The new Chanel Comète fine jewellery collection summons strength from Gabrielle Chanel’s lucky number
Gabrielle Chanel wrought many revolutions through her career, one of the most pointed being her propensity for faux bijoux, which she festooned both herself and her models with, and made fashionable. Fake jewellery was previously considered gauche and vulgar, but Chanel intermingled glass pearls with real ones, given to her by her wealthy and titled suitors, until no one could tell the difference and everyone had to admit they looked chic. In 1932, 22 years after founding her fashion house, and inauspiciously during the depths of the Great Depression, Chanel launched her first ever fine-jewellery collection, created from platinum and diamonds set in the forms of stars. “I wanted to cover women with constellations,” she said at the time, which also tied to her own superstitious nature, often expressed through her designs. After all, five was her lucky number – she named her first perfume five because it was the fifth formula tried, but that No 5 later became the scent that made her comeback, rescued her career and conserved her fashion house. The stars in the new Chanel Comète collection, incidentally, have five points. In white gold and diamonds, these pieces are all inspired by that original 1932 collection. They still seem lucky today.
Make-up: Sandra Cooke at the Wall Group using Lord & Berry. Models: Iris Dubois at Premier Models and Rue Ingram at D1 Models. Casting: Svea Greichgauer at AM Casting. Set design: Amy Stickland at Webber. Manicure: Saffron Goddard using Le Vernis and La Crème Main by Chanel. Lighting: Emma Ercolani. Photographic assistant: Fuminori Homma. Styling assistants: Charis Lorraine and Benedetta Baruffi. Set-design assistant: Nienta Nixon. Production: Webber. Post-production: D-Touch Studio.
This story originally featured in the Autumn/Winter 2018 issue of AnOther Magazine which is on sale internationally now.
