Elizabeth Taylor’s Iconic Jewelry Collection Gets a Modern Makeover: ‘We Wanted to Illuminate Her’ (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Brilliant Earth launched a 17-piece Elizabeth Taylor-inspired collection featuring lab-grown gemstones and designs priced from $995

• Taylor’s personal jewels sold for more than $137 million at Christie’s in 2011

• Her longtime assistant recalls she wore meaningful jewelry to celebrate memories, milestones and loved ones

Elizabeth Taylor never needed an excuse to wear her diamonds. Now, a new collection inspired by the legendary actress’ extraordinary jewelry box is making her love of statement-making sparkle accessible to a new generation.

Brilliant Earth, the ethically sourced fine jewelry brand, has partnered with House of Taylor, the estate-authorized brand overseeing Taylor’s name and likeness, to create the Brilliant Earth x Elizabeth Taylor Collection. The 17-piece collection reimagines the star’s signature jewelry through three distinct design stories: Golden Era, featuring sculptural yellow gold and mixed diamond cuts; Gardenia, with floral settings and vivid lab-grown rubies; and Classic Nouveau, which pairs tonal gemstones with minimalist settings. Lab-grown diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, rubies and spinels bring color to the pieces, which range from $995 to $15,000, with most styles priced under $3,000.

The line, which launched Sept. 24, draws inspiration from a woman whose personal collection was as extraordinary as her career. Taylor’s jewels famously sold for more than $137 million at Christie’s in 2011, including her 33.19-carat, Asscher-cut diamond ring from Richard Burton, which sold for $8.8 million, but their value to her went far beyond their price tags. She believed jewelry should be worn, enjoyed and, above all, hold a story.

“Elizabeth believed every piece of jewelry should mean something, and so do we,” Pam Catlett, Chief Brand Officer at Brilliant Earth, tells PEOPLE. “We also believe that every piece should have a story you can feel good about, one of beauty, care, integrity, and respect for people and the planet.”

For Catlett, the collaboration was an opportunity to celebrate Taylor’s personal style without simply recreating her most famous looks. The design team spent time with the actress’s archives and the people who knew her, drawing inspiration from her appreciation for craftsmanship and expressive design.

“We wanted to illuminate her,” Catlett says. “She was an actress, activist, artist, collector, philanthropist and entrepreneur, and we wanted to reflect those dimensions through designs that feel expressive, personal and wearable today.”

That connection between the jewels and the woman behind them comes to life through the collection’s accompanying archive exhibition. On Oct. 28, Brilliant Earth welcomed guests to its Beverly Hills showroom for a VIP evening featuring more than 35 pieces from Taylor’s personal archives, including film costumes, couture, awards and keepsakes rarely seen by the public.

Among those sharing the stories behind the pieces was Tim Mendelson, Taylor’s executive assistant and close friend from 1990 until her death in 2011. Having spent two decades by her side, Mendelson witnessed firsthand how the actress used jewelry to celebrate life, preserve memories and express her individuality.

Here, Mendelson shares the personal stories behind some of Taylor’s most treasured jewels, the pieces she wore in her everyday life and what he thinks she would make of a new generation discovering her extraordinary style.

PEOPLE: You spent 20 years by Elizabeth’s side. What did jewelry mean to her beyond its beauty or value?

Tim Mendelson: Elizabeth had a huge life full of highs and lows, and for her, jewelry was always a celebration! Something fun to enjoy and share with others. Whether giving or receiving, jewelry was an act of love for Elizabeth and held a connection to the person, place or moment in time to be remembered always through the treasures in her collection.

The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond is significantly iconic, and she wore it nearly every day. Even while she was sleeping. It was a gift from Richard Burton and he was one of the two great loves of her life so something that big and glamorous, yet holding a deep personal connection, feels like the most revealing of all her pieces.

PEOPLE: We’re getting a rare look inside Elizabeth’s personal archives. When you revisit these pieces, what details or memories come flooding back that the public might never know?

Mendelson: When Elizabeth was at Buckingham Palace being honored by Queen Elizabeth and made a Dame of the British Empire palace officials instructed her that the medals given are only to be worn for official palace occasions. Well, that didn’t sit well with Elizabeth. She was so excited to be awarded the title of Dame and wanted to wear the medals as often as possible. Luckily, she was then informed that there was a jeweler in London authorized to make replicas. Elizabeth immediately ordered versions of them in diamonds, aquamarines and gold. We didn’t think it was appropriate to include them in Elizabeth’s Christie’s auction and therefore they remain a part of her archive.

PEOPLE: Elizabeth famously had an extraordinary jewelry collection, but I imagine certain pieces had stories that made them irreplaceable. Is there one piece you wish everyone could understand the history behind?

Mendelson: Yes, Elizabeth had a huge jewelry collection that grew all the time. Everything was kept in a walk-in closet off her dressing room. We would never have shared that information during Elizabeth’s lifetime for obvious reasons, but okay to say know that it’s no longer there. The room had banks of drawers with divided jewelry trays where the majority of her pieces were organized in ways that made sense to us. One drawer had small pendants and there were dozens of them. Amongst them was a small heart-shaped pendant with a round diamond. I knew nothing about that piece while Elizabeth was alive. She never mentioned it, but years later discovered it was a gift from Mike Todd. He had one made for Elizabeth and one for her mother.

What I also realized once it was in my awareness is that she wore it playing Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, during her wedding to Eddie Fisher and in promotional shots for Suddenly Last Summer. That piece demonstrates how Elizabeth connected her jewelry with others better than any other piece I can think of and it was heart-shaped! It’s kind of wild that she wore it to her wedding with another man, but since it was their shared grief over Mike’s death that was the primary connection between them, it makes sense.

PEOPLE: Did Elizabeth have a particular ritual when choosing her jewelry for an event?

Mendelson: I wouldn’t say that there was any typical way that Elizabeth chose her jewelry for an event. There were times that she would have a gown designed to go with a particular jewel if she wanted to wear it for an important, highly visible occasion. Certainly, after Mike Todd surprised her with the Cartier ruby and diamond suite, she wore red gowns to go with them a number of times when they were seen in public.

While planning what she would wear to the 1992 Oscars to accept the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her AIDS work, she wanted new jewels to mark the occasion. Initially, she was going to borrow something from Van Cleef & Arpels. She chose a diamond and chrysoprase daisy necklace and earrings to wear for the occasion and ordered a yellow gown from Valentino to go with them, and as usual Elizabeth bought the jewels in the end. Jewelry held memories for Elizabeth and this was such a proud moment for her to be honored by the Hollywood community for her role in the fight against AIDS.

PEOPLE: She was known for her incredible diamonds and headline-making jewels, but did she also have sentimental favorites that might have surprised people?

Mendelson: I don’t think that Elizabeth had sentimental favorites that would surprise anyone necessarily, but when we were laying out the jewels to be included in Elizabeth’s book, My Love Affair with Jewelry, she was insistent that it included everyday pieces like her gold bangle coin bracelets to show people that not everything had to be diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires. She wanted to demonstrate a bit of the breadth of her collection.

She also wanted to include a page of long chains with different religious symbol pendants in gold and diamonds. Elizabeth was born to parents who practiced Christian Science and she then converted to Judaism after Mike Todd was killed in the plane crash, but just as Elizabeth respected all people, she had a deep respect for all religious practices, which was reflected in her choice of jewelry at times. Including some of the charms on her multiple charm bracelets. She loved the symbolism whether she practiced the religion or not. In her everyday life, layering necklaces was very much part of her personal style and she can be seen in candid shots of her over multiple decades starting in the ’70s.

PEOPLE: What would she say about the idea of a new generation discovering her style through these pieces?

Mendelson: Elizabeth’s intention was for her pieces to go off into the world after she was gone with the hope that they would be worn, appreciated and loved in the way that she did. Since very few people in the world can own her actual pieces, it is totally within her spirit that we are doing this collection with Brilliant Earth.

Elizabeth’s style was overflowing, so it wasn’t hard to find inspiration that is modern and relevant today. Elizabeth loved to share her passion for jewelry with those closest to her and without realizing it, she was teaching us how to carry her legacy into the future with integrity and authenticity. Particularly because she was so “real” and at the same time bigger than life in her unique and utterly fantastic way!!

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