While watches and jewelry are often grouped under the fashion umbrella, with many fashion brands making strides in these fields, only a handful are truly recognized by industry experts across all three domains – fashion, watches, and jewelry.
Among these, Chanel stands out as particularly representative. Their watch collection includes popular symbols like J12, Première, and Boy.Friend, as well as demonstrations of technical prowess with in-house movements, tourbillons, and skeletonized jump hour displays. In the jewelry world, lions, stars, wheat sheaves, and camellias are all distinctly Chanel motifs. Their dominance in the fashion industry is undisputed.
I consider myself a devoted Chanel enthusiast. Whenever I’m in Paris and time permits, I make a point to visit the Chanel boutique at 19 Rue Cambon. This location is a stone’s throw away from Mademoiselle Coco Chanel’s former private studio, allowing one to soak in the brand’s essence. Purchasing a watch or a bag from this store seems to carry more significance.
For years, I’ve been seeking to acquire a piece of Chanel jewelry, particularly an original creation by Mademoiselle Coco Chanel herself. Chanel was one of the first fashion houses to venture into high jewelry. In 1932, Madame Coco Chanel sent out invitations for guests and friends to visit her residence at 29 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris from November 7th to 19th to view her first diamond jewelry exhibition.
Interestingly, even with an invitation, entry wasn’t free: each person had to pay an admission fee of 20 francs.
This debut established Chanel’s understanding, taste, and characteristics in high jewelry. Light as her clothing, platinum set with diamonds was the basic technique. Design elements were rich, including stars, crescents, Maltese crosses, tassels, comets, and suns. Necklaces, brooches, bracelets, and hair accessories all featured flexible joints and connections, allowing for unrestricted wear.
Many pieces had detachable components for versatile combinations. To this day, the 1932 debut remains the ultimate template for Chanel’s high jewelry.
Thereafter, Coco Chanel created high jewelry periodically, releasing them alongside her favored fashion designs. French author Patrick Mauriès wrote in his book “Jewelry by Chanel”: “When conceptualizing jewelry designs, she would always sit on the edge of the sofa in her salon, playing with soft plastic balls like chewing gum in her hands.
On the antique Chinese coffee table in front of her were small boxes and bowls filled with gemstone materials of various colors, shapes, and sizes, allowing her to combine them freely to manifest her dreams.”
In April 2015, a Chanel Twist-style necklace appeared at a Bonhams jewelry auction in London. It was a rigid choker composed of two intertwined 18K yellow gold thick collars. One was set with oval cabochon citrines, with a sugarloaf citrine on the clasp. The inner diameter was 37 cm, bearing Chanel’s mark and the French hallmark.
The auction description stated that this choker was produced after 1954 and was a rare early high jewelry piece from when Mademoiselle Coco Chanel was still alive, with an estimate of only £3,000 to £4,000. How could I let such a rare item slip away? As the auction began, I bid £4,000, but it didn’t even appear on the screen, jumping directly to £5,000. I then bid £8,000, which with commission would total £10,000. However, the £8,000 figure only flashed briefly, and in my moment of shock, the price settled at £68,500!
Thus, I narrowly missed this precious Chanel high jewelry choker. Later, a friend at Bonhams told me that the noble shoulder I had briefly outbid belonged to Karl Lagerfeld. That instance was probably the closest I’ve ever come to owning a rare Chanel high jewelry piece.
The One That Got Away: My Near-Miss with Chanel’s Iconic Twist Necklace
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