There are places in the world that are synonymous with expertise. High technology is nearly interchangeable with Silicon Valley; while for high watchmaking, it’s hard to escape the hold of Switzerland. When it comes to high jewellery, the world’s hub is the Place Vendôme square in Paris. It’s a ritzy location that’s home to high jewellery savoir-faire—which is why it’s significant that the house of Chanel has a specialised space for its watches and fine jewellery division in a historic building at 18 Place Vendôme.
Chanel’s mansion sits among some heavy hitters of the sector. But it’s testament, perhaps, to how seriously this French haute couture house takes this category. To wit, 18 Place Vendôme is more than just a boutique. Sure, the first three floors—decorated with lacquer panels and a palette of predominantly black and gold—make up a fabulous flagship boutique for watches and jewellery. And upstairs are the creation studios and high jewellery workshop where pieces are designed and made.
But also upstairs and hidden from public view is where the house’s truest treasures reside. Enter the Chanel watches and jewellery Patrimoine, or archives. Here, the house has amassed and accumulated a trove of over 800 jewels, creations and objects that relate to Gabrielle Chanel’s love for jewellery and the creativity it’s spawned under successive creative directors—the present being Patrice Leguéreau.
Unlike the house’s public-facing spaces, which are sumptuously decorated with black, white and gold palettes inspired by Gabrielle Chanel’s rue Cambon apartment, the Patrimoine department is more academic. The walls are lined in black, with beige lacquered furniture and precise storage systems to accommodate the still-growing collection.
The earliest works in the Patrimoine were also some of the hardest to obtain. Gabrielle Chanel was a maverick through and through: back in 1932, she debuted a high jewellery collection titled Bijoux des Diamants. This collection was made up of several firsts: the first to present a singular, cohesive theme and style; the first where pieces were displayed not on bust forms, but on wax mannequins dressed in strapless gowns, stoles and berets, with their hair and make-up done. And, of course, Bijoux des Diamants is special in Chanel history for being the first and only collection of high jewellery to come from Gabrielle herself.
When Chanel set up its fine jewellery division and archives in 1993, one of its earliest projects was to hunt down the original pieces from Bijoux des Diamants. The house studied over 340 articles in the press, photographs of when it was exhibited, and even the digitised archives of Pathé newsreels. Because there were no historical documents or ledgers, the method was instead to spot potential clients among the attendees. With the help of a genealogist, their descendants were identified and 45 people were traced and contacted.
Of the 47 pieces photographed or described from Bijoux des Diamants, the house has managed to resurface just two. A Plume brooch and a Comète brooch, the latter acquired at a Geneva auction in 2000 and still housed in its original midnight-blue satin box. The rest remain mysteries yet to be discovered—although between 1993 and 2015, the house created 36 identical re-editions of pieces from the original collection.
Something like Bijoux des Diamants is immensely important for Chanel. But the house uses its past—maintained in its Patrimoine archives—not as a crutch to return to, but a source of inspiration for modern creations. Leguéreau, for one, drew from it to create the 1932 collections in 2012 and 2022 on the occasion of high jewellery’s anniversary at Chanel.
The maison has also been hard at work creating exceptional modern icons of its own. There is the Constellation du Lion necklace from 2012, set with a 32-carat yellow diamond, which was the house’s first high jewellery creation dedicated to Gabrielle Chanel’s star sign. Most recently, the house unveiled its Tweed de Chanel high jewellery range. A hero piece, a Tweed Couture plastron, weaves gold and platinum like the house’s favoured fabric and has its home in the Patrimoine.
But perhaps the ultimate symbol of Chanel as jewellery is a creation from 2021. The house celebrated the centenary of its signature Nº5 perfume that year, and created a slew of products across different categories inspired by it. On the jewellery front, there was the Collection Nº5 line. At the heart of this collection is the 55.55 necklace, a unique piece set with a custom-cut, D-Flawless, Type IIa diamond weighing 55.55 carats. The awe-inspiring gemstone is cut and faceted like an octagon to mirror the stopper of the Nº5 perfume’s bottle. And like all the other treasures in the Patrimoine, it’s meant as a living piece of Chanel’s history and heritage—and most certainly not for sale.
The May ‘Escape’ issue of Vogue Singapore is now available online.
