Chanel marks No.5 centenary with dazzling high jewellery collection

Chanel continues to mark the centenary of its No.5 perfume in style, most recently with the unveiling of an expansive high jewellery series, titled ‘No.5’ collection. Facets of Chanel No.5 perfume – such as the stopper, the flowers, the sillage, and the number five – are celebrated in more than 100 high jewellery pieces that form the collection. References to the fragrance are intertwined with the hallmarks of Chanel high jewellery; the sensuality that perfume and jewellery share from their proximity to a woman’s skin is reflected in droplets of juxtaposed diamond cuts. In the asymmetric ‘No.5’ drop earrings, it is the number itself that takes centre stage, its elongated curves drawn in diamond-studded white gold, from which swings a pear-cut diamond.

For director of the Chanel Fine Jewellery Creation Studio, Patrice Leguéreau, the ‘No.5’ collection is a natural continuation of both the graphic codes of Coco Chanel’s perfume and of her 1932 high jewellery series, called ‘Bijoux de Diamants’. Like the fragrance and jewellery that precedes it, the new collection brings the intangible to life with graphic design codes and a playful wearability, interpreting olfactory pleasures in diamonds and enveloping the body like a cloud of perfume.

Setting the tone for Chanel high jewellery to come

The new pieces nod to the original collection, which interpreted five themes (five being Coco Chanel’s favourite number): fringe, ribbon, feathers, the sun, and the stars into transformable high jewellery. Nodding to her childhood, the collection was very personal, with the patterned mosaics on the floor of the Abbey of Aubazine orphanage where she spent her childhood drawn in dazzling diamonds.

Other pieces, such as a diamond necklace as fluid as a ribbon, and a shooting star studded in diamonds that encircles the finger on its journey, juxtapose geometric cuts and supple curves, setting the tone for the high jewellery to follow over the next century. 

INFORMATION

This article appears in the September 2021 issue of Wallpaper* (W*269), now on newsstands and available for free download

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