Tiffany & Co. lends invalid diamonds for “Frankenstein” from Netflix

Asked to describe the moment that delighted him the most delighted on the set of FrankensteinThe opening of Guillermo Del Toro’s film in theaters on October 17 before broadcasting on Netflix from November 7, Christopher Young immediately remembers the day he arrived on the set with the Wade necklace, a diamond and historical platinum design created by Tiffany & Co. commanded by her husband, financial and philanthropE Jepptha Homer Wade II, the collar presents more than 40 carats diamonds cut with mines in a complex garland and floral design – and to date Frankenstein Together, he had never been seen on the neck of a woman other than Mrs. Wade.

When Young started to place the necklace on Mia Goth, who plays Elizabeth in the reimagination by Del Toro of the legendary Mary Shelley Tale, he said that he expected that certain temporary adjustments to his size are necessary. “But that adapts it perfectly; We had nothing to do with it, ”explains Young, the vice-president of Tiffany & Co. and creative director of Tiffany Patrimey and Global Creative Visual Merchandising. “It was also obvious that the wearing of the necklace affected Mia, because it sat differently. The diamonds, for their part, sparkled in a different way because Guillermo had chosen to light the scene using candlelight. It is an effect that you cannot create by using imitation materials, and it also saw it, because it ended up cropping the scene.”

Inclusion of Tiffany & Co. in Frankenstein started as a request from costume designer Kate Hawley, who also collaborated with Del Toro the 2015 Crimson peak and 2013 Pacific Rim. When Hawley contacted Young for the first time, he said he did not immediately kiss the idea. “It’s normal when someone says FrankensteinThe first image that comes to mind is Boris Karloff and a dark castle and a crazy scientist in the background, “says Young The Hollywood Reporter. “But that was nothing like when I started to see the designs produced by Kate. It was immediately obvious that this sumptuous production would be very appropriate as a scenario to include objects and jewelry of Tiffany archives.”

More than many other jewelry houses, Tiffany & Co. can boast of a narrow connection with Hollywood – perhaps the most famous when Audrey Hepburn was walking in front of her famous Manhattan windows in 1961 Breakfast at TiffanyAnd more recently with 2013 The Grand Gatsbywhich has produced a collaboration similar to Frankenstein. For 2002 Sweet Home AlabamaA key scene with Reese Witherspoon and Patrick Dempsey was filmed on the ground floor of Tiffany & Co. on the fifth avenue de New York. But there was a following level element in the archives the jewelry used to FrankensteinSaid Young. “It is incredibly rare that these pieces (in the film) see daylight,” he notes.

This is particularly true of a double row scarab necklace that Goth also carries in the film, a 1914 design made of art glass and gold in the workshop of Louis Comfort Tiffany by two of his most famous craftsmen and designers, Meta Overbeck and Julia Munson. “There is a wonderful symmetry about a necklace made by two talented women at the beginning of the 20th century, to be worn today by another talented woman, who features in a film based on a novel by another talented woman, Mary Shelley”, underlines Young. Like the Wade necklace, this is the first time that the Scarab design has been used in a film.

Among the other creations of Tiffany & Co. seen in production, the house has also designed a pocket watch carried by Charles Dance, who plays Leopold, the father of Victor Frankenstein by Oscar Isaac. “It is not an archive piece; Instead, it is the recreation of a 19th century design, executed faithfully in gold, ”explains Young. “But there was an existing Frankenstein crest, and we had this engraving on the watch to add to its authenticity.”

Del Toro and Young seem in equal parts amused and understanding the additional measures required by the participation of Tiffany & Co. Frankenstein. “We had more security for Tiffany’s plays than for many stars of the film”, jokes the director in a featurette who has just been published on the collaboration.

“The jewelry had its own trailer,” added Young to THR.

Now these jewelry adorn the windows of the fifth avenue du Vaisseau flagship in another collaboration. Del Toro lent some of the miniatures for which he supervised FrankensteinThe design of production to be used as window device sets for the two jewelry seen in the film and the related modern designs. The jewelry describes window conceptions as an immersive experience featuring digital elements and lighting interspersed with animation and the score of the film by Alexandre Deplat, which won an Oscar for his work with Del Toro in 2017 The shape of the water. The best time to display the windows? After 7 p.m., Young recommends, when the different elements combine to create an experience that celebrates the film and is shown at 10 -minute intervals.

Young says that the director expressed his interest in creating something for the windows at the start of filming. “Guillermo is a very tactile artist, and we always consider our windows as a kind of street theater,” he explains. “It was his idea of ​​creating these scenes and this experience in windows, using some of the miniatures created for the special effects of the film, because he is an artist and a real storyteller.”

Tiffany & Co. Frankenstein are open to visualization until November 3 at 727 FIFTH Avenue in New York, while a second window exhibition will be exhibited in Selfridges London from October 17 to November 9.