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One camellia, many ways: Chanel's new high jewellery collection is the most versatile yet
The codes of Chanel are so prominent in everything the house does, sometimes it feels a little like new territory might be worth exploring by its creative teams. It was with this in mind that I entered Chanel’s Place Vendôme store to view the new ‘1.5’ collection with a little trepidation – what could Chanel possibly do new with the humble camellia flower as the motif for a high jewellery collection? As it turns out, plenty.
Of the 50 pieces of high jewellery in the collection, 23 are transformable, allowing the wearer to adapt them in various ways – by taking a large camellia motif off a necklace, for example, and wearing it as a brooch, a hairclip, on a belt, or on a simple single-strand necklace.
Camellias fully set with diamonds could be moved along various points of a necklace to suit the wearer – or the wearer’s collar, perhaps – or removed from a multi-strand bracelet to reveal another flower beneath. Even earrings, not usually adaptable, could be transformed from elongated, fringed flowers to simple flower studs.
But it wasn’t the transformability of these pieces – something that all proper jewellery from the past could claim – that most impressed, but the materials used. Here, in softest, baby pink, were camellia flowers carved from translucent rose quartz, their pastel tones highlighted by fringes of tiny white cultured pearls, rose gold links, and tiny white gold flowers with diamond buds.
Mismatched earrings show identical diamond-set camellia flowers from which cascade contrasting strands – one with deep red ruby beads and a contrasting pear-cut diamond set askew amongst them, the other with strands of white diamonds and a pear-shaped ruby nestled within.
Other earring styles saw pairs made up of one ear cuff sending rivers of pearls from ear tip down, and a simple diamond-set flower for the other lobe.
Transformable rings allow the central camellia motif to be worn on its own, while the removable part can then be worn on a brooch. Deep red spinels are set to contrast with white diamonds and pink gold, with the largest rings consisting of a single camellia spanning across three fingers.
Elsewhere in the collection are perfect spheres of rock crystal, chosen for total transparency with no flecks or opaqueness, to form bubble-like domes over gold camellias, then set along bracelets, within necklaces or worn as rings.
Chanel’s 1.5 collection may include some major pieces in traditional forms – long lariat necklaces, large cuffs and so on, but there are plenty of pieces here too for the ingénue – the mismatched earrings and oversized flower rings, for example.
The camellia may be an iconic motif seen in multiple forms at Chanel, but the house has managed to make it look new all over again.
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