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Vogue Singapore
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue Singapore
With Reach For The Stars, Chanel high jewellery gets glamorous
The word 'glamour' has an interesting origin. It comes to us from the Scottish, who in the 1800s derived it from 'grammar'. The idea was that education and erudition, rare and arcane at the time, involved some degree of the magical and the mystical. So glamour became an act of illusion, of some kind of magical trick made to the appearance to mystify and allure. Earlier this month, Chanel introduced Reach For The Stars, its latest high jewellery collection, in the refined, old-world city of Kyoto. The French maison describes this new collection as 'glamour according to Chanel'. In its high jewellery collections, Chanel has explored and iterated on graphical signatures like tweed, lions, and comets—even sports!—but it hadn't yet taken on an abstract idea like glamour. Fortunately for the maison, it had a perfectly apt moment in its history to reference. That's the 1930s, when Gabrielle Chanel was invited by a Hollywood film studio to design costumes and outfits for its stars and starlets. And is there a world more adept at the kind of illusory, smoke and mirrors glamour than Hollywood? Fake worlds built on soundstages and sets; hair, makeup and costumes to turn actresses into larger than life characters; the play of light and shadow to tell grand stories to stir hearts; and the scale of a silver screen to make humans appear as demigods. Chinese dancer Wu Meng-ke at Chanel's Reach For The Stars collection launch dinner, wearing a suite of wing motif designs. Above, Japanese actress and model Nana Komatsu at the same event, wearing comet-themed Take My Breath Away jewels. Courtesy of Chanel Gabrielle Chanel would spend only a little bit of time in Hollywood all told, but her vision has inspired the Chanel Fine Jewellery design studio. An independent woman, wearing unfussy evening dresses with pure lines and streamlined silhouettes. From America, she took on an understanding of how they wore their jewellery: simple but devastatingly chic cascades of diamonds, statement cocktail rings with stones that draw eyes, and imposing necklaces that themselves became the visual centre of a look. The Wings of Chanel masterpiece necklace, set with a Padparadscha sapphire. Courtesy of Chanel The necklace is set with a 19.55-carat cushion-cut Padparadscha sapphire. Reach For The Stars is a story of glamour told in three chapters. The most exciting is perhaps Wings, where Chanel is debuting a new visual motif in its jewellery. These wings are doubly inspired. First, by a Gabrielle Chanel quote on ambition from a September 1938 article in Vogue France: 'If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing'. Second, from a number of Hollywood film costumes that Chanel designed with winged details and silhouettes. The masterpiece of the collection, for instance, is named the Wings of Chanel. It's a necklace with a pair of diamond wings that unfold and wrap sensually around the neck. A line of diamond drops and buttons—evocative of the neckline of a dress—ends with an exceptional 19.55-carat Padparadscha sapphire in a perfect hue of salmony pink and orange. Dreams Come True necklace, with a line of black-coated gold and cascades of diamonds. Courtesy of Chanel The Dreams Come True necklace on view at the collection exhibition held in Kyoto. Courtesy of Chanel In the Comet chapter, Chanel expands on its most foundational design signature in jewellery. The first and only collection of high jewellery that Gabrielle Chanel herself designed was the 1932 Bijoux de Diamants, in which diamond creations were accented with stars and comets. A true standout, and this editor's favourite, is the Dreams Come True necklace. Chanel's Fine Jewellery Creation Studio sought to embody its black and white colour code in jewellery, and took inspiration from the sensual flou drape of an haute couture dress. Hence two woven chains of black-coated gold that trace a neckline, almost as if they were a rolled hem or a French seam. It's contrasted on its sides with a cascade of mixed-cut diamonds, scattered with the airiness of Chantilly lace. At its centre, a comet clasp set with a 6.06-carat DFL diamond. Sky Is The Limit ring in white and yellow gold, set with an emerald-cut 11.11-carat Fancy Vivid Yellow diamond, and with white diamonds. Courtesy of Chanel The collection closes out its thematic triptych with the Lion, the astrological and lucky sign of Gabrielle Chanel. The symbolic strength and boldness of the lion is treated with delicate, masterful subtlety in Reach For The Stars. Chanel has, for example, rendered the lion's head in diamond-set openwork mountings, so that the leonine figure becomes an almost geometric suggestion. On the Sky Is The Limit suite, a vision of a winged lion emerges. The great cat is sculpted as an abstracted, open-worked motif flanked with a mane of marquise-cut and bezel-set round diamonds. On this cocktail ring, a centre stone with the luminous, leonine warmth: an impressive 11.11-carat emerald-cut Fancy Vivid Yellow diamond.
Elle
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
These Stunning Chanel Diamonds Are Devon Lee Carlson's Favorite
Nothing feels like a luxury fairytale quite like an evening filled with jewels in Kyoto. Earlier this week, Chanel celebrated the launch of its 'Reach for the Stars' high jewelry collection among fashion's most fabulous with a stunning excursion to Japan. For 'It' girl and style icon Devon Lee Carlson, the night was a whirlwind dream. Before heading out, Carlson playfully stacked her Coco Crush bracelets and rings, which perfectly complemented the edgy vibe of her sequined leather halter dress. The impressive collection consists of 109 pieces that deeply honor the historic legacy of Gabrielle Chanel. Signature motifs abound—lions, comets, and the debut of wings, all of which reference iconic moments throughout the designer's life. Chanel's star sign, Leo, is manifested through her lifelong collection of feline sculptures. Since then, the lion has become an integral symbol for the brand's high jewelry collections. Meanwhile, the comet represents a direct through-line to Chanel's first-ever 1932 Bijoux de Diamants line, a revolutionary idea in the diamond space amidst turmoil of that year. Finally, and perhaps most important, are the wings. This motif is represented in pieces such as the impressive 'Wings of Chanel' necklace, which features a boldly sculptural design and detachable pendant of star-shaped diamonds that doubles as a bracelet (also a favorite of Carlson's). The centerpiece—a cushion-cut Padparadscha sapphire, never before seen in a Chanel high jewelry collection. As the house founder once famously said, 'If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing.'
BusinessToday
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BusinessToday
Reach for the Stars with Chanel's Dazzling New Collection
Comets, lions and wings take centre stage in Reach for the Stars, Chanel's latest High Jewellery collection. Each motif is reinterpreted in delicate openwork gold and set with radiant gemstones, expressing movement, strength and aspiration. Every piece begins as a sketch in Chanel's Fine Jewellery Creation Studio. From there, expert artisans hand-select exceptional gemstones to meet the House's highest standards. At the atelier on Place Vendôme in Paris, these designs are brought to life with meticulous craftsmanship. The collection highlights Chanel's signature attention to detail. Gold is shaped into lace-like structures that drape elegantly around the body. Rare gemstones—including yellow and white diamonds, Padparadscha and blue sapphires, rubies, yellow beryls and orange garnets—add depth, colour and brilliance. The result is a refined expression of freedom and elegance. A key piece in the collection is the Wings of Chanel necklace, which introduces the wing motif to Chanel High Jewellery for the first time. Made in openwork gold and set with diamond details, the necklace wraps around the neck like a fine, lightweight structure. It also features a detachable diamond section that can be worn as a bracelet, offering added versatility. At its centre is a cushion-cut Padparadscha sapphire weighing 19.55 carats. Its colour shifts between pink and orange, giving the piece a warm, distinctive glow. Chanel's interest in celestial symbols goes back to 1932, when Gabrielle Chanel launched her Bijoux de Diamants collection. Her use of the star motif, which she once described as 'eternally modern,' continues in Reach for the Stars. The comet appears in new designs, such as the Blazing Star set with outlines in gold and onyx, and the Dazzling Star choker, which uses diamond pendants to create a sense of movement. The lion, Chanel's astrological sign and a symbol of strength, features prominently in the Strong as a Lion set, which combines a dazzling mane of stars with white and yellow diamonds. The Embrace Your Destiny necklace presents a sculpted lion's profile adorned with pear-shaped diamonds, exuding quiet power. For Patrice Leguéreau, Director of the Chanel Jewellery Creation Studio, the collection captures the fleeting beauty of a sunset—those final moments between day and night when the sky is awash with gold, mauve and pink. 'We wanted to create pieces of jewellery that are illuminated by the rays of the sunset and beyond,' he explains. 'Capturing that magical moment when high jewellery sparkles on the skin.' Related
