WISH UPON A STAR
Pin your hopes for the new year on Coco Chanel’s most beloved celestial symbol, reinterpreted in new high jewellery that can be enjoyed every day
IF THERE’S ONE person who can take credit for liberating women in a tangible way, her name would be Gabrielle Chanel. The woman who single-handedly replaced the fussy, frilly corseted dresses of her time with a singularly clean-cut – and comfortable – silhouette by taking scissors to her paramour’s suit also dramatically changed the course of her own fate.
She created an art form out of defying expectation as she charted a meteoric ascendance that saw her begin life in an orphanage and conclude it as one of Paris’ most feted couturiers. Was it pure gumption, daring grit or divine inspiration? Did she make a wish upon a star?
Chanel was known for her love of symbols and lucky charms, filling her Parisian apartment at 31 rue Cambon with decorative elements such as camellias, lions and even wheat. These have all translated into her iconic designs, which also include motifs from her childhood at an Aubazine monastery, such as those seen on a long
corridor paved with pebbles arranged in five-pointed stars that she used to pass through on her way to mass.
In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression that left economies and spirits properly pummelled, Chanel audaciously launched her first fine jewellery collection. Bijoux de Diamants consisted entirely of diamonds set in platinum and caused a sensation at its November premiere at 29 Faubourg SaintHonoré, Chanel’s home in Paris.
For the theme of her inaugural fine jewellery collection, Chanel turned her eye heavenward, to what she called the “eternally modern” comet motif, which she interpreted in glittering shooting stars and comets with diamond tails. Chanel believed that diamonds represented “the greatest value in the smallest volume”, but she presented her unconventional jewels with such casualness: on wax mannequins – some draped across the forehead or pinned in the hair – instead of jewellery trays.
“I wanted to cover women with constellations. Stars! Stars of all sizes…” said Chanel of her collection, launched during the art deco movement and which depicts heavenly phenomena in a way that looks modern even today. Necklaces come sans clasps (Chanel detested them, saying they bound women up “in armour”); shooting stars make spirals on rings and bracelets; and stars sparkle with irregular points. The Comète necklace is particularly breathtaking: a star with glittering diamond tails drapes voluptuously around the wearer’s neck, enhancing the nape and lighting up the throat.
“My jewels never stand separate from the idea of a woman,” remarked Chanel, whose designs celebrate feminine beauty and are utterly comfortable to wear, with invisible mounts and a fluidity that mirrors the movements of the body. Chanel was renowned for her irreverent approach to wearing jewellery, layering several pieces at once, adorning her hair with a necklace or pinning a brooch on her shoulder. Following this, she designed her pieces to be able to transform and be worn in a myriad of ways – a necklace could, for example, turn into three bracelets and a brooch.
A symbol of beauty, movement and freedom, the comet has become the shining emblem of Chanel’s fine jewellery and continues to inspire its new creations.
For the 80th anniversary of the Bijoux de Diamants collection, the maison presented 80 new high jewellery pieces. Entitled “1932”, the collection reinterpreted the comet and star motifs, introducing a new variation of the claspless Comète necklace, a tribute to Chanel’s original design with a magnificent diamond star that features a 15ct gemstone at its centre and ends in a trickle of round diamonds.
The shooting star is also the inspiration behind a number of pieces: a bracelet, rings, a watch, a pair of earrings and a head jewel highlighted with diamond stars, its lines softened by fine chains of baguette diamonds that drape lightly over the hair.
This year, Chanel’s Comète High Jewellery collection revisits its founder’s beloved inspirations, giving the comet and star an edgy, contemporary flair by incorporating onyx, black spinels and a chevron pattern. One new interpretation of the Comète necklace neatly encircles the neck, and features a 6.37ct round-cut diamond, 1,327 round-cut diamonds totalling 6.59ct and onyx, set in 18k white gold.
A selection of Comète rings place round-cut diamonds at their heart, encircling the finger with dynamic chevrons in round-cut diamonds, onyx or round-cut diamonds paired with round-cut black spinels. Ageless their subject may be, but the jewels, with their bold geometry and monochrome palette, are unabashedly modern, even futuristic – and have a definite place in the modern woman’s everyday ensemble.
Which proves strikingly prescient Chanel’s remark at her collection’s debut in 1932: “The constellations I have spread over the hair, the comets that lie on the shoulders trailing a shower of stars, the crescent moons and even the suns I’ve had produced by the best craftsmen of Paris – my stars – this is all very romantic! Could anything be found more becoming and modern?”