Artistic License

By Kate Betts

"People are ready for this now," says jewelry designer Paloma Picasso, holding a necklace of giant rough aquamarines in her hands. "I would wear it because I like the fact that there is so much light in these stones and that somehow they are not pure, but maybe it's not for everyone." Indeed, after 27 years in business designing her namesake collection of fine jewelry for Tiffany & Co., Paloma Picasso, 58, the daughter of Pablo Picasso, has finally seen her passion for bold, large-scale jewelry and colorful, rough-edged stones come into fashion. When she launched her collection in 1980, Picasso had only been dabbling in jewelry design, creating a line of costume jewelry for Bergdorf Goodman and incorporating jewelry into stage outfits she designed for avant-garde productions in Paris. It wasn't until her friend the designer Yves Saint Laurent asked her to make some pieces for his collections that she began to take the craft seriously. Several years later, Tiffany creative director John Loring enlisted Picasso to design a table setting for an exhibition that the jeweler was staging. Soon she was showing Tiffany executives her one-of-a-kind pieces, including a necklace of big hammered-gold balls circled in tiny diamonds that is still part of her collection. Along with Picasso's oversize rings featuring chunky aquamarine, citrine or amethyst, she created more accessible--but equally iconic--pieces inspired by graffiti or handwritten x's and o's. "The idea was to create something young and fun and strong," says Picasso. "I wanted to make something that was romantic without being cute." This season she takes the notion one step further, introducing hearts that turn up ever so subtly around the face of a watch.

1 Double Loving Heart cuffs for Tiffany in 18-karat gold ($4,800) and sterling silver ($795)

2 An illustration of Paloma Picasso as a child in 1955, done by her mother Franc,oise Gilot

3 A classic design for Tiffany, the Scribble, in gold and platinum with diamonds ($1,250)

4 Picasso on the top floor of her grandmother's house in Paris in the early 1970s

5 The 25th-anniversary colored-gemstone brooch for Tiffany, set in white gold with diamonds ($59,900)

6 The Crown of Hearts Diamond Limited Edition watch for Tiffany, in gold with 24 diamond-studded hearts, on a black satin strap ($8,500)

7 Picasso wearing her own designs