There are few pairings as stylishly and seamlessly intertwined as Chanel and tweed. Gabrielle Chanel discovered the humble fabric a century ago during her trip to Scotland with then beau, Hugh Grosvenor, second Duke of Westminster. She developed a deep appreciation for its tactile and hardwearing qualities, promptly integrating the material into her designs. Her actions challenged the conventional norms of her era, elevating tweed from a material associated with men and rural landscapes to a defining feature of Chanel’s identity, a symbol of luxury and a tangible representation of female empowerment.
The material undergoes continual transformation and reinterpretation within the Chanel lexicon, adorning classic suits, accessories, watches and even jewellery. In perhaps the most daring expression of tweed yet, the maison debuted Tweed de Chanel in 2020, a high jewellery collection that ingeniously translates the textural checks inherent in the fabric into a mesmerising mosaic of precious gemstones.
Designing around a motif is one thing but coaxing solid gold and gemstones into embracing the irregularity of tweed, which founder and eternal muse Gabrielle Chanel found so enchanting, is an entirely different endeavour.
This challenging undertaking marked the inception of a new chapter for Chanel’s Fine Jewelry Creation Studio, led by its director, Patrice Leguéreau. He aimed to replicate the suppleness of tweed through the skilful application of special articulation techniques. The inaugural collection featured 45 exceptional pieces designed to strike a balance between innovation and tradition.
This year, barely three years after the inaugural Tweed de Chanel, Chanel revisits the graphic power of tweed with a new collection comprising 63 unique designs. Twelve of these pieces are ingeniously transformable, allowing for a multitude of versatile and distinctive ways to wear them.
“Revisiting themes regularly is not a new approach for Chanel, especially when we manage the icons, which tweed is part of… Think of the N°5 fragrance—always the same yet different, reinvented year after year, and the story lasts for 100 years… All the icons are always reinvented, printed, and twisted in ways that will always be in the spirit of the times, so that they last forever,” says Marianne Etchebarne, global head of watches and fine jewellery product marketing, clients and communication at Chanel. We are in London for the worldwide launch of Tweed de Chanel 2023, Chanel’s latest high jewellery opus.
The new collection is divided into five lines, each boasting a unique colour scheme and highlighting a beloved emblematic symbol: the graceful white ribbon, the feminine pink camellia, the comet streaking across the night sky, the majestic yellow sun, and the lion with its regal and formidable charisma accentuated by flashes of red.
“Patrice really pushed the boundaries much further in this new collection, particularly with how he worked with the gemstones to mimic the nature of the fabric,” shares Etchebarne. She cites the Tweed Royal necklace as an example. The collection’s star piece required over 2,400 hours of work and is made of gold, diamonds, ruby clusters, and 37 unheated Mozambique rubies weighing 41.42 cts.
The aim was to create a dense, textured weave with loose and airy threading to convey a sense of opulence while maintaining a feeling of lightness. Etchebarne says it took the studio over a year and a half to gather all the rubies “in the perfect harmony of shades, cuts, and volume… sourced from different suppliers”. It was well worth the wait.
The necklace belongs to the Tweed Lion suite, which encompasses the Tweed Gabrielle necklace and bracelet, along with the Tweed Lion earrings, brooch, and necklace. Across all these pieces, the chain remains a consistent element, playfully recalling the chain straps on Chanel handbags and the gilded chain stitched onto the hems of Chanel suits. Spessartites, spinels, and yellow sapphires, some in marquise cuts reminiscent of a lion’s narrowed gaze, infuse a boldness into this suite, paying homage to Gabrielle Chanel’s zodiac sign.
In Tweed Camélia, Chanel celebrates the feminine and liberated woman by adorning jewels with the camellia blossom, Gabrielle Chanel’s favourite flower and the brand’s most celebrated emblem. These saccharine designs—Tweed Pétale, Tweed Camélia, Tweed Poudré and Tweed Dentelle suites—feature the geometrical bud embroidered in rose gold set with powder-pink and fuchsia sapphires against a textured weave.
“The idea is to give the impression of an embroidered tweed, specifically one embroidered with pieces of camellias. You’ll discover small ones within the weave, which adds significant contrast to the designs,” says Etchebarne. The Tweed Camélia necklace stands out in the collection. It has a delicate diamond-set weave embellished with small camellias. However, the necklace is notably remarkable for the over 30 pink sapphires cascading from a large, skeletonised camellia flower. Chanel’s gem experts spent over a year sourcing the sapphires, selecting them for their consistent vivid pink colour.
The Tweed Ruban set celebrates Chanel’s haute couture heritage. A defining feature of this collection is the ribbon, which has been an integral part of the brand’s couture collections since the beginning, serving both as a fastening and an embellishment. In this setting, diamonds assume the central spotlight and white cultured pearls infuse the jewellery with an ethereal lightness. Threads of diamond-encrusted gold and intermittent strings of pearls intertwine almost organically, creating a supple and soft monochromatic tweed.
“The Tweed Ruban shows off a very flexible, supple, and airy tweed… The approach is like seeing a woven tweed with ribbons that appear as if they are flowing freely,” Etchebarne explains, imitating the motion of a trailing ribbon. This sense of lightness finds its most expressive form in the Tweed Pastel ring, bracelet, and necklace. The criss-crossing rows of diamonds and pearls create a precious weave distinguished by loosely looped ends. These designs feature large and exceedingly rare oval-cut diamonds of Type IIA D IF quality, highlighting Chanel’s reputation in high jewellery.
Inspired by a midnight sky illuminated by a blanket of twinkling stars, the Tweed Étoile collection shines a spotlight on the comet, a motif Chanel has used repeatedly since the creation of Bijoux de Diamants in 1932, Gabrielle Chanel’s first and only high jewellery collection. Diamond brilliants and sapphire stars glisten against a dense weave of black and blue, comprising blue sapphires, lapis lazuli beads, and custom-cut buff top onyx. The outcome is unique and stunning. Various diamond shapes, such as pear, marquise, oval, and round, in two distinct settings—bezel and prong—are elegantly arranged with lapis lazuli beads, sapphire and gold stars, and customcut buff-top onyx stones. Together, they create a woven pattern reminiscent of the organic texture of tweed.
“This set feels more powerful because of the presence of the stars… You’ll also notice the amazing craftsmanship on the onyx and blue sapphires, enhancing the strength of the theme and evoking the essence of a night sky,” shares Etchebarne.
The final set is the Tweed Soleil, which radiates with the power of the majestic sun. Gabrielle Chanel’s life, from her apartment on Rue Cambon to her collections, was marked by her affinity for the sun, symbolising her zodiac sign, the lion. In this set, the sun is incorporated into a gleaming tweed design that combines various textures and plays with transparency. The precious gemstones set in yellow gold and the use of rock crystal are a brilliant nod to the opulence of the Byzantine and Venetian aesthetics that shaped many of her creations.
“This set is much more opulent and transparent. It’s the tweed of light. That’s why we chose crystalline materials such as rock crystal and yellow beryl,” says Etchebarne. Specially cut buff top yellow beryls were artfully employed to create volume, with their gently curved shapes resembling the woven threads of thicker tweeds.
Tweed Soleil set
In the Tweed Byzance cuff, these beryls cluster around the centre, encircling a remarkable 2.07-ct D Flawless Type IIA diamond. The design of this piece pays homage to the Maltese cross cuffs that were a favourite of Gabrielle Chanel. Etchebarne adds, “I think wearing it as a pair would be really amazing, much like how Mademoiselle Chanel herself used to wear them. I love how its design is airy and voluminous at the same time, making it a true statement piece.”
While Chanel has frequently incorporated rock crystal into its high jewellery pieces, it typically favoured rutilated rock crystal for its inherent textural charm. In this collection, however, the rock crystal is clear and has been intricately cut into a bespoke shape. “Rock crystal has always been an element of identification of the universe of Gabrielle Chanel. You’ll find them in her apartment and our boutiques… Patrice, who was inspired by the chandeliers in her apartment, wanted the crystals cut in a very specific style,” she explains.
The rock crystal used here has been custom-cut into five distinct sizes, each set within a paved bezel to create a scintillating optical illusion. When you gaze at the necklace, it appears as though the angles converge, and the line of diamonds gracefully encircles the entire cut. This intricate Trompe-l’oeil effect proved to be a particularly challenging feat to achieve.
Creative Direction: Chia Wei Choong
Photography: Stefan Khoo
Video Director & Editor: Belle Chew
D.O.P: Hoya
Hair Peter Lee
Makeup Clarence Lee, using Chanel Beauty
Photography Assistant Alif
Model An Ning/Mannequin
