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Worn as a watch or jewel,
“ALL OF CHANEL’S elegance is based on an idea of timelessness and lack of ostentation. By mixing these codes together, we create a style.” So says actress and brand ambassador Anna Mouglalis of the elusive silver bullet that defines the Chanel universe through the ages. And she’s not alone in recognising the stealth that comes from associating with the house and the prescient mindset of its founder.
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel launched the first luxury popup store as far back as 1929, when she opened an accessories boutique inside her couture house. From the 1930s, further innovations followed – prototypes of quilted bags, jewellery, perfumes and more, until, in 1955, at the grand old age of 72, Chanel launched the 2.55 quilted shoulder bag with gilt chain and distinctive clasp. The bag became an icon and was a rival to the Little Black Dress and Chanel No. 5 perfume. The codes of the house were embellished and ever-present.
Such Chanel codes are not isolated moments, but a continuous narrative in the seamless evolution of the house, an interlocking thread that bind into a timeless style, bookended by past and future simultaneously. More than just a luxury brand, Chanel is a language, a semiotics of identity, meaning and aspiration – a Cocode. “At Chanel, one code always leads us toward another,” says Virginie Viard, Chanel's fashion studio director.
If the quilted bag became the indispensable accessory for the Chanel outfit, then the codes of its iconography have been reimagined in a different form today. But not as a bag. At first glance, it's a bracelet that sparkles around a wrist – a jewel. Look again and one recognises instantly the clasp of the 2.55 bag and two hands. The code of Coco, the code of pop-up, of accessories, of quilt, of an It bag – all these elements have been distilled into this jewel of a watch. It's named a gospel organic: Code Coco. “The Code Coco is