Eastern-India Coromandel lacquered screens are the inspiration for a new, poetic high jewellery collection. Signed by Chanel Fine Jewellery.
Coco Chanel’s apartment is a dreamy place, full of objects dear to her, of atmospheres that manifest through the power of evocation.
Chanel Fine Jewellery
Among her beloved objects are the Coromandel screens, which she discovered in the 1910s together with her great love, Boy Capel.
These hold a special fascination, she never parted with them, as she would bring them with her, from place to place.
Not only this, she kept adding new ones into her collection, which at one point was comprising more than thirty screens.
Lacquer is my element. It is not something that jumps out at you. I’ve bought thirty-two screens and have given many away, but I’ve kept enough to upholster my home… Gabrielle Chanel
Photography by Lipnitzki & Roger-Viollet.
(c) Chanel / Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
The Coromandel screens were, for Gabrielle Chanel, the perfect background against which to set up her imaginary worlds. They would surround her and take her far away, in place and time and, reflected in the mirrors and rock crystals, they would appear multiplied to infinity, like a fantastic labyrinth.
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Precious like jewels, the Coromandel screens artistically originate from the coast of Cholamandal, on the Eastern side of India. A name that was transformed by foreign visitors into “Coromandel”.
These exquisite objects are covered in lacquer, a vegetable resin that is heated, filtered, purified, and meticulously applied on the wood in multiple layers, dried and polished to reach a thickness of three millimetres. This ensures its hardness and unique shine.
A method called “Kuan Kai” (“incised colours”) as a reference to designs and motifs made by incrusting precious stones and mother-of pearl-into the lacquer.
Chanel Fine Jewellery
Coromandel High Jewellery Collection.
The poetry, diffused through Gabrielle Chanel’s place, by the oriental screens spreads through Chanel‘s new high jewellery collection, Coromandel.
Three creative themes for fifty-nine jewels, with twenty-four of them being one-of-a-kind.
The Fauna Theme.
Chanel Fine Jewellery.
The fauna motif is a classic, in Coromandel screens. Birds fly in the decorated sky, providing a powerful source of inspiration for jewels vibrating with life.
As the adornments on the screens are painstakingly hand-made, in the constant quest for perfection, so are the Maison’s high jewellery creations. The energy spent in realizing these masterpieces is indeed palpable and real.
The flying bird on the screen is rendered then through a sketch, which crystallized and captures that specific moment.
Birds represent the Emperor and the Empress, according to the Coromandel’s iconography and, in the same way, one feels the very spirit of Mlle Chanel residing over her world.
The Précieux Envol and the Vol Suspendu pieces provide the perfect narration for this theme.
The Flora Theme.
Centred around one of Coco’s symbols, the Camellia, the jewels express the delicate lightness of corollas in bloom.
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Flowers could be admired everywhere on the screens, in all their refined details, revealing stories to be told through the jewels that compose this collection.
Pink sapphire petals, green tourmaline leaves nestled into white diamonds, Mint tsavorite garnets and cascading beads all carved by hand from green tourmaline reveal the glory of the Evocation Florale, the Fleur de Diamant, the Fleur de Laque and of the Fleur de Nacre collections.
The Mineral Theme.
The mineral theme expresses Coco’s love for crystals and gemstones. These find their highest expression in the new Coromandel high jewellery collection.
Minerals connect to the earth, and the Coromandel screens represent beautiful landscapes. Far-away lands, almost fairy-tale dimensions that unfold a story within a frame.
A constant dichotomy between the “ici et ailleurs” (“here and elsewhere”), between the being here while craving for freedom through the vision of distant horizons in one’s imagination. This is the narrative line of the Horizon Lointain and the Vibration Minérale collections.
The new Coromandel High Jewellery Collection by Chanel reveals a poetic universe, made of light flowers, graceful animals and powerful gems, framed by the delicacy of yellow and white gold, black onyx and mother-of-pearl.
An Eastern fascination interpreted by Western sensitivity with jewels which, once again, offer a glimpse of the unique savoir-faire of the Chanel Fine Jewellery atelier and the creative inspiration of the Studio of Creation, guided by the eternal spirit of Coco Chanel. CC
All material courtesy of Chanel.
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