she chose a 360-degree designer, what did she try to translate into creativity by designing Tiffany T?
«I wanted to create a line that is very tied to design, for a modern woman. It doesn’t matter whether she lives in Milan, New York, or Dubai. Jewels that have no gender or age. And immediately recognizable as Tiffany. But above all I tried to create something effortless (literally without effort, natural, ed.). Here the lightness, even a bit of Calvinian memory, is something I have always pursued».
What does she wear from effortIess?
«My grandmother’s wedding ring, it’s now a very thin thread, my lucky charm. And then my mother’s René Lalique ring … but I also wear the rope bracelets that are worn on the beach. And if I think of Tiffany, we have jewels worth 200 euros or millions of euros. Every jewel, beyond its value, has an extraordinary symbolic force».
