Chanel’s dazzling new haute jewellery collection zooms in on Hollywood’s golden era

It’s 1930, and the American film industry, along with the entire economy, is struggling in the reverberations of the stock market crash of 1929. A new mood of escapism and glamour is needed, decides celebrated Hollywood film producer Samuel Goldwyn, who calls the person he believes is the only one who can introduce chic to Hollywood: Gabrielle Chanel. He offers her one million dollars.

Chanel is cautious, but curious, embarking on a trial voyage and arriving in New York in March, 1931, to a media frenzy. Stars flock to greet her (‘Two Queens Meet!’ trumpet the papers when she meets Greta Garbo) and she sets to work, creating the clothes for three films: Palmy Days (1931), Tonight or Never (1931) and The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932). The costumes, produced in the Chanel workshops in Paris, are shipped to Hollywood in a process supervised by Chanel’s employee, Mrs. Courtois. Goldwyn and his team are thrilled by the designs, but others find them too simple compared to the flamboyance more typical on the silver screen at the time. Chanel refuses to compromise on her designs, and the collaboration ends.

It is a brief, but significant, moment in Chanel’s history, now revisited almost a century later in the new high jewellery collection, Reach For The Stars. In its rainbows of precious gems, it recalls Hollywood’s golden era; specifically, the theatrical golden hour at the end of the day, when the sun sets and fills the sky with a vivid prism of colour. This cinematographic translation was a natural starting point for Patrice Leguéreau, director of the Jewelry Creation Studio, for his poignantly final high jewellery collection. ‘Patrice Leguéreau beautifully described how the colours that blaze at sunset and dawn inspired him to imagine pieces “kissed by the light of the sun,”’ says Dorothée Saintville, international product marketing director of watches and fine jewellery at Chanel. ‘It felt natural to base the collection around this fleeting moment because it encapsulates the glamour, radiance, and sense of freedom that are at the heart of Chanel.’

It is a mood which takes shape in the necklaces, earrings, rings, brooches, cuffs and tiaras of the collection, which nod to the lightness of Chanel’s clothes in their suppleness and intricate openworking. The three key motifs of the collection - the lion, the comet and, for the first time, wings - are themselves embodiments of the clean lines and sense of movement which characterised Chanel’s own creations. ‘To serve this moment, the vibrant and luminous tones of the gems are reminiscent of those of the sun at sunset and rising,’ adds Saintville. ‘There is an array of stones like yellow beryl, orange garnet, yellow diamond, ruby and sapphire, and for the first time in a high jewellery collection at Chanel, we present a Padparadscha sapphire of a rarity and exceptional quality, with a magical weight of 19.55 carats which reflects the rays of the sun at dawn.’

Old and new references unite in the pieces. There is a nod to the sole high jewellery collection Chanel personally created in 1932, ‘Bijoux de Diamants’, which celebrated the spiky outline of the star, a symbol she considered ‘eternally modern.’. The key comet motif, symbolising freedom, is lengthened and outlined in gold and onyx, while elsewhere the lion, embodying audacity, is drawn with a mane of dazzling stars, or set in clouds of white and yellow diamonds which hover over the fingers.

The inclusion of the new wings motif is inspired by Chanel herself, who said, ‘If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing.’ Its high jewellery interpretation in lattices of gold, diamonds and precious stones recalls the delicacy of embroidery, the fluid silhouettes reminiscent of the flowing lines of Chanel’s couture.

Throughout, jewellery design is underlined by the same modernity which characterised Gabrielle Chanel’s unique interpretation of Hollywood glamour. ‘She introduced a new vision of glamour to Hollywood,’ says Saintville. ‘It was one rooted in freedom, simplicity, and the audacity to break away from ostentation. Gabrielle Chanel’s vision of glamour - sophisticated, pared-down, and resolutely modern - redefined the Hollywood aesthetic. But nothing is literal in a vision: it is an inspiration. It’s more like a wink, a tribute to her pioneering spirit and her ability to empower women, both on and off the screen.’

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This article appears in the October 2025 Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today