The French brand recently unveiled a new fine jewelry collection. Coco avant Chanel focuses on two signature elements of Chanel’s style: lace and ribbon which the young Gabrielle used to embellish her boaters.

Author By Isabelle Guignet

The collection features 11 pieces named after elegant women who influenced Gabrielle Chanel’s life and brings together morganite diamonds, pearls, spinels, moonstones and Padparadscha sapphires.

Gabrielle a.k.a. Coco wanted to cover up her poor background and create her own story so she always had a taste for revolution. She had the idea to transform womenswear by shortening dresses, freeing the waist and cropping hair.

Antoinette, Suzanne, Jeanne…

These women influenced Gabrielle Chanel, the orphan who grew up in a convent, in one way or another. Gabrielle now pays tribute to these 11 women with jewelry that blends gold and gemstones with lace and ribbon in subtle shades ranging from pink to grey. The bejewelled ribbon is completely free, untied, draped or rolled in dreamy curls trimmed with diamonds. Lace is stylised and printed with camellias, birds and flowers.

The collection is a stylish depiction of the quest for freedom, the drive for austerity and desire for lightness that Gabrielle Chanel has always deemed vital.