Gabrielle Chanel had an instinct for objects and images that carried meaning beyond their appearance. Lions, divinatory cards, books decorated with stars and other talismanic pieces filled her apartment at 31 Rue Cambon. Elsewhere, memories of Aubazine and the Mediterranean light found their way into her work.
Four of these emblems – the camellia, star, sun and lion – provide the foundation for Chanel’s 85-piece Signes & Symboles high jewellery collection this year. Festooned with diamonds, coloured gemstones and hardstones, they appear as repeating patterns, sculptural forms and amulets. These emblems were closely woven into Mademoiselle Chanel’s life long before they became enduring signatures of the maison, reflecting her memories, beliefs, travels and the many sources of inspiration that shaped her creative world.
The camellia
The camellia’s ordered, almost geometric arrangement of petals suited Mademoiselle Chanel’s preference for clean lines. Free of fragrance and thorns, it also lacked the sentimentality traditionally associated with more romantic flowers. She adopted it from the masculine wardrobe, where blooms were sometimes worn in a gentleman’s buttonhole, and made it her own. Over time, it became one of the house’s most recognisable motifs, appearing on clothing, accessories and jewels.
The flower takes on a voluptuous, sculptural form in the Symbole Camelia Rose ring. Arranged in two tiers that swirl in opposing directions, diamond-set petals with a border of pink sapphires surround a 10.32-carat oval-cut diamond. An openworked camellia in rose gold is also concealed inside the ring. On the Imprime Emeraude ring, two diamond camellias flank an exceptional 10.44-ct Colombian emerald. Here, the bloom is integrated into the ring’s architecture rather than presented as its main motif.
The star
Stars occupied Mademoiselle’s memories and imagination from an early age. Her fascination with the celestial motif can be traced to her childhood at Aubazine Abbey in France, with its star-patterned cobblestones and comets crossing the night sky. They were also central to her first high jewellery collection, Bijoux de Diamants, presented in 1932, when she described them as “eternally modern”.
The Talisman Graphique necklace continues this story through yellow gold amulets pavé-set with yellow sapphires and engraved with stars, accompanied by a 3.57-ct emerald-cut diamond. Meanwhile, the Symbole Étoile necklace revisits the celestial symbol through an unexpected colour palette. Tanzanite beads form a deep blue-violet “sky” for carnelian, spessartite garnets and a 26.21-ct imperial topaz, from which a diamond star is suspended. Its transformable design allows part of the necklace to convert into a bracelet, while its diamond-and-garnet stars detach to become earrings.
“Why look any further? Obviously, the constellations I’ve scattered in the hair, the comets landing on shoulders followed by a shower of stars, the crescent moons and the suns were made by the best craftsmen in Paris whom unemployment had rendered gloomily available – my stars –this is all very romantic! But is anything more
Mademoiselle Gabrielle Chanel
becoming or more eternally modern?”
The sun
If the star evoked the night, the sun reflected Mademoiselle’s fascination with light. She was particularly drawn to the Mediterranean sun, which she enjoyed at La Pausa, her villa in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Within the house’s jewellery vocabulary, the motif often appears through radiating forms, warm colours or golden materials and stones instead of a literal image.
The Symbole Camélia Solaire ring captures this quality, uniting the camellia and sun around a 5.06-ct vivid yellow diamond. A more graphic interpretation appears on one of the Talisman Gabrielle rings, which pairs an onyx amulet with a sculptural sun in diamond-set white gold. Across both pieces, the symbol is expressed through contrasting materials and the play of light.
The lion
Born on August 19 under the astrological sign of Leo, Gabrielle Chanel regarded the lion as a personal emblem and protective presence. Representations of the big cat filled her private world, including a gilded bronze lion that guarded her apartment at 31 Rue Cambon. Its authority, courage and majesty reflected qualities with which she closely identified. Introduced into Chanel high jewellery in 2012, the lion has since become one of the house’s most recognisable figurative motifs.
In Signes & Symboles, it commands the collection’s centrepiece. Requiring 1,800 hours of work, the Imprime Lion necklace is the only creation to unite all four emblems. Diamonds set in white and rose gold form a cascade around a 20.66-ct sapphire and a three-dimensional lion’s head paved with diamonds. The Lion Millenaire ring explores duality through a toi-et-moi design: one side boasts a 9.41-ct oval-cut ruby with a border of baguette-cut diamonds, while the other features a diamond-set lion’s head in bas-relief against black onyx. The two sections can also be separated and worn individually.
