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The story behind Lady Gaga’s 128-carat yellow diamond Oscars necklace, last worn by Audrey Hepburn

Lady Gaga wearing the 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond at the 91st Academy Awards in Los Angeles - REUTERS
Lady Gaga wearing the 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond at the 91st Academy Awards in Los Angeles - REUTERS

The feathered gowns, the Hollywood pin-up hairstyles, the high-drama trains… Lady Gaga appears to be determined that her promotional wardrobe for A Star is Born will go down in fashion history. And nowhere is her penchant for Old-Hollywood glamour more apparent than in her jewels.

It started with the extraordinary Chopard diamond earrings she wore for the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September; part of the Queen of Kalahari suite of jewellery, they featured a 25-carat pear-cut diamond and a 26-carat heart-shape diamond, just two of the 23 stones cut from the same 342-carat rough diamond. There was the suite of Tiffany & Co diamonds, over 100 carats in total, she wore while channeling Judy Garland at the Golden Globes.

Lady Gaga Tiffany Diamond Oscars - Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Lady Gaga is only the third woman to have worn the priceless gem in public Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

And then, at last night’s Oscars, she raised the bejewelled bar once again by draping her neck with one of the world’s largest yellow diamonds.

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The 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond is a treasured part of Tiffany’s archive collection - meaning it is categorically not for sale - and is usually kept under lock and key in a display cabinet in the brand’s Fifth Avenue flagship: as much of a tourist attraction as the Tiffany Blue Book café a few floors above.

Tiffany Yellow Diamond - Credit: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images
The Tiffany Yellow Diamond was hewn from a 287.42-carat rough stone discovered in the Kimberley mine in South Africa in 1877 Credit: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images

The cushion-cut diamond was hewn from a 287.42-carat rough stone discovered in South Africa’s Kimberley mine in 1877. The cutting process took 12 months and was overseen by George Frederick Kunz, Tiffany’s chief gemmologist at the time.

When it was finished, Tiffany’s founder Charles Lewis Tiffany decided not to sell it but to keep it on display for the public, and the Tiffany Diamond, as it was named, became the star attraction at exhibitions and events throughout the late 19th and 20th century; a symbol of Tiffany & Co’s diamond expertise.

It has been widely reported that the diamond is worth $30 million, but in fact it has only ever been offered for sale once: in 1972 Tiffany & Co ran an advert which declared the Tiffany Diamond to be the ultimate ‘Limited Edition’, for sale for 24 hours only at a price of $5 million.

Mrs Mary Whitehouse wearing the Tiffany Diamond - Credit:  Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
The first time the diamond was ever worn was in 1957 at the Tiffany Feather Ball, when it was borrowed by Mrs Mary Whitehouse Credit: Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

“In our judgement, past history and everything else considered, it will easily be worth $10 million one hundred years from now,” ran the ad.

Despite several designs being created for the Tiffany Diamond over the decades, it has, in fact, only been worn in public three times. The first was at the 1957 Tiffany Feather Ball, a charity gala, when it was mounted on a white diamond necklace for Mrs Mary Whitehouse.

Audrey Hepburn wearing the Tiffany yellow diamond - Credit:  Getty Images
Audrey Hepburn wore the diamond, mounted in Jean Schlumberger's Ribbon Rosette necklace, in the promotional photographs for Breakfast at Tiffany's Credit: Getty Images

The second was in the promotional images for the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1951, where Audrey Hepburn can be seen wearing the diamond set into the Ribbon Rosette necklace, which had been designed by Tiffany’s famed designer Jean Schlumberger in the 1950s.

The stone had a starring turn in the film when Hepburn’s character, Holly Golightly, declared that she “doesn’t give a hoot about jewellery except diamonds - like that” - pointing to the gargantuan gem.

Hepburn’s sculptural, intricate necklace was just one of a number of designs Schlumberger envisaged for the stone; his ‘wardrobe of settings’ for the Tiffany Diamond was published in Vogue in 1956, and demonstrated how captivated the jeweller was by the gem.

Tiffany Yellow Diamond Bird on a Rock brooch - Credit: Getty Images
The diamond was set into Jean Schlumberger's 'Bird on a Rock' brooch design for the jeweller's retrospective at the Museé des Art Décoratif in 1995 Credit: Getty Images

Sadly he wouldn’t live to see another of his designs come to life: in 1995, after his death, the stone was set into his ‘Bird on a Rock’ brooch design, for a retrospective at the Museé des Art Décoratif, and it remained in that setting for several years.

The diamond’s third outing on Lady Gaga was the first time it has ever appeared on the red carpet. It was set into a custom-made white diamond necklace, which echoed a design created in 2012 to mark Tiffany’s 175th anniversary. Comprising 62 white diamonds alongside the priceless central gemstone, the necklace was matched by a custom-made pair of white and yellow diamond earrings.

Tiffany yellow diamond necklace
The necklace was created in Tiffany's High Jewellery workshop in New York

This latest chapter in the story of the Tiffany Diamond is emblematic of Tiffany’s chief artistic officer Reed Krakoff’s approach to fine jewellery. Since being appointed in 2017, Krakoff has been on a mission to breathe new life into the historic house and “loosen the formality” of diamonds.

Tiffany yellow diamond necklace - Credit: YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/GettyImages
The necklace worn by Lady Gaga is a customised version of the necklace created for the stone to celebrate Tiffany & Co's 175th anniversary in 2012 Credit: YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/GettyImages

In his eyes, diamonds are meant to be worn and enjoyed, not kept to gather dust in a safe. Judging by the smile on Lady Gaga’s face as she posed on the Oscars red carpet (followed closely, presumably, by a bevy of bodyguards), it’s an approach that works wonders.

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