Chanel turns to Gabrielle Chanel's early diamond jewellery design of a feather for its latest high jewellery collection. Feathers have featured consistently in the designer's work. As early as 1910, Gabrielle Chanel incorporated feathers into her creations when she added a single outsized, billowing feather to a large-brimmed hat. Before venturing into couture, Mademoiselle Chanel’s first business was millinery, and it was here that she became fascinated with feathers.
In 1932, two decades later, Mademoiselle Chanel created Bijoux de Diamants, her first and only diamond jewellery that broke with the tradition of stiff, formal constructions. As Mademoiselle Chanel said: “My jewellery is never detached from the idea of a woman and her dress. Because dresses change, jewellery, too, is evolving.”
Motifs dear to Chanel and present throughout her work include feathers, stars, comets, suns, fringes, ribbons and feathers. One of the highlights of the 1932 collection was a large, finely articulated feather brooch that could be draped across the shoulder or over the head. Like her couture, ease of wear and versatility were key and the feather brooch and other jewels were flexible, soft on the skin with simple clasps that a woman could handle without assistance.
Always a pioneer, Chanel’s first collection heralded a new style of jewellery that women could wear as suited their style. An original Pathé film reel documenting the opening of the Bijoux en Diamants exhibition captures the audacity and admiration that the exhibition commanded.
“In her famous apartment on Faubourg Saint Honoré, Chanel launches her new diamond creations…Only a woman can scatter precious stones gracefully through the hair with jewels cascading like gossamer ribbon…Chanel brings diamonds back into vogue by marrying art with apparent casualness.”
This same lightness of touch is captured in this season’s collection of six sets of jewels, which shower diamonds, pink tourmalines, and sapphires across flexible undulating feathers that appear to move with the slightest breeze. The colour palette emphasises the feminine allure of the jewels characterised by blushing rosy hues.
Conceived to be worn with effortless elegance, necklaces and earrings with detachable feather elements can be enjoyed in multiple ways. Capturing the spirit of Mademoiselle's original design, each quill's undulating, quivering form wraps around the body with ease while creating a singularly dramatic look.
The sinuous forms of the Plume Rose de Chanel brooch and across-the-hand ring are made in pink gold and set with dozens of pink tourmalines and sapphires.
The three-tiered Plume Couture necklace with diamonds, pink sapphires and a central, vibrant pink tourmaline offers a choice of configurations. It can be worn as a one-strand choker featuring the feather and pink tourmaline or with the diamond chain wound twice around the neck or draped as a waist-grazing necklace. Likewise, the Plume Singulière necklace has a detachable diamond-set feather and an adjustable clasp, allowing it to be worn as either a long necklace or lariat. A white gold feather set with a 1.5-carat diamond in the charming Plume Singulière diadem offers a precious head ornament with a modern twist.
The Plume Libre pair of brooches are mismatched, one in white gold with diamonds and the other in rose gold with a pink sapphire and can be worn singly or as a pair. The open rings floats a diamond feather and a vibrant pink sapphire across the hands. The Plume Mademoiselle Chanel pages homage to the couturier’s love of diamonds with an impressive 6.22-carat D Flawless pear-shaped diamond delicately suspended from the base of the feather. The Plume de Chanel 2024, focusses the gaze on white diamonds set in white gold asymmetrical earrings, a ring and necklace.
