There are many reasons why I love the House of CHANEL. Chief among them is the House’s ability to weave together its rich history with a consistently fresh take on design and style. Season after season and collection after collection, this reverence for the rich DNA of CHANEL is expertly intertwined with modernity. This delicately balanced marriage results in exquisite designs that embrace CHANEL’s incredible legacy and modernity. The COROMANDEL CHANEL Fine Jewelry collection is the embodiment of this duality. Referencing Gabrielle Chanel’s fascination with Coromandel screens and employing a combination of cutting-edge technology and traditional methods of jewel setting and creation, the COROMANDEL CHANEL Fine Jewelry collection is nothing short of spectacular.
“THE FIRST TIME I SAW A COROMANDEL SCREEN, I CRIED OUT: IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL! I HAD NEVER SAID THAT ABOUT ANY OTHER OBJECT.” – Gabrielle Chanel
During the 17th century, Louis XIV sent sailors off in search of riches. Their journey brought them along the Eastern side of India to the coast of Cholamandal. The foreign visitors would transform this into Coromandel. While in search of the pearls and jewels of Marco Polo’s Book of Wonders, the French sailors met Chinese merchants from the court of Emperor Kang Xi. Aboard their Junks were objects of staggering beauty, jades, porcelains, and ornaments and screens covered in lacquer. A technique not yet know to the artisans of Europe, Chinese lacquered pieces became prized among the royal courts of Europe. These intricate screens decorated with Chinese lacquer would become known as Coromandel screens and would continue to be coveted well into the 20th century.
It was in the early 1900s that Gabrielle Chanel would discover Coromandel screens and they became an item that she prized throughout her life. The Coromandel screen is much like Mademoiselle Chanel herself. Seemingly delicate and feminine yet possessing a strength and hardness as a result of the lacquer technique used to adorn them. She would delight in searching out new screens, both gifting them to her friends and using them to decorate her many homes from her suite at the Ritz Paris, her villa in Lausanne, and her apartment atop 31 Rue Cambon.
First unveiled in Paris in 2018, the COROMANDEL CHANEL Fine Jewelry collection is inspired by the artistry of Coromandel screens. Focusing on floral themes inspired by Gabrielle Chanel’s signature Camellia, minerals (Mademoiselle Chanel was captivated by crystal and gemstones), and lastly animals. These three themes are explored across scintillating cuffs, earrings, rings, and necklaces. The mineral theme of the collection is represented in a plastron style necklace that is nothing short of awe inspiring. Done in yellow gold and with mother-of-pearl clouds, it features an expertly cut six carat diamond and is a strikingly literal interpretation of a Coromandel screen. For the animal theme, pieces can be found with delicate birds fashioned out of intricately cut and set diamonds. From an incredible ring that features over ten carats of diamonds to a sautoir style necklace that quite literally drips with diamonds, birds take flight throughout the collection. As for the floral theme, there is a spectacular cuff done with a yellow diamond that actually pivots, so it is always visible when the bracelet is worn of the wrist. Another standout piece featuring the floral theme echoes the design of a coromandel screen in its shape and style. It features a lacquer-like camellia with a single solitaire diamond mounted atop it and surrounded by pave set leaves and additional pave set diamond camellias.
And on the subject of stones, the collection, much like many CHANEL Fine and High Jewelry collections predominantly features diamonds. However, the COROMANDEL CHANEL Fine Jewelry collection also features ropes of ruby beads, rich green Tsavorite garnets and emeralds, and a thirty-seven-carat tourmaline in the most stunning dusty orange that all evoke the traditional colors of Coromandel lacquers.
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