Welcome to the GiltTrips podcast. I'm your host, Kendra Lockhart. As a goldsmith and
gemologist, I'll be speaking 24 carat on all things jewelry, metals, and gems. Join
me plus a few friends to demystify both materials and designs as your private jeweler. Let's
tune in on these topics and get golden. Tiffany's, a moniker known by all. The world's most famous
and later branded color. A name synonymous with Audrey Hepburn and sung about by Marilyn
Monroe, both on the silver screen. America's giant, generational jeweler, and international
gem purveyor. In today's episode, I'll be taking us through the magic, movements, and
marketing of the world's largest brand. The chapters will be time stamped in the show notes.
So let's get into storytime. Who was Charles Lewis Tiffany? He was the son of a cotton
manufacturing company and General Good's store owner. He was also coming of age in
the first wave of the industrial revolution and the use of machinery in textiles. After
10 years of working with his father, he borrowed $1,000 in 1837 and opened a stationery and
gift shop with a friend from his school days. Within two years, his modest project had expanded
into glassware, porcelain, clocks, cutlery, and now jewelry. In another two years, the
caliber of his glass in China had elevated and now the company was making its own jewelry
in addition to selling that product. After his first decade, he began investing in diamonds
from overseas as the political turmoil was affecting economies abroad. A few years later,
he would sell these acquisitions for healthy profits, which likely funded the reorganization
and expansion of his company into Europe. Now, like any true entrepreneur, his business
got threatened. So what do you do? Do you scale? Possibly exit? Maybe pivot? In Charles's
lifetime, he would do all three. But right now, he was facing the Civil War in the United
States and had the forethought to back burner his jewelry manufacturing and go into war
materials, weapons, and metals. Well, guess what? America would recycle that model in
both World War I and World War II. Now, nobody gets to have a flawless track record as a
business owner, and Charles got caught up and publicly embarrassed in the great diamond
hoax of 1872. The short version of this is a couple of con artists bought some diamond-cutting
remnants from Europe and, quote unquote, salted the soil back here in America. What that meant
is it looked like another gold rush is that diamonds had been found here in the United
States. Unfortunately, the material that was caught in Europe was originally sourced in
Africa and had nothing to do with our territory here. So these are not domestic goods. And
no, we didn't yield a single diamond at the time that this happened. But hold up, this
visionary Aquarius knew he had a comeback in him. So now, Napoleon's only son and last
of the lineage dies and France moves from the monarchy model into a republic. Well, who
shows up to purchase the devalued crown jewels now that royalty is extinct? Good old Chuck
Tiffany does. And he starts deconstructing and restyling these into pieces back here
in our gilded age. So now you can have a piece of a former king or queen, which is kind of
why we had our own revolution from England's regency because that's brilliant branding
is that we broke away from a crown yet kept the best of what it had to offer. In 1902,
he passed away in his home in Manhattan in New York at age 90. In his life, he had married
the sister of that schoolmate and original business owner. He had six kids had become
a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yes, the venue of the Met Gala. And his third
child would continue this legacy. So a little bit about Louis Comfort Tiffany, who was also
an Aquarius, he went to military Academy for classic schooling, but later became a professionally
trained painter. At the time of his father's death, the world was entering the art nouveau
era. And this was just in time for the sun's rise in the media of exquisite glass windows
and lamp work. Now on to the company's timeline. The birth of the color, the origin of the
font and the inception of the blue book as a power trio for this company. Tiffany's assets
had vision and longevity. Traditionally, jewelers used hallmarks to mark their works, which
is kind of similar to a logo. However, having origins in stationery and being partial to
lettering, Charles picked a custom font to spell out the company name on the sturdling
flatware and other fine goods. As for the most famous color in the world, the fact is
that in the Victorian era, brides loved turquoise and gave me mementos made from this gem, hence
popularizing the color. I tend to find the Tiffany's version of the color much more
romantic, given that the founder was more strategic than trendy. Folklore and Tiffany and company
say that Napoleon III of France had married Empress Eugenie and that she was quite the
influencer of her era. A Robin's egg blue was her quote unquote signature color. So
what does a savvy businessman do to woo her attention and patronage? Make that his company
color. The final move was to debut the combination of the Tiffany's typeface, appropriate named
quote unquote the Stirling and the color tint together in a catalog. Launched in 1845, the
Tiffany and company blue book was the first direct mail catalog in the United States to
feature a broad base of purchasing opportunities from the comfort of one's home. Since then,
every year this annual publication goes out to feature the upcoming offerings from Tiffany
and created a paradigm shift in the way that people could shop. If we fast forward to today's
time, this would be as big as when Amazon happened. Tiffany's mainstream presence made
them the bearers of beauty in the 1900s. New gems were discovered and marketed quite wisely.
While the company always had a modest entry level, given that it began in Stirling products
and garnered initial attention by winning awards created by top silversmiths, the net result
was that the dominant perception of Tiffany's was the quality. So now imagine if you can
possess never before known jewel in American design legendary and named after business
superstars or exotic lands. That would be the never ending conversation piece, which also
cemented the mythology of Tiffany's. In 1902, the first gem that Tiffany's would name
was discovered. Kunzeit, a pale ballet pink gem would be named after George Frederick
Kunz, who was the chief jeweler of Tiffany's. Now what makes him such a big deal? He knew
his purpose even as a child. George was a self taught mineralogist and such an authority
on gem specimens that his research landed him a job at Tiffany's and he assumed the
vice presidency by age 23. The ability to identify this unknown form of spodmene caused
it to be named in his honor. Previously, he was part of the study of supervising the cutting
plan for the Tiffany's diamond, a giant yellow found in South Africa 24 years prior
to Kunzeit. In 1910, another pink gem is introduced to the public, Morganite, which was found
on an island near Madagascar, which is the bottom right tip of Africa if geography is
not your best subject. And here's one more power move in marketing to name a jewel after
one of your top patrons and the guy who had the touch in American investing. JP Morgan
underwrote 42 companies, financed Tesla's work at one point, made money on gold loaning
to the US Treasury in the Gilded Age, and then merged with Carnegie Steel, which would
build out bridges, railroads, and be the parent company to the disastrous subsidized ship
called the Titanic. His professional life of bolstering economy, expanding transportation,
solving the arts and faith is his legacy. In 1967, Tansnite, which is my spirit stone
and personal favorite color, violet, was found in a small area of Tanzania, or Tanzania,
if you say it that way, and is a remarkable species of gem that shows multiple colors
on different axes. Violet blue zoosite was not so alluring, so it was dubbed something
much more romantic for its country of origin when it debuted in a jewelry a year later.
And lastly in 1974, Savarite was another beauty that is launched into consumer awareness
by Tiffany's only a few years after its geological discovery. It was also found in Tanzania and
a part of Kenya. And the name that Tiffany's chose was for the Savo East National Park
in the latter country. The gem is a very intense green, more often than emerald, yet with a
high transparency like the Garnet family belongs to as far as gem type. In the last decade,
Tiffany's pledged $1 million in wildlife anti-poaching and the reduction of ivory demands from African
elephants by creating this fundraising brooch with this gem. Now Tiffany's has a long-standing
commitment to conservation and ethical practices, which I'll cover later in the legacy section.
Let's move on. I'm going to go over the top 10 culturally relevant items and replacements
because I do love a good list. Number one, in 1862 Abraham Lincoln's seed pearl suite
that he purchased for Mary Todd, this would mark Tiffany's as a favored go-to for politicians
going forward. Number two, in 1878 Tiffany purchases an enormous raw yellow diamond and
cuts it with 24 extra facets on the standard pattern yielding a 128 carat gem, which changes
the culture of colored diamonds in America. Number three, in 1904 Tiffany's offers its
solitaire a fabricated six-prong setting which gets new attention when Franklin Roosevelt
purchases one for Eleanor. Number four, in 1961 the brand becomes both backdrop and in
my opinion best supporting actor, along with Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's,
a movie made from a short story by famed American author Truman Capote. Number five, in 1967
Tiffany's wins the right to design the National Football League or NFL Super Bowl Trophy,
a tradition that still stands. Number six, in 2013 the company has priceless product
placement in Baz Luhrman's version of the great Gatsby film. The Savoy headpiece in diamond,
pearl and ribbons would feature a detachable brooch and echo the high art of the times
in which the story was written and lean into a little bit of art deco. Number seven, in
2017 Tiffany partners with Lady Gaga to launch the hardware collection. Number eight, was
it foreshadowing? Lady Gaga would wear the yellow diamond to the 2019 Oscars where she
won. In 2021 musician couple Jay-Z and Beyonce star in the About Love campaign as the modern
black spokespeople and with her being the first woman of color to model the diamond.
This would open the discussion if the gems original sourcing and timeline made it a possible
blood diamond. Number 10, in 2024 post LVMH acquisition of Tiffany's, Pharrell pushes
the edge of urban and alternative metals and this marks the first African-American creative
collaboration for the company. Speaking of collaborations, Tiffany's well aware that
staying fresh and creating limited editions to raise desire and urgency would go well
beyond their product as they had done before with owning the blue book itself. The store
windows by Jean Moore, the artistic director who began in 1955 was a major catalyst of
window design as many theater vignettes. Not only did he use recognizable objects to capture
the consumers attention and emotional connection, my personal favorite being the bird's nest
with Robin's eggs, yes the same exact hue as the Tiffany's blue and delicately laying
large jewel-tuned cocktail rings on them, but he would also expose the world to the
modern visuals of artists like Rauschenberg's graphic art, Jasper John's post war expressionism,
Alexander Ney's modern sculptures, and Andy Warhol's pop art. Now the top designers that
Tiffany's would approach for jewelry and product would be Jean Schlumberger in the
1960s who began in fashion and left an iconic imprint as one who interpreted stately gems
into whimsical and nature themed settings. Next would be Elsa Peretti in the 1970s who
revolutionized organic, sensual, and sterling wearable art and minimalist home goods. In
the 1980s Paloma Picasso, a jewelry graduate, would usher in graffiti inspired lines and
bold semi-precious gem combinations. And lastly in the 2000s Frank Gary, an architect.
Now the dark ages, first as early as 2004 and well into 2010, Tiffany's was suing eBay
for selling counterfeit products which was diminishing the trademark and status of Tiffany's
company. That their prestige and even the name was borrowed and abused to conduct business
for profit. Well guess what, Tiffany's lost. Because the courts deemed that the term Tiffany's
is now a vernacular definition and that eBay is a platform for peer-to-peer sales and never
takes possessions of the items. And lastly, that eBay is a service, not a product. And
this was a very sad day for copyright designs because Tiffany's lost not once, but twice
given that their appeal was also ruled in favor of eBay. Secondly, in 2013, scandal arose
when the vice president of product design was sentenced to 366 days in jail for theft
of 2 million in over 160 pieces of Tiffany's product that she privately sold after stealing
and some had even been transported across state lines. She had to repay 2.1 in product
and then 2.2 million in restitution for the profit loss. This was a huge reveal of a blindspot
in a company consistently known for its impeccability. Third, the hardware collection. This collection
was a turning point and a bit of a dip where the brand reputation or celebrity ambassador,
Lady Gaga, was greater than the caliber of the design or the prestige of its creator.
Now Tiffany's wasn't afraid of modern edges or pushing the envelope, but post-recession
and with most of department stores sinking quarter after quarter after quarter, this
urban rebranding was a bit of a mess. And now it is our current decade, the acquisition
adventure. Tiffany's had previously doubled down, it had successfully pivoted, now it
was the grand exit. LVMH bought Tiffany's and in doing so brought its marketing into
the social media which was new territory for our company. In return, Tiffany's netted
LVMH an extra 6 billion in sales after partnering and modernizing visibility. Now European business
still craves American competencies and culture and I predict always will. But this merger
had Tiffany's modeling them into connecting with diversity and a range of age groups.
While engagement strategy comes with risk and popularity is hard to predict or quantify,
this turned out to be a reward for the risk of a power coupling into our American enterprise.
And lastly, let's fast forward to legacy. Tiffany and company's charities have gone
into youth education, the conservation has been on both land and sea around the world,
and the commitment for continuing is the responsible mining fund and dedication to sustainability
in its materials while protecting generations to come with its profits and its powers. For
almost 200 years, Tiffany and company has been expressing and pioneering American style,
business, sophistication and image while bringing tried and true tradition into our culture's
past, present and future, infinitely echoing old and new.
Thank you for listening and learning with me. I would love you to share this project
with people finding rare beauty in today's world and throughout our times. Until the
next episode, keep your own story sparkling.