Chanel’s Reach for the Stars high jewellery debut in Kyoto: how the house drew inspiration from Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s take on Hollywood glamour for one of its ‘most important’ collections
The Wings of Chanel necklace is made of white gold, platinum and natural polished diamonds, and features a statement Padparadscha sapphire. Photo: Handout
For its latest launch, Chanel unveils pieces featuring comets and wings as motifs; the debut in Kyoto is also a nod to the house’s collaboration with local lacquer artisan Yoshio Okada
The high jewellery grand tour is in full swing. Less than a week after Cartier debuted its new high jewellery collection in Stockholm, Chanel invited a select group of clients, editors and celebrities to Kyoto, Japan’s ancient capital, for the reveal of its new Reach for the Stars collection.
The range is not just a homage to the celestial bodies that have long been a signature of the house’s jewellery repertoire, but also a nod to its founder’s background.
In her one and only high jewellery collection – unveiled in Paris in 1932 – Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel famously used motifs such as the comet for a constellation-inspired line of diamond-embellished pieces that has gone down as one of her most remarkable achievements.
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Wings of Chanel necklace in white gold, platinum and natural polished diamonds with a cushion-cut Padparadscha sapphire. Photo: Handout
A couple of years earlier, the designer had travelled to Hollywood, where she designed costumes for movies such as Tonight or Never (1931), starring Gloria Swanson. That short stint in Tinseltown was the starting point for Reach for the Stars, which celebrates Hollywood’s golden age and its stars.
Pretty much every single piece – from the cheekily named Take My Breath Away and Dreams Come True sets, to the Wings of Chanel necklace – is meant for a glamorous red carpet.
“This collection is almost like a dress code,” president of Chanel watches and fine jewellery Frédéric Grangié explained in an interview in Kyoto. “When I look at the collection and recall some of those movies, I feel that some of the pieces are like evening dresses. It’s a very glamorous collection, but when Coco Chanel was in Hollywood she treated glamour in a completely different way. She was coming from a couture background as one of the greatest designers ever, and created very light dresses with a focus on the back and also silk or muslin sleeves, which gave them a ‘winged’ silhouette.”
The comet is back as a leitmotif, appearing in some shape or form in every single piece, but Reach for the Stars truly shines in its introduction of a new motif that Grangié alluded to: the wing.
The Take My Breath Away necklace in pink gold, white gold and natural polished diamonds. Photo: Handout
Patrice Leguéreau – the late director of Chanel’s jewellery creation studio who conjured up this range before his untimely passing last year – was inspired by one of Coco Chanel’s famous maxims: “If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing.”
Wings are symbolic of the freedom of movement that Coco Chanel championed in her ready-to-wear creations. They appear in some of the most striking pieces, including the aforementioned Wings of Chanel necklace, evoking a sense of lightness through techniques such as openwork and the asymmetrical settings of stones.
