Tiffany & Co. came late to the modern world of advertising. Paterfamilias Louis Comfort Tiffany sniffed at the idea of mingling his Art Nouveau jewels with the Art Deco aesthetic that was all the rage. After his death, his predecessors wasted little time rejuvenating the company’s image. The year was 1934, the vehicle was Vogue, the photographer Edward Steichen. It was a myth-making era when fine art would collide with commerce and Paris couture would court Hollywood for inspiration, delivering America from a fate of provincialism.
Author and raconteur John Loring has been polishing the Tiffany brand to a luster since 1979, as design director and company spokesperson, with coffee- table tracts on how to live each moment in high Tiffany style. With “Tiffany in Fashion” (Abrams, $60) he brings into focus those historic 70 years with this visual document that traces the evolution of fashion, fashion photography, Tiffany jewelry design and Hollywood glamour. This enduring love affair would attract masters like Man Ray, Hiro, Horst P. Horst, Helmut Newton, Walter Chin, Victor Skrebneski, Richard Avedon and Patrick Demarchelier.
To round out his knowledge, Loring called two experts: the late fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, who began her career in the gilded age of Hollywood, and John Galanos, the dean of American fashion designers since the 1940s who provided West Coast comment.
The photographs, however, are the stars here. Early depictions feature socialites draped in gems from their personal collections. As photography and printing techniques improved and jewelry took on an expanding role in fashion shoots, the models also transmutated. Hollywood would continue to exert its influence, from names like Suzy Parker to Kate Winslet as visual adornment, but only in service of the photograph. The identity of the book’s cover model, in fact, remains a mystery. A beautiful face forever immortalized yet anonymous.
CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT
John Loring’s 11 favorite things
John Loring must have been born under a fairy-dust downpour. His job requires that he travel the globe, stay in the finest hotels and consort with socialites, movie stars and royalty whom he counts as friends. Names like Paloma, Jackie and Yves litter his speech. Besides keeping a grueling schedule as emissary for Tiffany & Co., he designs, paints and writes books–including six with the late Jackie-who-needs-no-last-name.
Born to an old Chicago family, his great grandfather founded General Advertising, and its billboards once dotted Michigan Avenue. Loring lived on the family “compound” in what is now Uptown.
By age 20 he had a degree in English literature at Yale and left to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, which he describes as a small community of artists and designers–pluralistic, mesmerizing and obsessed with fashion–and he was pulled into its orbit. It didn’t hurt that he lived with a family headed by Charlotte Ailaud, Yves Saint Laurent’s best friend.
“I have lived a charmed life. I wander dazed and disoriented through it, like a dream sequence,” Loring says. His calls his philosophy for living creatively “visual intake.” “If you’re in a receptive state, a tremendous amount of interesting ideas can come in.” — Rose Spinelli
1. “East of Eden” is the only film I watch over and over. It reminds me of Arizona, where I spent my youth.
2. Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” soundtrack from the 1979 film by Joseph Losey performed by the Paris Opera.
3. “English Prose Style” by Herbert Read. I wouldn’t have learned to write without it.
4. The villas designed by Andrea Palladio in Italy’s Veneto region. I designed a collection of clocks for Tiffany based on them.
5. The photo of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and me walking on 65th Street in New York in 1993.
6. Rembrandt’s “Polish Rider” in the Frick Museum, New York.
7. My Jack Russell terrier, Tip.
8. The standard corkscrew with a wood handle like the waiters in Paris use. It’s dependable and leads to a happy result.
9. The tuberose has the most wonderful fragrance in the world.
10. A gray flannel suit by Gianni Versace. I’ve had it for about five years. I wear my clothes forever, and this is as tough as old boots.
11. LeSportsac travel bags. I’ve been all over the world with them. They’re tough, collapsible and weightless, and they take up no space.
