TRACING TREASURES

The Chanel Patrimoine is a space dedicated to the maison’s most precious fine jewellery and timepieces. Just as priceless are the stories embedded in each creation.

- MINDY TEH

Call it a room with a spectacular view. The Chanel Patrimoine is a fascinating repository of the maison's archival watches and fine jewellery located at 18 Place Vendôme, itself Paris' most luxurious square. Chanel's creations are stunning markers for Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's extraordinary life and the space showcases 800 of her most compelling wonders including necklaces, brooches, earrings, bracelets, watches and rings.

The legendary designer famously developed a passion for jewellery, her apartment filled with all manner of adornments as well as other valuable objets d'art, gifts presented to her by her lover, the Duke of Westminster. Her deep affinity for these treasures sparked the desire to create rather than just wear jewellery.

"I invent jewellery," she once revealed to Marlyse Schaeffer in an article for a women's magazine in 1962. "I used to spend hours doing it, I forget everything else, it's the only thing that really keeps me amused."

It was not enough for the designer to just sketch out a parure. Rather, Chanel set the tone for a new bijoux vocabulary, incorporating her fascination for the Baroque, medieval art and the Renaissance along with rich and archaic symbols of religious and auspicious significance - such as the lion that represents her Leo star sign, her lucky number five, or the constellations.