Vintage Jewelry Designer History

The Trifari Company was founded by Gustavo Trifari, an Italian immigrant at the age of 20. In 1910 Gustavo founded "Trifari and Trifari" with his uncle.

Gustavo's uncle left the company a few years later, and the company continued under the name of "Trifari."

In 1917 Leo Krussman joined Trifari, and Carl Fishel joined as head of sales in 1925. The company name was changed to "Trifari, Krussman and Fishel", represented by the logo "KTF" (using an enlarged "T" at the center). Trifari Vintage Jewelry from this era are extremely rare.

In 1930 Trifari hired Alfred Philippe as head designer, and the company began to really shoot for the stars. Philippe's background designing very high end fine jewelry for firms like Cartier and Van Cleef and Arpels brought a sense of luxury and style to the company. The Trifari Vintage Jewelry Designs Philippe created have the style and glamour of fine jewelry and were very popular. Philippe continued to work at Trifari until he retired in 1968.

In the 1940's the company name was changed back to "Trifari" and the famous Trifari Crown logo was used.

Trifari was run by Gustavo Trifari and sons until 1975, when the company was sold to Hallmark Jewelry Company. In 1988 the company was sold to Crystal Brands, and in 1994 sold to Chase Capital Partners and Lattice Holding Company, a division of the Monet Group. During that time, high end, collectible Trifari jewelry was produced for sale on QVC. Many of these were Limited Editions, and collectors highly prize them as the last of the signed Trifari Jewelry.

In 2000 the Monet Group was purchased by Liz Claiborne and production was moved overseas.