Tweed De Chanel, ıs an Ode to the Maıson’s Most Coveted Fabrıc
Chanel’s history with tweed goes way back. The house’s founder, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel is said to have borrowed her then-lover, the Duke of Westminster’s tweed jackets back in the 1920s, and reinterpreted the material into her collections. The warm, woolly fabric, which was woven into countless patterns by the Scots was redesigned by Chanel, and then used by the house countless times over the next century.
It was in 2020 that tweed first entered the world of Chanel jewellery. Leguéreau designed a collection of 45 pieces devoted entirely to the fabric, and it was such a success that he has looked to it again. Embracing the magic of tweed for the second time, he has designed 63 new high jewellery pieces, all inspired by tweed. “I wanted to go further in the interpretation by creating a veritable fabric of precious stones that is light and supple.”
The collection features five new tweed jewellery weaves, in five different colours and adorned with five icons that were dear to Gabrielle Chanel: the white ribbon, the pink camellia, the comet on a blue background, the yellow sun and the lion highlighted with flashes of red.
“The idea was to penetrate more deeply into the material, to zoom in on the detail. And to enrich this founding theme of the house with even more precious design and craftsmanship. I wanted to weave a tweed from precious stones, to create bolder shapes, to compose a unique story with every piece in the collection.”
Tweed Royal is the centrepiece of this collection, and uses diamonds and rubies to set a distinctive lion motif. The necklace, with a yellow gold weave of the plastron necklace is set with diamonds and a magnificent ensemble of rubies. The lion’s head at its centre can be worn as a brooch or as a necklace on the plastron. These pieces are bold, decadent and fearless. Leguéreau mentions that his artisans took almost two years to make this piece. “It is incredibly difficult to sketch an idea and then make that come to life, the jewelers techniques are incredibly intricate and crafted with precision and consideration.”
