New York City Icons: Tiffany & Co.
Documented by Brianna Capozzi

Tiffany & Co.’s iconic status is bound up in its connection to New York City. Like the city’s grid system, the architecture of the New York flagship is synonymous with its clean, modern style. Tiffany & Co. have often used the city as a source of inspiration, especially for its Icon Collection. While the Tiffany T embodies the intersecting grids on which New York is designed, the HardWear collection evokes the city’s resilience.

Innovation has always been part of what makes Tiffany & Co. an enduring brand: from Elsa Peretti’s Bone Cuff  to Jean Schlumberger’s Tiffany Sixteen Stone. Like New York City, Tiffany & Co. knows how to adapt over time while retaining what makes it so iconic: revisiting archival motifs in contemporary ways. While Lock reimagines a gold-cast padlock brooch from 1883, Knot is a modern twist on an elegant bow crafted in 1889: both homages to the everlasting appeal that makes Tiffany & Co so iconic.

Rose Salane

As an artist and curator, Rose draws on found objects to reconsider significant historical events from the perspective of everyday lives. She collects and collates ephemera to do so; for example, in 64,000 Attempts at Circulation (2022), the artist presents 64,000 slug coins which tell an alternative story of New York’s public transportation system.

Connie Girl

Illustrator, model, runway coach, and one of New York’s best known door guards, Connie has been a mainstay on the city’s nightlife scene since the late ’80s, as well as walking the runway for Thierry Mugler. An icon, she says, “is someone who holds the door open for culture and those coming in behind.”

Lexie Smith

Born and raised in New York, Lexie founded Bread on Earth in 2014—a project which uses bread as a starting point to learn, critique and map political, social and economic structures. As well as baking, Lexie researches histories of bread, working towards a database of breads from around the world (the “Bread Web”).

Ylang Messenguiral

Half French, half Malagasy, rising model and creative Ylang has an energy and charm in front of the camera that recalls the kind of buzz that, she says, is what makes New York City so iconic. “It’s the perfect place to be yourself, without any boundaries or any judgement…it’s all about energy and symbiosis.”

Marisa Competello

Marisa worked as a stylist in New York for almost a decade before moving into floristry and founding the floral design studio, Metaflora. Her background in fashion (and as a lifelong dancer) inform and influence the sculptural forms that her arrangements take, in which colour, texture and shape are composed with a careful precision.

Paloma Elsesser

Scouted by the makeup artist Pat McGrath via Instagram, Paloma quickly emerged as one of the most recognisable models of her generation who has racked up countless covers for Vogue (American, British, Italia, Mexico, the list goes on…).What’s more, she emits a cool elegance and chicness that radiates both on the runway and off.

Maryam Nassirzadeh

Since opening her concept boutique store in 2008 on the Lower East Side, Maryam has been a mainstay on the New York scene. Her namesake label launched in 2012 and is instantly recognisable for its muted tones, minimal aesthetic and playful details. Like her clothes, her influence is far-reaching, in a lowkey subtle way.

Constance Tsang

This year, Constance released her first feature, Blue Sun Palace, a story of an unlikely bond between two Chinese migrants in Queens. The magic and possibility of New York is what makes it iconic for Constance: “I’ve had conversations that have been impressionistic—I might not see that person again, but those conversations linger.”