Paloma Picasso (born Anne Paloma Ruiz-Picasso y Gilot on 19 April 1949) is a French jewelry designer and businesswoman. She is best known for her collaboration with Tiffany & Co and her signature perfumes.
The daughter of artists Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot, she is represented in many of her father's works, such as Paloma with an Orange and Paloma in Blue.[2] She is also represented in her mother's work, "Paloma à la Guitare" (1965), which sold for $1.3 million in 2021.[3]
Paloma Picasso was born in Paris to artists Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot on April 19, 1949. Her name, Paloma (Dove), is associated with the symbol her father designed for the World Peace Council's World Congress of Partisans for Peace, held in Paris at the time of Paloma's birth, and it can be found in many of her father's works.[citation needed]
Picasso spent her childhood in Paris and the South of France, where she and her older brother Claude Picasso were immersed in the vibrant culture and intellectual zeitgeist. She took an interest in drawing as a child, "but, as I grew up I started feeling the weight of my heritage," she said.[4]
Picasso had a half-brother, Paulo Picasso (1921–1975), and a half-sister, Maya Picasso (1935–2022), from her father. She has another half-sister, Aurelia (b. 1956), from her mother's marriage to artist Luc Simon.[5]
Some rhinestone necklaces she had created from stones purchased at flea markets drew attention from critics. Encouraged by this early success, the designer pursued formal schooling in jewelry design. A year later, Picasso presented her first efforts to her friend, fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who immediately commissioned her to design accessories to accompany one of his collections.[6] In 1971, Picasso launched her first collection of costume jewelry in his Rive Gauche boutiques in Paris.[7] Her vintage 1940s style inspired Yves Saint Laurent's 1971 Scandal collection.[8] Through him she became part of artist Andy Warhol's social circle.[7]
After the death of her father in 1973, Picasso took a hiatus from designing to catalogue his estate and help establish the Musée Picasso in Paris.[9]
In 1979, Picasso began working for the Greek jewelry company Zolotas.[4]
In 1980 Picasso began designing jewelry for Tiffany & Co. of New York. The company's design director emeritus, John Loring, described Picasso’s designs as "aggressively chic and uncompromisingly stylised. Her signature is seen in X’s, scribbles and zigzags, all sculpted in gold. She also punctuates gold with lavishly scaled colored gemstones."[4]
In 1984 she began experimenting with fragrance, creating the "Paloma" perfume for L'Oréal.[10] In the New York Post Picasso described it as intended for "strong women like herself." A cosmetics and bath line including body lotion, powder, shower gel, and soap were produced in the same year.
Picasso penchant for red which started at an early age.[11][12] Her red lipsticks were called "her calling cards."[13] "Red lips have become my signature, so when I don’t want to be recognized, I don’t wear it," she said[12]
In 2010, Picasso celebrated her 30th anniversary with Tiffany and Co. by introducing a collection based upon her love of Morocco, called Marrakesh. In 2011, she debuted her Venezia collection, which celebrates the city of Venice and its motifs.
Personal life
Picasso's father cut off contact with her and her brother Claude Picasso when their mother's memoir, Life with Picasso, was published in 1964.[14] In 1970, Picasso and Claude filed a lawsuit in France to be acknowledged as their father's legal children and hence heirs.[5] When Picasso's father died in 1973, his widow Jacqueline Roque prevented Picasso and her brother from attending his funeral.[15] After a lengthy legal battle, a French court ruled that the inheritors to the Picasso estate were Roque, his children, and grandchildren.[16][17]
In 1978, Picasso married Argentine playwright and director Rafael Lopez-Cambil (also known as Rafael Lopez-Sanchez) in a black-and-white themed wedding. Picasso described Lopez-Cambil as the "architect" of her career, and she gave him a half share of her business in 1994.[18] After splitting up in 1995, Lopez-Cambil filed a lawsuit against Picasso in the United States in a dispute over the business in 1997, but ten months later, he withdrew the claim.[18] They divorced in 1998.[19]
Picasso used top-quality stones to construct several significant necklaces, some of which are currently owned by museums.[24] Her 396.30-carat kunzite necklace is kept at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., and a 408.63-carat moonstone bracelet adorned with diamond "lightning bolts" is kept in the permanent collection of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.[24]
In 1988, Picasso was honored by the Fashion Group International for her contribution to the industry.[26]
In 1988, the Hispanic Designers Inc. presented Picasso with its MODA award for excellence in design at the fourth annual Hispanics Designers Gala Fashion Show and Benefit.[27]
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