The Chanel brand team constantly turns to the past, to traditional themes that are often associated with Mademoiselle’s life. She first visited Venice in 1920 after her beloved Boy Capel died in a car accident. Her friends Misia and Josep Maria Sert brought her to the famous city on the water to distract and inspire to live on. Together they walked along San Marco, watching the golden lion shimmering in the sun and the glare of water in the tangled canals.

The creative director of Chanel jewelry Patrice Legero decided to convey the feeling of the first trip to this city. There are 70 pieces of jewelery in the Escale à Venise collection, each of which is reminiscent a piece of Venice.

The first Eblouissante set is inspired by the architecture of Venice. White and pink geometric shapes are reminiscent of palace facades and marble church floors, while baguette-cut diamonds play on the quilted pattern that Gabrielle Chanel loved.

The Sérénissime suite offers a modern interpretation of the Byzantine mosaics of St. Mark’s Cathedral. The plastron necklace is lined with squares of onyx and diamonds and precious smalt of pink, yellow and orange sapphires and spessartines, flanking a 27.09 carat oval-cut orange sapphire surrounded by a shimmering halo of diamonds. A massive ring with a cross of onyx, yellow and orange sapphires and diamonds topped with a magnificent 6.04 carat pink padparadscha sapphire.

Venice can’t be imagined without water, canals, and gondolas. Four sets are responsible for this topic at once. The Volute Vénitienne headset refers to the blue and white plains, the so-called wooden six, to which the gondolas are moored. Only here they are made of lapis lazuli with diamonds and intercept three strands of sautoir made of pearls and yellow gold on both sides. The Volute Marine set is made in the same color scheme, but the jewelers decided to play with the glare on the water of the lagoon and added a lapis lazuli and diamond pendant. The necklace is complemented by earrings and a bracelet with an asymmetrical blue and white mosaic pattern topped with a symbolic comet in yellow gold and a 1carat pear-shaped diamond.

The Volute Croisière headset also has diagonal stripes alternating, like on palins; in the splendid sautoir, the combination of red spinel and diamonds reminds of the intertwining of ropes that tie the gondolas. In a bracelet with a star, the braided mooring lines are closed by an oval diamond weighing 2.13 carats.

Mademoiselle Chanel herself has left mark on the collection; the design of three sets of Isole della Laguna combines camellias, Gabrielle’s favorite flowers, and islands located in the Venetian Lagoon. The Camélia Byzantin necklace recalls medieval mosaics from the island of Torcello. The uneven outlines of the gems give a special beauty to the red carnelian camellia and fire opals with a 10.07-carat yellow diamond pestle.

The Camélia Vénitien was inspired by the work of glass blowers from the island of Murano. They passed on this tradition through rock crystal and yellow gold.

The Spirito di Venezia set is dedicated to the main symbol of the city, its guardian and embodiment of the spirit – the golden lion. Everything came together, because the lion is also the zodiac sign of Gabrielle Chanel. The monochrome version of the Lion Secret necklace features a pair of white gold and diamond lion profiles guarding a 15.55-carat pear-cut diamond. The same pair adorns a flexible diamond link bracelet.

The color was added in a three-strand sautoire, where beads of red spinel and lapis lazuli are held together by two figures of lions with manes of yellow sapphires.

A winged lion strikes the stars in the Constellation Astrale. A lapis lazuli mosaic depicts a star-studded night sky; in the middle of the brightest star shines a 4.47-carat yellow sapphire.