The camera captures everything – light, shadow, movement, emotion. In Hollywood’s golden age, Gabrielle Chanel understood this fundamental truth about cinema and applied it to jewelry design. CHANEL’s latest collection, Reach for the Stars, emerges from this cinematic philosophy that she established, where each piece functions like a carefully choreographed scene designed to interact with light and movement.
The Art of Cinematic Jewelry
Traditional high jewelry often prioritizes static beauty – pieces meant to be admired while the wearer remains still. CHANEL’s new collection operates on different principles entirely. These pieces are designed for motion, for the play of light across faceted surfaces, for the way diamonds catch and scatter illumination as the wearer moves through space.
Patrice Leguéreau and the CHANEL Fine Jewelry Creation Studio describe their vision: “We wanted to create pieces of jewelry that are illuminated by the rays of the sunset and beyond, with those colors blazing across the horizon. Capturing that magical moment between day and night when High Jewelry sparkles on the skin.“
This approach reflects Gabrielle Chanel’s original Hollywood ambitions. She rejected the conventional luxury of her era – the rigid, ostentatious displays that demanded stillness from their wearers. Instead, she championed jewelry that moved with the body, that enhanced rather than constrained, that photographed beautifully under studio lights.
The Chanel High Jewelry collection’s technical innovations focus on articulation and transformation. Many pieces can be reconfigured for different occasions or worn in multiple ways.
THE COMET
Stars first appeared in Gabrielle Chanel’s 1932 “Bijoux de Diamants” collection, which she described as “eternally modern” and associated with the freedom for everyone to believe in their lucky star. The Reach for the Stars collection elongates these celestial forms into comet shapes that suggest movement and trajectory across the sky.
The Blazing Star set extends these stellar forms with fine lines of gold and onyx, creating pieces that seem to trail light in their wake. The power of scintillating diamonds is accentuated through this elongated design, while the Dazzling Star choker incorporates two diamond pendants at its clasp that create motion with every turn of the head.
Between-the-fingers rings transform into comprehensive hand jewelry, while earrings become celebrations of weightless elegance. The Dreams Come True necklace takes inspiration from couture dress necklines, featuring diamond arrangements against dramatic black settings that echo the structured gowns Gabrielle Chanel designed for Hollywood.
The Twin Stars necklace demonstrates remarkable versatility, functioning as a single statement piece that separates into four distinct items: two bracelets and two shorter necklaces. One features diamond-studded comet motifs, while the other showcases five rows of tanzanite beads, allowing the wearer to choose between celestial fire and oceanic depth.
The Chanel High Jewelry collection’s most philosophical piece, The Silhouette Clock, presents Gabrielle Chanel herself gazing toward the stars. Standing on a black jade base featuring the octagonal dial, she appears in simple attire – braid-trimmed jacket and pants, hands in pockets – looking upward toward infinite possibilities as “infinite promises of eternity.”
THE WINGS
“If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing,” Gabrielle Chanel declared in 1938. This philosophical motto receives its first high jewelry interpretation through pieces that prioritize articulation, comfort, and perfect positioning. These openwork jewels are crafted with precise attention to flexibility, designed to be as light as floating lace that lands delicately on the skin.
The Wings of Chanel necklace exemplifies this approach with diamond wings that unfold to wrap around the neck, centered on an exceptional 19.55-carat Padparadscha sapphire whose color balances pink and orange tones. The piece includes a long detachable pendant that can be worn as a bracelet, while the accompanying ring features an 8.15-carat D-Flawless oval-cut diamond positioned to barely touch the hand.
The Free Move necklace demonstrates how wing motifs can emphasize different aspects of the wearer’s silhouette – the delicacy of a bare back or the elegance of a neckline – depending on positioning. These aerial wings breathe with the body, accompanying curves and movements rather than restricting them.
The Pretty Wings asymmetrical earrings create different profiles from every viewing angle, while the Full Swing tiara repositions the traditional crown at the forehead’s base rather than the head’s crown, gracefully framing the face instead of crowning it.
Color becomes crucial in these winged designs, inspired by the infinite palette of the sky’s golden hour and glowing dusk. The Pink Hour necklace features luminous pink sapphires that evoke early morning light. The Sunny Days brooch combines bright yellow, cognac, and orange diamonds for midday brilliance. The After Midnight set transitions into deep blue through a subtle gradation of tanzanite beads, suggesting the shift from golden hour into star-filled darkness.
THE LION
As Gabrielle Chanel’s astrological sign and a recurring motif on her suit buttons, the lion became CHANEL Haute Joaillerie’s official emblem in 2012. The symbol represents both power and elegance, and the Reach for the Stars collection presents two distinct interpretations of this majestic creature.
The first shows the feline’s head facing forward, its mane surrounded by stars to form a sparkling medallion. The lion imposes its majesty in the Strong as a Lion set, crafted in white gold and set with a cloud of white and yellow diamonds. The more stylized Be the One set presents the same concept in yellow gold, surrounded by an aura of diamonds that creates a different energy entirely.
The second interpretation depicts the lion in profile, perfectly illustrating Gabrielle Chanel’s desire to “express, in a simple way, a personality’s physical aura.” This sculptural approach captures the feline’s essential character through form rather than decoration.
The Embrace your Destiny necklace features an ultra-light cascade with two lion profiles and an impressive pairing of pear-shaped diamonds. The glittering cascade seems to barely touch the skin while making a powerful visual statement. Meanwhile, the Sky is the Limit set presents winged lions – a fusion of two collection symbols – that embrace the neck with gentle authority, creating pieces that are both powerful and graceful.
A New Language of Glamour
What emerges from this collection is a redefinition of high jewelry’s purpose and possibilities. Rather than serving as static displays of wealth or status, the Chanel High Jewelry pieces function as extensions of the wearer’s personality and movement. They challenge established categories by blurring lines between jewelry and couture, between traditional and contemporary, between constraint and freedom.
This reflects Gabrielle Chanel’s original vision of glamour as something active rather than passive, something that enhances the wearer’s natural qualities rather than masking them.
