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I n the 1920s, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel discovered tweed for the first time through her romance with Hugh
Grosvenor, the second Duke of Westminster, who often wore tweed during his fishing and hunting trips. Chanel quickly became enamoured with the warm, woolly, woven fabric and chose to make it her own—creating one of CHANEL’s most iconic designs in the process. Today, a CHANEL tweed jacket is the universal epitome of sartorial elegance.
In 2020, CHANEL decided, for the first time, to introduce tweed into its jewellery. The first collection featured 45 pieces exceptionally designed to pay homage to the fabric. Now they embark on that journey for the second time with the debut of its newest chapter TWEED DE CHANEL, which was created by Patrice Leguéreau, director of the CHANEL Fine Jewelry Creation studio, and unveiled in London earlier this year.
“This collection is very different from the first collection and has a very different structure,” says Leguéreau. “I had a very clear idea of what I wanted. I wanted to go further in the interpretation by creating a veritable fabric of precious stones that is light and supple.“
The French designer started by observing and admiring tweed’s unique ability to be flexible, soft, fluid, light, and sturdy all at once. Then he began the process of interpreting those details and subtleties into a collection of jewellery—a three-year process that took a high level of craftsmanship and diligence.
“From the beginning we started working on the techniques and the articulation to develop the technical parts, to find fluidity,“ explains Leguéreau. “I studied all the specificities of the fabric and [then] retranslated them [into] jewellery.”
The result? A stunning collection of intricately crafted pieces that includes necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings,
and brooches. And not only are they beautiful, they are also transformational. Specific pieces are designed to be attached or detached from one another to create an entirely new look.
“It is part of CHANEL style to be able to wear jewellery at any moment, any occasion, and to give the freedom to women to wear the jewellery as they want to, which is why some of the pieces can be worn in different ways and have different functions.”
The Tweed Royal necklace for example—which Leguéreau describes as the most complicated piece in the collection—features interchangeable diamonds and a lion head pendant that can be removed to be worn as a brooch.
The level of refinement is easy to observe in each piece, as Leguéreau weaves gold, pearls, and uniquely-sized stones together to recreate the fleecy, textured thickness of tweed.
This collection unveils five new jewellery weaves in
five different colours: Tweed Ruban (inspired by white ribbon), Tweed Camélia (which features Chanel’s favourite flower etched in rose-gold embroideries), Tweed Étoile (an interpretation of the depths of the starry night sky), Tweed Soleil (an homage to the sun), and Tweed Lion (which presents vibrant shades of red, orange, and yellow).
“My idea was to join colours and to create very special and unique tweed universes for each chapter. For me these five [colour stories] are very strong, and they reflect different types of women,” says Leguéreau.
The work could be seen as arduous, but Leguéreau is romantic about the process of creation. “Creativity must be free, and I must feel free when creating each piece,” he says.
With TWEED DE CHANEL, Leguéreau simultaneously reminds us of and reinterprets the precious beauty of tweed. In doing so, he also re-establishes the enduring elegance and timelessness of CHANEL High Jewellery.
Need For Tweed
CHANEL’s newest high jewellery collection revels in the beauty of its most iconic fabric.
By Ebonie Walker
SMAGAZINEOFFICIAL.COM FASHION