This New Jewelry Collection Was Inspired by Coco Chanel’s Favorite Escape
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From top: Chanel Volute Marine necklace and bracelet in white and yellow gold, diamonds, and lapis lazuli. Volute Vénitienne ring in white and yellow gold, diamonds, lapis lazuli, and cultured pearl. All prices upon request.
If Paris is the capital of romance, where does a Parisienne go to escape heartbreak? In the case of Coco Chanel, she retreated to Venice in 1920 to mourn her longtime love Arthur Edward “Boy” Capel, who had perished in a car accident. There, amid Titian-filled churches, stately palazzi, and the sunbaked Lido, she found a way through grief and toward fresh inspiration.
Escale à Venise is an exuberant high-jewelry homage to Mademoiselle Chanel’s beloved getaway. The 70-piece collection merges elements from Venetian architectural and cultural tradition with the brand’s mainstay motifs; a bib necklace, for example, renders the signature Chanel camellia in a palette of precious gems that mirrors the Byzantine interior of St. Mark’s Basilica. The Grand Canal plays muse, too. A trio of pieces—a pendant suspended from a strand of stars, a two-finger ring set with a luminous cultured pearl, a gleaming bracelet—riffs on the blue-and-white mooring poles used for gondolas, with stripes of lapis lazuli and diamonds. More than a century after Chanel’s fateful first visit, the collection confirms that her safe harbor remains an inexhaustible source of creativity. chanel.com
Styled by Parker Bowie Larson
This story originally appeared in the May 2021 issue of ELLE Decor. SUBSCRIBE
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