Tiffany & Co. Reimagines a Classic and Looks Ahead to the Future
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It was, of course, William Faulkner who said the past isn’t dead (“It’s not even past”), but ask any heritage jewelry brand and you will hear a version of the idea: how to align tradition and modernity, how to navigate honoring an archive with the modern desire for novelty, how to evolve but stay true to one’s roots. Well, that’s all we think about—I am including your favorite 176-year-old magazine in this line of inquiry. No house has been more closely watched while charting this course than Tiffany & Co. Since the 185-year-old company was acquired by LVMH in 2020, all eyes have been focused on clues to the future. Is that famed blue box really going to be yellow now? (It was an April Fool’s joke, people.)
A Schlumberger red carpet renaissance has calmed critics, as did the presence of the historic Tiffany yellow diamond in the Beyoncé campaign. And now, with the unveiling of Lock, the first new design of the new regime, we have more answers.
You remember the Tiffany Keys, launched in 2009, don’t you? Maybe you even have one of your own. Before the key (in the 1870s, in fact) there was the lock—an actual working one. Charles Lewis Tiffany’s firm offered its burgeoning clientele padlocks meant to secure precious materials such as, say, letters filled with classified information. The shape, a solid piece of metal easily loaded with meaning, lent itself to jewelry design, and soon enough there was a padlock brooch featured in the Tiffany Blue Book of 1883.
“Our designs,” says Alexandre Arnault, Tiffany’s executive vice president for product and communications, “are rooted in balancing our heritage with modernity. In the future we will continue to push ourselves forward to create icons and offer more innovative designs, crafted in the highest quality materials.” This mission translates into the new Lock bangles, designed to be worn by all. There is a clear lane—in nomenclature and inspiration—back to the Tiffany archives, but there’s an equally direct road ahead. The design strips down the idea of the padlock to a bold, streamlined shape in yellow, white, or rose gold, but recalls it subtly with a swivel closure that clicks shut like the mechanism for which it is named.
Is it on its way to icon status? It has the simple and strong design many modern jewelry icons possess, and it’s rich with symbolism, which always helps. Consider the new classics and you’ll note that associations with luck or declarations of devotion are especially prominent. A Lock bangle, bonded to the wearer and to history, but not beholden to either (contrary to what its name suggests, it comes off easily), seems, and forgive me here, key.
This story appears in the October 2022 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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