Jeweler Fred Leighton, founder of the famed Fred Leighton jewelry house, died on July 26 in Manhattan. He was 85 years old.
Leighton, the son of a cab driver in NYC, opened his first store at Greenwich Village, then moved it to Madison Avenue in the 1970s. Soon, his period pieces and vintage jewelry drew the likes of Josephine Baker, Diana Vreeland, Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot and Jackie Onassis. Throughout the years, his pieces were featured on Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and W. Nicole Kidman, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron and Meryl Streep regularly wear Fred Leighton on the red carpet.
In a statement posted to the Fred Leighton Instagram account, Fred Leighton CEO Greg Kwiat wrote: “He had an incomparable passion for vintage jewelry and the vision to marry these remarkable jewels with fashion. He is a legend and he will be deeply missed. The Kwiat family is honored to carry on his legacy and to ensure his passion endures for generations to come”.
