Elsa Peretti

A lot of designers still have nostalgia for the past. As for the furniture in the future, I hope they use less of real wood. Conservation in wood is necessary.

A big diamond necklace is nouveau riche, really. People who have wealth a long time don't wear such things.

Good design for the home should be universal. A house should be like old shoes, comfortable, like a good friend... The Japanese aesthetic is important to me. Very organic. They have a sense of the weight of the thing: very balanced.

I hated modeling. I was so scared. But as soon as I started doing jewelry, I did better as a model.

I don't have the feeling that I need to add a lot to my collection, because I have an incredibly wide range of things. This is a part of the secret of my things, that they are still valid. When I feel a need, I do something more.

Bird cages are nothing of incredible value, but I like them.

I can't copy nature.

I can hold a cup of sake on a full moon in Japan, and the reflection of the moon in that little cup can make me feel so enthusiastic about beauty. That one good, magical moment can give me enough to create other things like the teardrop earring or necklace.

What I want is not to become a status symbol, but to give beauty at a price.

You think about the beauty and what you want to transmit. If I think about designing, I can't design.

People surround themselves in their houses with things they don't really need, that they have to dust all the time.

Most of the time, I'm in the country, and the jewelry I wear I can wear in the country.