Gehry Tiffany Rings

I’ve yet to meet a woman that doesn’t go a little weak in the knees at the sight of a little blue box. Let’s face it, we’ve been trained like Pavlov’s dogs to start salivating upon the arrival of a bit of ‘Tiffany Blue’.

While I appreciate the classic designs, I’m more a fan of the collaborations that the company has done with artists, designers and even architects.

The Frank Gehry collections have been stellar over the years, and the two pieces I’m lucky enough to have were ones that I fell in love with right away – and bought myself. (Really now, it’s modern times. A girl can give herself the treat of Tiffany.)

The Fish ring joined me first. I was on a solo trip to NYC many moons ago and knew I was in trouble when I saw it in the flagship store. It was well beyond my budget, but thankfully my willpower failed me and the credit card came out. Sometimes being bad is a good thing.

Inspiration for the ring is drawn from Gehry’s work in Barcelona. Photo credit unknown.

This ring gets a lot of comments, and has been referred to as a ‘lady like knuckle duster’ since it is rather…pointy. I’ve learned to wear it on my left hand when I go to conferences or meetings – shaking hands while wearing it is flirting with disaster. (“Hello President of a rather large company, I’m Devon, it’s nice to meet you”…”Aaah! My hand!!!” is NOT a good career move.”)

The second piece is the Torque ring. I spotted this while on a business trip to LA. Of the standout moments of my freetime in Pasadena, the Tiffany store and The Cheesecake Factory rank pretty high up there. I didn’t end up getting it until many months later in Toronto. I marched up to the counter, pointed at the ring, and declared my love.

I wear this one a lot – hence the rather worn look it has. Sadly, it’s a wee bit too big, and has been discontinued, so I’m very careful to tone down my hand gestures when I wear it. (This can be difficult for me, I’m quite expressive.) It also has a second life as a scarf ring – much more secure that way.

The Torque ring is evocative of the distorted forms of Gehry’s buildings, like the IAC building in NYC seen here. Photo credit unknown.

What do you think of the pieces? Have you seen any of Gehry’s work up close? Who is your favourite Tiffany’s collaborator – Elsa Peretti, Frank Gehry or Paloma Picasso?