Cover Photo: Blé Maria brooch from Le Paris Russe de CHANEL high jewelry collection

“The Russians fascinate me”, once said Gabrielle Chanel. Although she never visited Russia, Mademoiselle Chanel got the opportunity to meet many of the country’s richest and less fortunate who escaped the Russian Revolution and made from Europe, and particularly France and Paris, their home. What’s the reason behind her fascination, you might ask? In fact, when motifs borrowed from old Russian embroiderers became very noticeable, she explained: “It is the Russians who have taught women that it is not dishonorable to work. My grand duchesses worked for me as knitters.”

From the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich whom she loved and his sister the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna who guaranteed the house her exclusive production of embroideries, to her close friends Misia Sert and Prince Koutoussoff, these people kept Russia a living imagination in the designer’s mind. And that’s actually where this high jewelry collection finds its source of inspiration. The two-headed eagle from imperial Russia that adorned a mirror in her apartment at Rue Cambon was reduced to a symbol or an outline that make appearances in many pieces of the collection, whether paired with the iconic camélia or the octagon reminiscent of the mirror’s shape. The colorful exuberance of the Ballets Russes also took part in some of these marvels, celebrating the friendships, passions and adventures of the house’s founder.