The Ebb and Flow of Tiffany & Co

Francesca Amfirtheatrof c/o Tiffany

Tiffany & Co hired their lovely Design Director Francesca Amfirtheatrof in 2013, and if you watched the documentary I wrote about, or even look here, you can see, she epitomizes perfection, and reminds us of Audrey. And yet something seems wrong about the direction of Tiffany (this began long before she arrived)...

The Tiffany T Collection she did oversee was a financial and cultural success, but to what degree? Tiffany & Co stocks have always gone a bit up, and down, but over the last decade Tiffany & Co has adjusted to the economy, and in doing so, I feel made some slight errors. First, they lowered standards for their diamonds over the last 5-6 years I believe. Harry Winston (with the exception of fancy colours) sells D-E-F. And VS. ONLY. Tiffany & Co used to sell from a colorless D  to a GIA colour "I" (a questionable colour in my opinion already). But now, now you can find "J" in some solitaire pieces in their stores. And SI1 clarity. It doesn't make them bad diamonds, but it speaks to their clear attempt to reach a broader market. Didn't they already do that by selling lovely, classic silver pieces?

And now they are taking pieces for their  "Out of Retirement" collection, redoing the "Return to Tiffany" collection by stamping their logo all over each piece....like this "Multi-heart Tag Necklace"

Return to Tiffany 2016 Design c/o Tiffany.com

Do you really need to have Tiffany & Co heart tags dangling like this, in silver for $675? They say it is a "classic reinvented" but is it more of an attempt to sell themselves? The dichotomy between the Blue Book pieces, and their true mass pieces are growing. The gap wasn't always this wide.

Grace Coddington, of Vogue fame, has been hired as well as an outside consultant for the first time, to assist in the Fall 2016 campaign (read here).

Grace Coddington of Vogue c/o Tiffany & Co

I can only hope they can sit down and remember, less is sometimes more.

I of course will be watching every move they make, because I adore the store, and my friends that work there, but I do wish the designs were more like the T (where stock went up for a solid period), or Peretti, and not lower quality diamonds, or silver splashed with Tiffany written all over it (such as now, with a steady decline)....