To mark the 90th anniversary of “Bijoux de Diamants”, the first and only High Jewelry collection created by Mademoiselle Chanel in 1932, CHANEL provide the first look at this collection with the unveil of the Allure Céleste necklace, the iconic masterpiece of this High Jewelry ensemble, which pays tribute to Mademoiselle’s original collection.
The Allure Céleste necklace
“Nothing could be better for forgetting the crisis than feasting one’s eyes on beautiful new things, which the skills of our craftsmen and women never cease to unveil.” – Gabrielle Chanel
It had been three years since life had been put on hold, when Black Thursday in 1929, pushed the world into the dark years of the Great Depression and when the exuberant growth of the 1920s had faded to vague feelings of nostalgia. These were sombre times, overshadowed by the economic slump and inflation, combined with collapsing consumer demand and soaring unemployment. It is precisely for this reason that 1932 was the ideal time to break new ground and make room for hope and renewal.
The London Diamond Corporation turned to a woman, a visionary accessories designer, who applied the same modern design principles to clothes. A woman with a brilliant mind, whose costume jewelry had recently been lauded by the international press as even lovelier than the real thing. A woman of power, head of a multi-faceted empire that was growing by the day. A woman who was a friend of the arts and artists, the beating heart of her era A woman who conjured women’s fate, their bodies and their way of life, on both sides of the Atlantic. The woman they chose to breathe new life into diamonds was Gabrielle Chanel.
Tired of the doom and gloom, she chose the possibility of dreams and the vitality of beauty. Mademoiselle created “Bijoux de Diamants”, the first High Jewelry collection in history. It boosted the Diamond Corporation’s shares within two days, transformed an entire industry, and revitalized her era.
“Bijoux de Diamants” was an expression of a highly personal vocabulary of style and of innovative ideas, an application of the principles of Haute Couture to High Jewelry. In 1932, Mademoiselle created the very first High Jewelry collection in history. Conceived around the unities of theme, time and place, it was quite unlike anything made by the jewelers of her time.
Far more than the name suggests, “Bijoux de Diamants” was a collection that was dazzling and opulent. About fifty pieces in white and yellow diamonds set in platinum as well as yellow gold, created for everyday wear were shining with a purity of light. Among the pieces that have been identified, 22 can draw a map of the sky covered with as many comets, moons and suns. Mademoiselle also imagined 17 optical illusions reproducing the suppleness of ribbon bows, dancing fringes and airy feathers, while a further 8 pieces explored the graphic purity of spirals, circles, squares, and crosses. Important shapes that were to prove rich in inspiration and would gradually release its secrets over centuries to come. Testimonies describe monumental brooches in the shape of the numbers 3, 5 and 7, of which no trace has yet been found. In 2012, however, a documentary shot by Pathé Gaumont was rediscovered. It was broadcasted alongside newsreels in cinemas throughout France at the time. It featured a selection of the pieces from the exhibition and was filmed in Gabrielle Chanel’s private townhouse at 29 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
The Chanel Comète brooch, part of the 1932 High Jewelry collection
Ninety years after the creation of the first High Jewelry collection, the CHANEL Jewelry Creation Studio has drawn inspiration from the modernity of “Bijoux de Diamants” to create a new story.
1932 is a voyage beyond space and time, to gaze at the circling of the planets and the movements of the stars. From the legendary original collection, Patrice Leguéreau, Director of the CHANEL Jewelry Creation Studio, has retained the celestial theme, the purity of the lines and the freedom of the body, declaring: “I wanted to return to the essence of 1932 and to harmonize the message around three symbols: the comet, the moon, and the sun. Every heavenly body shines with its own light.
In revisiting the past to better project itself into the future, the CHANEL Jewelry Creation Studio invents living jewelry, in osmosis with the random rhythms of the body’s movements. 77 spectacular creations, of which 12 are transformable, coiling and resting freely on the skin in an abundance of celestial bodies. Starry volutes form a supple structure to be wound effortlessly around the wrist. The heartbeat with each breath makes the sun quiver at the base of the neck. In wearing the stars as she pleases, every woman decides in her own way how to extend the course of the comets along her skin. Sapphires as blue as the night, diamonds as yellow as the sun’s fire, opals as dense as a galaxy, rubies of a vibrant red, spinels glowing like dawn, tanzanites with the color of the skies: if the original collection was almost entirely pristine, an epitome of pure light, the 1932 collection gives pride and place to colored gemstones.
The Allure Céleste necklace, the signature piece of the collection, is a journey into the heart of light, the light that emanates from the stars and links them in the immensity of the skies. Among the round-cut diamonds, an oval sapphire of a deep and intense blue and an exceptional weight of 55.55 carats and a Type IIa DFL 8.05 carat pear-cut diamond radiate with an extraordinary brilliance. The halos on this transformable piece detach to become brooches, just as the central row of diamonds becomes a bracelet, transforming the necklace into a short version and paying homage to the pieces created in 1932 by Mademoiselle Chanel, who wanted to cover women with constellations.
