For aficionados of the history of Chanel, you may be well versed in the little black dress, the perfect tweed suit and 2.55 bag. At the same time of its design, the French fashion house was curating an offering, a world first, of high jewellery titled “Bijoux de Diamants”. Gabrielle Chanel designed an estimated 50 pieces for the line with white and yellow diamonds set in platinum and yellow gold and was inspired by the night sky.
“I want the jewellery to be like a ribbon on a woman’s fingers,” Chanel said at the time. “My ribbons are supple and removable.”
In 2022, 90 years since the collection was released to the famous and affluent, Patrice Leguéreau, director of the Chanel Fine Jewellery Creation Studio, has harnessed that same modern spirit to write a new sartorial story for the House. “I wanted to return to the essence of 1932 and to harmonise the message around three symbols: the comet, the moon, and the sun. Each heavenly body shines with its own light,” he said.
Aptly titled “1932” the forthcoming pieces form an other worldly collection and are inspired by heavenly bodies. Similarly to the first high jewellery collection, 1932 draws a map of the skies above. The moon – which had only a solitary presence on just one piece in the “Bijoux de Diamants” collection – emerges in the collection as an ongoing motif.
By revisiting the past to better project itself into the future, the Chanel Fine Jewellery Creation Studio has designed “living” jewellery. That is, out of 77 spectacular creations, 13 are transformable. Star-studded coils can be twisted around the wrist at will to create unique constellations. Deep blue sapphires, glittering diamonds, opals as deep and intricate as a galaxy, rubies of a vibrant red, spinels, tanzanites: if the original collection was almost entirely pristine, a pure distillation of light, the “1932” collection gives pride and place to colourful gemstones.
