Chanel 1.5 – 1 Camélia, 5 Allures

The number 5 and the camellia. Two strong symbols, with so much meaning to Gabrielle Chanel, give soul and life to a new, intimate and refined high jewellery collection: 1.5 – 1 Camélia, 5 Allures.

Gabrielle Chanel was fascinated by numerology. Five was her lucky number. And she adored flowers.

Five, like the fifth day of the month when, twice a year, Mademoiselle would reveal her fashion shows.

Five, like the ways transformable jewels can be worn and enjoyed.

Five, like the ways in which the emblematic camellia, for the first time ever, is rendered and blooms in this new high jewellery collection.

One flower, five interpretations. This is how to read Chanel’s high jewellery collection 1.5 – 1 Camélia, 5 Allures.

Here, the camellia silhouette is the inspiration of every design, forever consistent in its construction and form. 

Mademoiselle, always well ahead of conventions and fashion diktats, took the camellia from men’s blazers and used it according to her own will. 

On belts, blouses, hair. True to itself and transformed according to Gabrielle’s creativity, the camellia leaves its mark in fashion through embroidery, prints, engravings and pleats.

She loved to wear it because of its sober elegance and the perfect, rounded symmetry of the ordering of its petals.

The two-dimensional flower evolves thus into a three-dimensional emblem, where it will be soon be embedded with gemstones and luminescent rose quartz carvings.

1.5 – 1 Camélia, 5 Allures is a collection that captures for its intimate flair. Knowing how much Mademoiselle loved camellias and seeing how this flower takes the stage in this collection, one cannot but appreciate a deep and emotional connection with Gabrielle Chanel.

Not only this. The collection presents fifty pieces, of which twenty-three are transformable, offering the freedom to wear them in multiple ways.

By wearing a jewel from the 1.5 – 1 Camélia, 5 Allure jewellery collection, one will enjoy the freedom of experiencing the jewel according to her will, by adapting the piece to her life, to her personality as it pleases her.

Like in the Cristal Illusion necklace, which can not only be worn long or short but can also be transformed in two distinct pieces – a necklace and a diamond-set brooch.

I want the jewellery to be like a ribbon on a woman’s fingers. My ribbons are flexible and detachable. For grand evenings, you wear the full set. For smaller parties, you can remove the main part and large pieces. In this way, the set of jewellery is no longer an immutable object. Life transforms it and bends it to its needs.

Gabrielle Chanel
Extract from “Jewellery by CHANEL” by Patrick Mauriès, Thanks and Hudson, 2012, p.110

At the centre of the Rouge Incandescent theme there is a necklace featuring a camellia set with a splendid 7.61-carat Mozambique ruby, which detaches to reveal a second, red camellia, illuminating hues of red, encrusted with baguette-cut-rubies.

The glowing red of these fiery stones radiates the colour of passion, desire, love, and also that of fearlessness. It is not a surprise Mademoiselle loved red.

And we find red again in the Rouge Tentation set, composed by two camellias, a bold ring set with rubies and a pave diamond brooch, both with a detachable halo of pave diamond petals.

The transformable jewels of the 1.5 – 1 Camélia, 5 Allures collection embody Mademoiselle’s audacious spirit. She wanted women to be free and, in a traditionally conservative system, she interpreted fashion in a new and revolutionary (for those times) way. She liberated women’s bodies and minds at the same time.

The jewels’ versatility allows choosing how to wear them, in total freedom. Like in the Révélation Diamant necklace, punctuated with a detachable diamond camellia that can be fastened as a brooch.

Jewels that one can interpret and wear in the most versatile way, with no rule to follow, and in total freedom. Is this the ultimate luxury? We do think it is.