In announcing a major collaboration with 20th Century Studios, Tiffany & Co. highlights the increasing importance of cinema in the declarations of major jewelers.
A change in calendar can reveal many secrets. About twenty years ago, the houses of Place Vendôme entered the Paris haute couture calendar, which takes place in the first or second week of July, to unveil their new creations. The goal was clear: take advantage of the presence in Paris of major buyers and influential editors, sensitive to the art of unique pieces, to create synergies in terms of sales and media presence in specialized journals. Everything happened in Paris, around the square. The dazzling jewelry set was the organic extension of the custom-made outfit. The immense success of high jewelry, supported by the development of large groups, has expanded over the years the scope of these presentations which have become spectacular staged performances revealed during organized trips in June and then in May. A festival of epic revelations, orchestrated over two months.
This year the scenario has changed, and the schedule of major clients has been slightly disrupted. The presentations, still luxurious, started in the still gray days of March, unfolding throughout April. By May, everything will be settled. This means that very few new collections will be presented in July. One may wonder about the reasons that led to this schedule disruption. The conflict in the Middle East? Not likely as these orchestrations require one or even two years of preparation. The consequences of climate change or the demands of accounting practices also do not seem to be the issue. The answer to this puzzle is provided by a celebrity stylist and a major brand: the former says, “we need to align as closely as possible with awards season”; the latter confesses even more clearly, “we want to be fully ready for the Cannes Film Festival.” In both cases, the goal is the same: to increase the chances of visible connections with movie stars while ensuring that the new pieces will be available, ideally by early March at the latest by early May.
The collaboration between Tiffany & Co. and 20th Century Studios is centered around the prominent presence of the New York jeweler in the film The Devil Wears Prada 2.
Stars and carats
Why now? After all, the connections between jewelry and cinema are as old as Hollywood itself. Harry Winston made the absurd carat weight of the raw Jonker diamond (726 carats) shine on the smiles of Claudette Colbert or the very young Shirley Temple in the 1930s, a decade during which Gloria Swanson never removed her Cartier rock crystal bracelets on screen, while an advertising agency commissioned by De Beers used its influence to approach screenwriters to include scenes where the presence of precious stones would be decisive. The examples are too numerous and consistent over the past century to list. However, we observe that the association of a star with a jewel on screen or at a premiere leaves a lasting impression. It is precisely because of this lasting memory that the union of stars and carats maintains its relevance today.
Reconquering the general public through the red carpet
This is more vital than ever. The war for attention in the era of continuous content flow requires doubling efforts to be noticeable to the general public who show signs of fatigue towards the luxury world and its exorbitant prices. Strategists readily recommend building an emotional platform fueled by dream engineering to reconquer lost clientele. It is estimated that the luxury industry has lost 50 to 60 million “aspirational” consumers in three years; many brands have ensured their growth by increasing prices without a perceived quality or value while the volume of pieces sold has decreased significantly. The film star, who combines cultural aura and media presence, must play a central role in this reconquest device: one is naturally suspicious of a short-lived collaboration between an influencer and a brand offering an expensive and ephemeral product on social media; one fondly remembers a scene where Richard Gere offers a Fred necklace to Julia Roberts or a generic one in which Audrey Hepburn daydreams in front of a diamond that lights up a Tiffany & Co. showcase with its solar rays.
Tiffany & Co.’s right cinema
The Fifth Avenue jeweler announces today its collaboration with 20th Century Studios. This collaboration, described in the press release as “significant,” involves a significant presence in the newly released film The Devil Wears Prada 2. Filming in the Milanese boutique of the New York house, featuring a high jewelry necklace from the Blue Book 2022 collection, illuminating Emily Blunt in a decisive scene, Tiffany sunglasses worn by Meryl Streep. Even the legendary Bone cuffs designed for the jeweler by Elsa Peretti are featured in the film. The Milanese boutique also hosts, until the end of May, an installation of immersive showcases inspired by the film directed by David Frankel.
The jeweler’s intervention in the scenario is measured. No intrusive close-ups or excessive name-dropping signaling a product placement out of the blue. The collaboration is well executed precisely because Tiffany objects contribute to character-building in search of elevation. By associating, subtly, Tiffany blue with the cerulean that marked minds in the first installment of the film (fans will understand), the New York giant makes a welcome distinction between the attention that shifts at the speed of a scroll and the presence that inscribes in the depths of memories under the spell of emotion.
The obligation to quantify its impact
This distinction explains the increased attention paid by brands to the long series of red carpets coming this month. Pressed by new performance tools that now require them to precisely quantify their impact, not in terms of relevance or notoriety but in terms of ROI or MIV (Return on Investment and Media Impact Value respectively), houses know they can rely on cinema to succeed in these two apparently conflicting missions: to demonstrate, under the yoke of relentless metrics provided by the Launchmetrics company, their presence in the short term in an overheated ecosystem while patiently constructing the narrative of a requirement that forges an identity.
