Since 1955, quilting has been emblematic of the House of CHANEL. Inspired by Gabrielle Chanel’s love of the equestrian world, this motif has appeared on everything from handbags, and clothing, to accessories and jewelry. The CHANEL COCO CRUSH collection has been a favorite since it was first launched in 2015. The latest iteration of this incredibly popular fine jewelry collection features pieces done in yellow, white, and beige-gold, and even features some pieces set with diamonds. Slim rings are a beautiful new addition to a collection that begs to be worn stacked, mixed, and matched with total freedom. The only rules for wearing the COCO CRUSH collection is that there are no rules. Metals can and should be mixed. One can wear the pieces for day or night, and these elegantly edgy pieces are as appealing to the minimalist as they are to the maximalist. The House has thoughtfully put together a rather playful and helpful Dictionary of terms to help the wearer be inspired and educated about this beautiful collection that can be found below.
To take a look at a previous launch of CHANEL COCO CRUSH and learn even more about CHANEL Fine Jewelry, you can check out my article {here}.
AMOUR: See CRUSH
AUBAZINE : Any sized band on the ring finger with or without diamonds is the monastic symbol of a spirit: faith in oneself.
AUDACE : There is no audacity without breaking rules. Learn your rules and throw them away. Try a single large model ring on your index finger or a small model on your thumb. Why not both? A jewel on one ear and a ring on every finger. Whatever you decide to do with Coco Crush, don’t forget that it doesn’t matter if you give it to yourself, someone gives it to you or you give it to someone else because every Coco Crush piece is a declaration of allure.
ART : There is a French art of loving that is masterful simply because it seems so effortless. There is an art to the crush in Coco Crush that conceals any signs of effort. And that satiates a love of freedom that prohibits any conspicuous notions.
BEIGE : A color so symbolic for the Maison that CHANEL Fine Jewelry took the genius a step further and created the new BEIGE GOLD alloy. Neither pink nor yellow, its unique shade says it all, and goes with every other color.
BONHEUR : Five mini bands, each worn on a different finger or stacked on one, two or three fingers act like a charm when playing the lucky number of Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel. As the Great French playwright Pierre Corneille said 300 years earlier, “Luck can lead to the height of greatness.”
BYZANCE : Moderation is the enemy of good when it limits style. And Byzantine style was anything but moderate. A French philosopher once said that freedom has its limits. No limits should be placed on the freedom to stack up rings of diamonds, in white gold, BEIGE GOLD, yellow gold mini, small and large models. Only one rule sets the limit: More is better.
COCO : A spirit that cannot exist without impulse.
CRUSH : An impulse that cannot exist without spirit.
COCO CRUSH: The marriage of French spirit and impulse without borders.
DADA : Wearing any sized ring you want on each finger of one hand (as many as you want) and none on the other hand. Just as the Dada movement challenged all the aesthetic norms, each movement of the right hand creates a dialogue with the left, reminding us of the anti- art manifesto.
DIAMANT : The universal value of eternity. It has a special value for CHANEL tied to a little phrase Shakespeare wrote for love: Eternity and A Day. See White Gold ring in mini, small and large model, BEIGE GOLD ring small model, White Gold and diamond bracelet, White Gold and diamond earrings. Every Coco Crush jewel entices you to keep adding more, even to eternity itself.
DOUBLE C : Like double chances, like Coco Crush, like CHANEL’s two interlaced C’s, the number two is like a good luck charm for the House. The pair of stags Misia gave Gabrielle Chanel, for example, symbols of the power to move freely, and to gracefully skirt whatever gets in your way. Pairing two necklaces in two different golds has the power to change a destiny by betting on chance.
EXCÈS : An aesthetic that can be summed up as “Overdo it.” Rings on every finger with or without diamonds, all white gold, all BEIGE GOLD or all yellow gold, BEIGE GOLD or yellow gold on one hand and white gold on the other… the only excess you don’t indulge in is too much moderation.
EXTRAVAGANCE : The synonym of excess but the antonym of allure. As Coco Chanel said, “extravagance kills personality.”
*The Allure of Chanel by Paul Morand
ET SI : A French writer, philosopher and poet known for his Variétés wrote that dream is a phenomenon only seen once it’s gone. What if you chose to see the phenomenon the other way around, where every Coco Crush model is a dream to be experienced in the present?
FLYING CLOUD : The name of the four-mast, black-hulled, white-decked yacht on which Coco Chanel accompanied Hugh Grosvenor aka Bendor, the second Duke of Westminster, one of her great loves and influencers of her life.
The jingling of many bracelets clanging together echoes that recognizable sound of steel stand cables clinking against a ship’s mast. The sound of freedom.
FOU : We say ‘crazy in love’ but never ‘crazy in crush’. Because a crush is a peak itself. And Coco Crush is a craziness without which life lacks wisdom.
GRAVITÉ : The law, also named the law of attraction. Put on Coco Crush and you are instantly experimenting with a force that attracts two objects. For example, choosing one ring creates the irresistible urge to choose another.
HABITUDE : Gabrielle Chanel’s love for a certain poet, one of her amants, was probably not unaffected by the rule: Learn good habits early on, especially the habit of knowing how to change your habits. Basically, there should be no habits. Only the breaking of habits. There’s more than one way to wear one or more Coco Crush jewels. A daily habit to learn.
IRRÉGULIÈRE : A spirit and a behavior inspired by a life that never heard of following conventions. Wearing two different earrings on the same ear signifies a spirit that sees itself in Gabrielle, the freest and most avid of the Irregulars.
JEU DE LOIS : On Monday, obey the Law of the Highest Number and stack up those bracelets. On Tuesday, it’s the Law of Elimination. Just one jewel. Wednesdays are for the Law of the Toughest. Put on the knuckle-duster with four tone-on-tone rings on the index, middle, ring, and pinkie fingers of each hand. On Thursday, the Law of Marriage applies: Two golds, two sizes of rings, as many as you want in any size. Friday is for the Law of Unity with several rings of the same model. Saturday and Sunday, be lawless and get creative.
KO : COCO CRUSH is a knockout for everyone who sees it — a weapon of seduction to use ad libitum*
*As much as you desire
LA : Put the THE in a style, not one you follow but one you invent. You don’t follow a movement. It’s everyone else who follows all your movements with their eyes.
LUCIENNE : A ring on your thumb and one on your index finger — like you’re holding a pair of scissors. Gabrielle Chanel never put down her scissors. They would be the tool behind victory, the one initiated by the famous dressmaker Lucienne Rabaté.
LEWIS ET IRENE : A fictional couple created by Paul Morand inspired by the real-life pair Gabrielle Chanel and Boy Capel. Wearing a pair of small or large rings, why not gold ones, or two gold ones on the index and middle fingers is a symbol of a union that counts twice.
MADEMOISELLE : The choice of symmetry. Wearing the Mademoiselle requires following the absolute rule: a single cuff bracelet, same model, same gold, same size, one on each wrist. The rest is extra.
GRANDE MADEMOISELLE : Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans and first cousin of the Sun King, the Duchess of Montpensier was known as the Grande Mademoiselle. Born into greatness, she added even more with her great passion when it came to things like protecting a love, gaining her freedom and charting her own destiny. It is important to arm this hand with a pair of rings on the index finger and the personal motto, “I’ll never let anyone break my heart.”
MATELASSÉ : The iconic CHANEL motif, inspired by jockey saddle blankets, chosen to symbolize comfort in the Coco Crush line as a signature cross-bracing.
MISIA : The choice of the absolute, wholeheartedly embodied by Misia Sert, Coco Chanel’s muse and close friend. A single earring worn as the only jewel and a visible character trait that needs no explanation or reason.
NORD SUD : Just as poet Pierre Reverdy linked the two intellectual and artistic heart of Montmartre and Montparnasse, wearing the two-finger ring has two possible meanings: the aesthetic holds a spirit or the spirit upholds an aesthetic.
OH : An interjection that expresses surprise and a great sense of pleasure. Usually used with an exclamation point to emphasize the burning nature of the pleasure felt. For example: 1. Oh, this Coco Crush ring looks beautiful on me! 2. Oh, I love this way of wearing lots of Coco Crush rings! 3. Oh, oh, that reminds me! My birthday was two months ago! 4. OMG, I cannot keep my hands off this Coco Crush collection!
ONCE UPON A TIME : The title of the film that Coco Chanel’s successor made about her that means everyone’s legend is theirs to create. Wearing a single large model ring on your index finger means taking a decision into your own hands and being within reach of your own personal legend.
OR : Whether beige, yellow or white, it’s a metal that asserts its character on every model in the Coco Crush line and grows stronger when multiplied.
PARTICULIÈRE : The antonym of fanciful, this is a way of being conveyed by a certain way of wearing a jewel. A single large or small model ring worn on the thumb is a distinctive sign of an unwavering passion for freedom.
QUATRE QUART : If there’s ever a doubt about wearing four rings, this is the foolproof rule: one diamond ring (+ three without diamonds) or one large model ring (+ three small models) or one BEIGE GOLD ring (+ three in white or yellow gold) or one ring on one hand (+ three on the other).
ROUSSY : There’s a punk side to Coco Crush. If you wear the same model on your index and pinkie fingers, it signals that you belong to a community of taste and a way of acting. A nod to the rebel Roussy, who along with Misia and José Sert, formed the most subversive trio.
SILENCE: A French mime, who made silence into an art, is the inspiration for observing this rule: before opening your mouth, ask yourself if silence would be more effective. How you wear Coco Crush says a lot about you and sometimes you don’t even have to say a word.
TROMPE–L’ŒIL : One earring may actually be three.
TRIO : Like the trio José Maria Sert, Misia and Roussy (the nickname for Roussadana Mdivani, a Georgian sculptor), the trio of rings forms an obvious ménage à trois.
UNIFORME : Uniform is to CHANEL what palm trees are to the French Riviera and the law of gravity is to Newton: inseparable. Wearing many rings made of the same gold means choosing a spirit that’s remarkable in its intent to be unremarkable.
VARIER LES PLAISIRS : Shake up the treat of treating yourself by shaking up the way you wear Coco Crush. These wise words pay off, if we’re to believe the French philosopher of the Enlightenment known for stirring up people’s consciousnesses: “Pleasure provides what wisdom promises.”*
*Le sottisier by Voltaire
VICE VERSA : To prefer the minimalist look of a single jewel over the opulence of piling them on. And vice versa.
VOILÀ : It was all worth it.
WESTMINSTER : By the side of her lover the Duke of Westminster, Coco Chanel hobnobbed with English high society while finding inspiration in her lover’s wardrobe. Wearing a small model diamond ring on you’re your fifth digit signifies power and the power of persuasion borrowed from the man affectionately known as Bendor.
X : A letter of the alphabet, Coco Crush’s hallmark and an unknown. What will your next crush be?
Y COMPRIS : You’re going to love all the ways of wearing Coco Crush. And you’re going to wear all the ways of loving Coco Crush. Including yet to come.
ZUT : A colloquial expression used to express regret for taking too long to make up your mind.
