LET THERE BE LIGHT

Ninety years after the launch of Gabrielle Chanel's first and only high jewellery range, Bijoux de Diamants, comes the conception of the 1932 collection, which pays homage to the original ideals epitomised by its founder - a revolutionary spirit, the audacity of individualism, and freedom for womankind.

- ALLYSON KLASS

Three years after the Great Depression in Nov 1932, the London Diamond Corporation revealed that it'd turned to a woman to restore the diamond market to its former glory. She was a brilliant accessories designer, who applied the same design principles to clothes and whose costume jewellery had recently been lauded by international press as being more beautiful than the real thing. Head of a multi-faceted empire that was growing by the day, she was a woman of power and a friend of the arts and artists. This woman was none other than Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel.

Mademoiselle Coco chose the possibility of dreams and the vitality of beauty, creating Bijoux de Diamants, the world's first high jewellery collection. So successful was the launch that it raised the Diamond Corporation's shares in just two days, boosting an entire industry and revitalising the era.

Every detail for the Bijoux de Diamants presentation was planned by the designer doyenne. The jewels would be on display from Nov 7 to 19 in a first-of-its-kind exhibition. This was preceded by a two-day private viewing in her townhouse at 29 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré on Nov 5 - a symbolic number for Mademoiselle. Dotted around were glass cases on marble pedestals that were flooded with a mysterious light. Within them were wax mannequins made up and styled by the couturier herself. Their necks and hands were adorned with precious stones, whose brilliance was multiplied by cleverly placed mirrors that allowed the creations to be studied from every angle.