Movies are magical, but making them involves practicalities: To protect an archival jewelry piece during the filming of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a Tiffany & Co. representative sat at the feet of actress Mia Goth while she played piano to ensure not a single diamond from the epic Wade necklace could be lost.

Inside info like this about the jewelry in the new film made a Nov. 20 conversation at the 92nd Street Y (92NY) sparkle. For the NYC Jewelry Week event, author Marion Fasel interviewed Frankenstein costume designer Kate Hawley and Tiffany vice president Christopher Young, who serves as the company’s creative director for Tiffany patrimony and global creative visual merchandising.

Now streaming on Netflix (following a mid-October release in select theaters), Frankenstein sourced 27 pieces from Tiffany’s archives and its New York City studios. Five were created just for the production, six are contemporary designs, 10 are historic jewels, and six are archival silver objects.

The 92NY audience loved hearing about a detail on an original carnelian red rosary that Goth wears in the movie’s wedding scene: Young told them that Tiffany engraved Elizabeth, the name of Goth’s character, on the back of the cross using author Mary Shelley’s handwriting, as seen in her Frankenstein manuscript. The nerdy note earned buzz live and on social media later.

Many of the historic jewels Goth wears in Frankenstein, including the Wade necklace, have never been worn in modern times, Young said. He and Tiffany archivists were on hand during filming in case pieces needed to be adjusted. Thanks to their movie magic, jewels by the likes of designer Meta Overbeck (who worked under Louis Comfort Tiffany) fit Goth as if they’d been made for her.

Hawley noted that Young and Tiffany, as well as del Toro and the costume crew, worked collaboratively to determine what kind of jewelry would reflect Elizabeth’s personality. After del Toro described the character as bug-like, a Louis Comfort Tiffany necklace from the early 1900s featuring iridescent glass beetle motifs was selected. Tiffany was obsessed with using the natural world in his designs, Young said. (Hawley’s team created costumes for the “bug-like” Elizabeth inspired by moths, butterflies, and beetles, she said.)

Another NYC Jewelry Week event at 92NY featured a Nov. 19 discussion of the recently published The Jewelry Book. The talk, sponsored by the De Beers Group, included the book’s editor, Melanie Grant; jewelry writer Tanya Dukes; Brooklyn Museum senior curator of fashion Matthew Yokobosky; and senior director of 92NY’s Jewelry Center, Jonathan Wahl.

Grant explained how her book was created through a collaboration of 27 writers, calling it a “vast village” needed to curate the stories and people highlighted. Each panelist cited a favorite spread in The Jewelry Book and talked about why they loved the mix of personalities and jewelry houses featured on those pages.

For her turn, Grant pointed to the page with model (and jewelry devotee) Grace Jones, whose entry sits next to one on jeweler Fernando Jorge. Jones is a style hero who’s used her body as a canvas and been unapologetic in how she wears jewelry, Grant said. And she called Jorge “beautiful inside and out,” describing him as one of the kindest individuals she knew in the jewelry industry.

“You don’t have to be mad cruel or dangerous to be a great designer. You can be a nice guy and be a great designer,” Grant said.

Top: A Frankenstein scene featuring Tiffany’s Wade necklace on actress Mia Goth is shown during a 92NY talk with (from left) Tiffany vice president Christopher Young, the movie’s costume designer Kate Hawley, and jewelry writer Marion Fasel. (Frankenstein talk photos by Andrew Werner/courtesy of Tiffany & Co.)

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