Game Of Stones

Chanel's latest high jewellery collection, TWEED DE CHANEL, renders the brand's most iconic fabric in precious gems and metals.

- Jeffrey Yan

Coco Chanel was a woman whose life and work were so extraordinary that her imprint is still all over the brand she founded more than a hundred years ago. From her obsessions to her love life, Chanel—the woman and the designer— remains an endless treasure trove of inspiration for the House’s creative directors. One of the strongest codes that Chanel established for her Maison was the use of tweed. At about the same time she fell in love with the Duke of Westminster, she also fell in love with the surroundings of his country estate in the Great Scottish outdoors. The uniform of tweeds worn by the Duke and his aristocratic peers were to Chanel like soft armour against the harshness of the Scottish climes.

Chanel, as always looking for ways to liberate and modernise womenswear, adapted the tweed jacket for the feminine wardrobe and turned it into a signal of modern elegance. Since then, tweed has been an inextricable part of the House lexicon—present in every ready-to-wear and haute couture collection. But in 2020, the House went one step further—it found a way to translate that distinctively woven fabric into high jewellery. Three years ago, the TWEED DE CHANEL high jewellery collection launched with 45 pieces. This year, the collection is expanded with 63 new high jewellery pieces and 13 updates on the 2020 pieces—previously monochromatic designs now rendered in brilliant colour.