Coco Chanel's lost jewellery recreated for show that's Hong Kong-bound
Reproductions of 1932 high jewellery the centrepiece of the exhibition, now open in London, about the craft of French fashion house's founder, its history and iconic collections
A lost diamond jewellery collection designed by Coco Chanel in 1932 has been recreated and forms the dazzling centrepiece of a Chanel exhibition that opened this week at the Saatchi Gallery in London, and will travel to Hong Kong next spring.
The Comète and Franges necklaces and the Soleil brooch are precise recreations of the only collection of high jewellery that Coco Chanel ever designed, the Bijoux de Diamants. The jewellery, which Julianne Moore, Lara Stone, Rita Ora, Vanessa Paradis and other celebrity ambassadors of the house wore in the exclusive casino scene at Chanel’s haute couture show in July, is now available to order.
This glamorous mix of Hollywood and music celebrities were among the guests at the preview party Chanel hosted for the exhibition, which invites the visitor into the heart of the creative process of the couture house. “Mademoiselle Privé” tells the story of the three enduring pillars of the house: the haute couture, the high jewellery and Chanel No. 5.
Like the fashion shows, the exhibition is a lavish production opening with a specially planted English garden, leading to rooms that recreate the splendours of Paris' Rue Cambon. Visitors are introduced to Coco Chanel the milliner who became a couturier. There are early images of Coco herself sailing and salmon fishing in her fabulous Scottish tweeds and an installation of artworks from Chanel's spring/summer 14 ready-to-wear collection featuring the house totems: the lucky numbers (she was very superstitious), the wheat, the camellias and the colour red.