Tiffany & Co. as a 185-year-old company, is known around the world for their sparkly, high-quality jewellery collections and fancy goods.
Charles Lewis Tiffany founded the store named ‘’Tiffany & Young’’ with his partner J.B Young, that was located in Broadway, New York. It has been said that, as a contribution, Tiffany’s father gave them $1000, and their first day’s sales total was $4.98. Later, Ellis joined the two as another partner but after a while, in 1853, Charles continued the journey on his own and changed the store’s name to Tiffany & Co.
He moved the store to Union Square and became an attraction to New York’s wealthy people. The company was known for their diamond jewelleries and household silvers and became very popular in no time. He even sold a Tiffany seed pearl necklace and earrings to the president Abraham Lincoln for his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, and she wore them to the inaugural ball.
Mary Todd Lincoln wearing the seed pearl jewellery suit. (Mathew Brady)
Charles’ passion was seeking and collecting rare gems all around the world. He introduced the world to rare, never-seen-before, colourful gemstones. In 1887, Tiffany purchased the French crown gems and made them into beautiful, luxurious Tiffany jewelleries. With this incident, he got the name ‘’King of Diamonds’’.
In 1900s, after Charles Tiffany died, his son Louis took his place and became the first design director of the company. With the time’s Art Nouveau movement, Louis got inspired by the nature and used glass as an element in his artworks. He is well-known of his stained glass works and he reflected his understanding of aesthetics into Tiffany jewelleries as well.
In 1940, the company moved to their current flagship store on the Fifth Avenue and with that, so many opportunities came to their way. The famous, classic movie that Audrey Hepburn starred as the main character, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, was filmed in the famous flagship store. The movies Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and Sweet Home Alabama (2002) also have scenes have been shot in the flagship store.
Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
The company worked with so many famous designers such as Paloma Picasso and Elsa Peretti. Currently, Tiffany even has a fragrance collection besides the jewelleries, silverwares and they keep extending their range.
But, what about the iconic colour of the brand? In 1845, Charles Tiffany chose the specific blue colour for their direct-mail catalogue called Tiffany & Co.’s Blue Book (it is the first mail-order book of America) and they trademarked it as Tiffany Blue.
With time, the colour started to represent engagement, marriage, and pure love since the most selling jewellery of the store were engagement rings. Tiffany became a sparkly dream. Even if you don’t want a Tiffany ring, you want a Tiffany ring. You know what they say, ‘’Think outside the box, but if it’s a Blue Box, you’ll regret it.’’(#TiffanyResolutions)
Source:
https://www.tiffany.com/world-of-tiffany/the-world-of-tiffany-timeline/
