It’s no longer just Fashion Weeks and exhibitions that go on tour around the globe – it’s pieces of designer couture. And it’s definitely a case of look, don’t touch.
Chanel is sending some of their most prized haute jewellery to Sydney, but they won’t be available to purchase: the nine pieces will simply be on display at the brand’s Pitt St store.
Hardly a matter for comment, you might think – but these are no ordinary baubles.
The Chanel haute jewellery line is one of the world’s most luxurious: since Coco Chanel began mixing fake and real gems in her taste-making ensembles in 1932, the brand’s high-end creations have been part of a long legacy.
And, like all good jewellery brands – think Cartier’s panther and Tiffany’s heart necklaces – Chanel has its own unique set of iconography. Chanel herself lived in a nunnery as a child, and was inspired by the Catholic jewelled crosses, but the label’s jewellery also features the white camellia and the famous interlocking C’s.
The nine pieces coming to Australia are another one of Chanel’s favourite symbols: the feather. It had a strong place in the brand’s first ever jewellery show in Paris nearly a century ago, and has been resurrected for the Plume collection.
So what’s on show? Don’t expect rigid feather shapes with angles and neat lines here: these are fluid pieces with uneven barbs and asymmetrical shapes.
There are brooches, earrings, necklaces and rings inspired by the feather shape, all of which are covered in white diamonds – Liz Taylor would approve.
As to why it’s coming to Sydney: increasingly, big-name luxury brands are reaching out to customers with displays of couture craft. After years of restricting themselves to ad campaigns and word of mouth, it’s now become fashionable for the Diors and Chanels of the world to show off a little.
Hence Hermes sending its craftsmen to the Museum of Contemporary Art to demonstrate how one makes a signature Hermes scarf this last week, and Jean Paul Gaultier accompanying a retrospective of his couture from country to country.
Couture is becoming, if not more accessible, then definitely less secretive: the workmanship behind pieces such as these Chanel jewels is now in the spotlight. We’d love to see a Chanel jeweller piecing one of these together, but we know that’s unlikely.
If you want to see the Chanel pieces, you’d better be quick: they’ll only be on display on Pitt St until October 10.
Image: The Plume Collection.