French luxury fashion brand CHANEL has unveiled its newest high jewellery collection – inspired by none other than tweed.
Launched at London’s Royal Horticultural Halls, the dazzling array is influenced by Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s love for tweed. The brand’s history with the fabric goes as far as the 1920s. As the story goes, she borrowed tweed jackets from the Duke of Westminster, her then-lover, and refined the material into her collections.
In 2020, tweed made its CHANEL jewellery debut at the hands of Patrice Leguéreau. Director of the Chanel Fine Jewelry Creation Studio, this is Leguéreau’s second – and latest – tweed collection featuring 63 new high jewellery pieces.
The new collection comprises five tweed jewellery weaves; in five colours and icons loved by Gabrielle Chanel. The pieces reference several icons of the fashion house, such as a ribbon, camellia, comet, sun, and lion, separated by chapter.
Across the collection, precious stones and gems merge with different types of gold to create delicate, unique jewellery. At the jaw-dropping centre of it is the Tweed Royal necklace, part of the Tweed Lion chapter.
The resplendent necklace consists of 37 rubies within a gold woven chain, with a diamond-encrusted lion’s head that can be separated and worn as a brooch. A 10.17-carat D Flawless pear-cut white diamond is also cleverly designed to be removable and worn as a ring.
The high jewellery release coincides with V&A’s Chanel retrospective launch – Gabrielle Chanel. Chanel Manifesto. The exhibition takes a deep dive into Chanel’s influence in the world of jewellery and beauty, along with her deep-rooted impact towards fashion.
