During the early 20th century, at the time of Picasso and Stravinsky, a group of creative visionaries formed the Cafe Society. This group of artists, writers, intellectuals, musicians and grande dames was shaped by a desire to confront reality while basking in bohemian, cutting-edge convictions, ways of life and extravagant art events. It was a group that cultivated talent and one in which Gabrielle Chanel partook.
Gabrielle Chanel’s own life was model for independent and avant-garde ways. There, at her 31 Rue Cambon apartment, she hosted regulars from Jean Hugo’s art studio at the Palais Royal, as well as others from the Saturday Night dinners at Darius Milhaud’s, Eric Satie, Jean Cocteau and many others, were among those that she frequently entertained. “Just their sheer presence was enough to signal the break with 1914, the past was revoked and the road wide open to tomorrow,” wrote Paul Morand.
As Diaghilev’s benefactor, Chanel designed the costumes for Le Train Bleu, while the program and backdrop of the ballet were conceived by Picasso. “Gabrielle Chanel is the living symbol of all luxury and all forms of extravagance of the Epoque,” stated George Auric. “Firstly, she is beautiful. More than just beautiful, she is glorious with infinite charm.”
The Cafe Society High Jewelry collection commemorates this wonderful artistic age through extravagant jewelry creations. The collection takes a stand against all limitations of reality and reproductions of the past, and takes a road towards the element of chance and a formative grace inspired by dreams. It is a collection that gives form to Gabrielle Chanel’s incessant quest for beauty.
So befitting was it that the collection was staged at the Theatre de Champs-Elysees in Paris, precisely the spot where Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ was performed. From sautoirs, plastrons, brooches, necklaces and head pieces, these creations recall the wake of the roaring twenties and graphic abstraction. Displayed in a manner that evokes a choreographed dance, the pieces are at once charming, otherworldly, sensual and yet controlled.
The “Broadway” set traces a pure line of squares, rectangles and diamond shapes in a stroke of onyx. The “Symphony” theme arranges a sparkling composition of light, around a play of different diamond cuts. Among the hits of the collection are the “Charleston” pieces which are choreographed in a syncopating and binary rhythm that alternates square medallions and fluid fringes of diamonds.
The above are among but a few of the sets of this striking new collection that tells of the creative audacity of the much spirited age of the early 20th century.
For more information, visit www.chanel.com
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