Chanel ‘Signes & Symboles’: The Secret Language of Gabrielle Chanel

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“She constructed her own myth out of mysteries, signs, and symbols,” Gabrielle Chanel’s great-niece, Gabrielle Palasse-Labrunie, once recalled. These symbols permeated her beliefs, her apartment, her jewellery, her lucky charms and ultimately her style.

The observation offers a natural entry point into Signes & Symboles. Conceived as an enchanting, motionless journey through Gabrielle Chanel’s inner landscapes, the collection traces the passage from private memory to public emblem, bringing together the camellia, the star, the sun and the lion in a dialogue that moves between biography, symbolism and creation.

For Gabrielle Chanel, creation was above all an act of freedom: the freedom to move from memories to encounters, from travels to discoveries, from admiration to intuition, and to transform these intimate references into symbols before they established themselves as principles of elegance.

The comets crossing the night sky at Aubazine, the stars decorating the abbey’s cobblestones, the geometric perfection of the camellia, the lion of her birth sign and the light of the Mediterranean sun entered her collections and marked her homes, from the apartment on rue Cambon to the villa La Pausa. Over time, they became inseparable from her creative impulse.

Through 85 High Jewellery creations, the Chanel Jewelry Creation Studio gives these emblems new forms. Conceived as a “treasure collection”, Signes & Symboles combines the opulence of plastrons and bandeaux with the geometric purity of compositions structured through vertical and horizontal symmetry. Precious stones, fine stones and hard stones create an intense palette of blues, reds, greens, oranges, yellows and pinks, supported by exacting lapidary work.

At the heart of this chromatic richness are what Chanel calls the “Precious Four”: sapphire, ruby, emerald and diamond. Among the collection’s exceptional stones are the 20.66-carat sapphire of the Imprimé Lion necklace, the 10.44-carat emerald of the Imprimé Émeraude ring, the 9.41-carat ruby of the Lion Millénaire ring and the 10.32-carat diamond of the Symbole Camélia Rose ring.

From Private Memory to Precious Motif

“My jewelry represents an idea,” Gabrielle Chanel used to say.

The phrase offers the clearest introduction to her approach to adornment. Jewellery was never confined to the display of precious materials; it could embody an intuition, preserve a memory or acquire the intimate force of a talisman.

Her creative freedom reflected the same instinct that shaped her clothes. Just as she preferred to cut directly into fabric rather than begin with a drawing, she invented jewels outside the conventions of classical jewellery. She mixed genres and periods, introduced contrasts of colour, form and ways of wearing, and cultivated a taste for opulent pieces inspired by ancient cultures and Byzantine jewels.

She also placed sumptuous jewellery beside far humbler objects that she considered talismans. Value, in this vision, was never determined by preciousness alone. The idea represented by the jewel mattered just as much as the materials from which it was made.

This freedom remains central to Signes & Symboles. The emblems associated with Gabrielle Chanel have been repeated, enlarged, combined and reorganised into a contemporary jewellery language. They appear as precious prints, sculptural ornaments, amulets and compositions in which colour and geometry acquire their own expressive force.

A New Geometry for the Body

Alongside its symbolic vocabulary, the collection introduces a renewed approach to the construction and silhouette of the necklace.

Certain pieces move away from the conventionally rounded contour of the collar and adopt broader, more angular lines. Their pronounced horizontal structure recalls the wide necklines of Renaissance dress. Viewed through a more modern lens, the same geometry may also bring to mind the low, architectural décolletages of the 1920s. Rather than simply encircling the neck, these jewels frame the upper body like elements of clothing.

A new tubular chain establishes a continuous, flexible line. Seen in creations such as the Lion Puissant necklace, and also used to support the amulets of the Talisman de Symboles, it creates a supple structure whose visual density is balanced by its ability to follow the body.

The cartouche represents a separate graphic device. In necklaces such as the Talisman Graphique, repeated cartouche-shaped elements create a clearly segmented rhythm. Their ordered succession recalls the arrangement of a hunting cartridge belt, although the reference is absorbed into an abstract and precious ornamental language.

The tubular chain and the cartouches therefore perform different functions. The first creates continuity and fluidity; the second builds its graphic identity through the repetition of individual modules. Together with the new angular necklines, they extend the collection’s exploration of how High Jewellery can draw, frame and articulate the body.

Jewels Woven Like Precious Fabrics

The first chapter, Les Imprimés, treats the camellia, star and sun as recurring patterns. Arranged in lines punctuated by faceted stones, the motifs create supple and precious surfaces that unfold across plastron and bandeau necklaces.

The most commanding expression of this idea is the Imprimé Lion necklace, the centrepiece of the collection. Here, the lion joins the camellia, the star and the sun within a composition built around a vertical cascade and a pronounced V-shaped silhouette.

Brilliant-cut, emerald-cut and sometimes specially shaped diamonds are set on delicate threads of pink and white gold. Held by discreet prongs, they articulate the descending lines of the necklace, which end in a step-cut diamond at the point of the V.

An octagonal-cut sapphire weighing 20.66 carats dominates the composition. Its faceting echoes the diamonds across the plastron, while its blue aura appears to protect the sculptural lion’s head entirely set with diamonds beneath it.

The same balance of geometry and opulence appears in the Imprimé Émeraude ring. Its 10.44-carat octagonal emerald is secured by pink-gold prongs and placed on an oval platform radiating with custom-cut diamonds. Two camellias, set with oval- and brilliant-cut diamonds, flank the body of the ring and discreetly complete the composition.

In these creations, the relationship with fashion is conveyed through rhythm rather than imitation. Repetition, symmetry and articulation allow stones and motifs to behave like patterns arranged across a precious fabric.

The Lion in Profile

Regarded by Chanel as an emblem of its High Jewellery and first introduced in this context in 2012, the lion assumes a powerful and graphic presence in the collection’s second chapter, Le Lion Emblématique.

On the Lion Millénaire necklace, the feline’s elongated body appears in profile as a subtle diamond bas-relief applied to onyx. The motif is repeated on either side of a central ruby and outlined with diamonds.

The intensity of the ruby contrasts with the authority of the onyx and the brilliance of the diamonds, establishing the necklace’s strong graphic signature.

The Lion Millénaire ring develops the same duality through a two-part composition. One head of the ring carries an oval 9.41-carat ruby bordered with diamonds, while the other presents a diamond lion’s head worked in bas-relief over an onyx base.

The jewel can be transformed, allowing either of its two rings to be worn separately. The design moves between colour and figuration, opacity and brilliance, unity and separation.

The Lion Emblématique brooch offers a more exuberant interpretation. A diamond-set lion’s head is surrounded by an extraordinary mane of rubies, sapphires, turquoise and emeralds. The diversity of colours and cuts introduces an element of spontaneity, while a delicate yellow-gold cord outlines the sculptural symmetry of the animal, almost taming its majesty.

The Protective Power of Jewellery

The third chapter, Les Bijoux Talismans, celebrates jewels to which their wearer may attribute protective powers. They belong naturally within the universe of Gabrielle Chanel, for whom objects, signs and symbols could carry personal significance.

Throughout the collection, talismans take the form of delicately carved amulets.

The Talisman Graphique necklace is composed of yellow-gold amulets pavé-set with yellow sapphires and engraved with stars. Its pure, radiant lines create a sun-filled composition, punctuated by a camellia crowned with a 3.57-carat emerald-cut, D Flawless Type IIa diamond.

The Talisman de Symboles necklace adopts a more eclectic language. A tubular chain is punctuated by amulets and symbols in gold, diamonds and pink sapphires: a camellia, a star, a sun and a lion.

Onyx, carnelian, turquoise, chrysoprase, spessartite garnets and white ceramic add further colour and vibration. The variety of materials recalls the freedom with which Gabrielle Chanel brought together jewels and objects belonging to different traditions and levels of preciousness.

The four Talisman Gabrielle rings pair a coloured-stone amulet with a sculptural emblem in diamond-set white gold. Carnelian illuminates the camellia, onyx enhances the sun, turquoise ennobles the lion and chrysoprase brightens the star.

Colour is therefore inseparable from meaning. The stones are chosen not only for their visual intensity but also for their capacity to turn each jewel into a personal emblem.

A Constellation of Colour

The final chapter, Les Symboles, transforms Gabrielle Chanel’s emblems into an audacious treasury of colours and contrasts.

The Symbole Étoile necklace combines the blue-violet tones of tanzanite beads with three warmer hues: the sunny orange of garnet and carnelian and the “golden water” of a 26.21-carat cushion-cut imperial topaz.

Outlined with diamonds, the topaz crowns a diamond-set amulet punctuated with carnelian, from which a star is suspended as a final detail.

The parure also explores transformability. When the necklace is worn in its shorter version, its back section becomes a bracelet. In the accompanying earrings, meanwhile, the diamond and garnet stars can be detached from the tanzanite trails beneath them. The different configurations extend the celestial narrative across the entire ensemble.

The camellia reaches one of its most precious expressions in the Symbole Camélia Rose ring. Diamond-set petals edged with pink sapphires swirl voluptuously around an exceptional oval-cut diamond weighing 10.32 carats, graded D colour and Flawless clarity.

The combination of pink sapphires and diamonds gives movement to the flower, whose recognisable form is translated into a composition of light, volume and brilliance.

The Symbole Saphir ring explores another chromatic duality. At its centre is an imposing 25.45-carat cabochon-cut sapphire, surrounded by sapphires and diamonds. The smooth depth and authority of the central stone are intensified by the radiance of the faceted gems around it.

Across the collection, colour is bold but carefully controlled. Opulent combinations remain anchored by symmetry, geometry and exacting lapidary work.

Symbols in Motion

Across its four chapters, Signes & Symboles allows the Chanel vocabulary to move between pattern, sculpture, amulet and colour. The camellia, star, sun and lion remain immediately recognisable, yet each is given a different rhythm, scale and relationship with the body.

Exceptional gems anchor this language, but they never appear as isolated displays of rarity. Their colours, cuts and volumes serve the wider compositions and the ideas carried by the symbols around them.

In bringing past and present, heritage and creation into dialogue, the collection returns to Gabrielle Chanel’s belief that jewellery could represent an idea. Here, that idea begins within an intimate geography of memories, intuitions, landscapes and lucky charms before finding a new life in precious materials.

The journey may be motionless, but its symbols are still moving.