Tiffany & Co.'s flagship store in New York City will reopen on Friday after a nearby fire engulfed the luxury outpost in smoke.
Footage of smoke appearing to billow out from the store spread across social media on Thursday morning, fueling speculation that the blaze originated inside the Tiffany & Co. headquarters. According to Bloomberg, the smoke actually resulted from a transformer that caught fire underneath the sidewalk nearby.
The flagship — which famously appears in the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's — recently completed renovations estimated to cost $500 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The revamped store, dubbed The Landmark, reopened in late April after closing its doors in 2019. To commemorate the launch of the new space, Tiffany & Co. threw an opulent reopening party that attracted the likes of BTS' Jimin, Hailey Bieber, and Pharrell (who, ICYMI, wore a pair of teeny Tiffany specs to his Louis Vuitton debut).
In addition to the legendary 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond, the flagship houses artwork by Damien Hirst, Daniel Arsham, and Julian Schnabel. The impressive location is part of a wider rebrand for Tiffany & Co. Ever since LVMH acquired the jeweler in 2021, the brand has made a concerted effort to appeal to a younger generation via celebrity-fronted campaigns (see: Beyoncé and Jay-Z) and buzzy collaborations (see: Tiffany & Co. x Supreme).
The time, cost, and effort that the brand has put into its recent facelift wasn't lost on bystanders, who looked on with shock and horror. A statement released by Tiffany & Co. should quell fears: "This morning prior to store opening hours, an electrical fire broke out in the basement on the periphery of the Tiffany Landmark on Fifth Avenue in New York City," the company said on Thursday. "The fire has since been put out and we are working with the New York Fire Department to take precautionary measures to ensure the safety of our employees and clients."
