http://www.harpersbazaar.com/ukPHOTOGRAPHS: © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED/COURTESY OF VOGUE PARIS/PHOTO W REHBINDER; © COLLECTION CHANEL/ALL RIGHTS RESERVED; © UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/CONTRIBUTOR; CHANEL FINE JEWELLERY, ALL COURTESY OF CHANEL, HARRY CORY WRIGHT, KIM PARKERJEWELLERY
By KIM PARKERTO RUSSI A ,
WITH LOVE
Chanel pays homage to its founder’s
passion for Slavic cultureStep inside the entrance hall of Coco Chanel’s apartment above her
boutique at 31 Rue Cambon, and you’ll catch your reflection in a
Baroque mirror topped by a sculptural double-headed eagle. The
imposing symbol, used by the Russian imperial family since the 15th
century, represents power, empire, ‘and most importantly, Coco’s
love for Dmitri, so I had to include it in my research for this new
collection’, says Chanel’s director of the jewellery-creation studio
Patrice Leguéreau, as he talks me through the maison’s latest high-
jewellery collection, ‘Le Paris Russe de Chanel’.
The ‘Dmitri’ in question is the handsome Grand Duke Dmitri
Pavlovich, a cousin of Tsar Nicholas II, sent into exile after being
implicated in the assassination of Rasputin, and with whom Chanel
began an affair in 1921. It was a liaison that was to have a lasting
effect on her legacy, for it was the Grand Duke who introduced
C h a ne l t o E r ne s t B e a u x , a for me r p e r f u me r t o t he Rom a nov f a m i l y ;
he went on to create her now-legendary fragrances, first and fore-
most No 5, still one of the bestselling
scents of all time. A number of other
Russian émigrés who found sanc-
tuary in Paris after the Bolshevik
Revolution were also par t of Chanel ’s
inner circle. She was a friend and gen-
erous patron to the composer Igor
Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev, the
impresario of the Ballets Russes. And
it was thanks to Chanel’s encourage-
ment that Dmitri’s sister, the Grand
Duchess Maria, set up Kitmir, a work-
shop that supplied the couturière with
embroidery inspired by Slavic folk
dress. Though Chanel never actually
set foot in Russia, she was influenced by its traditional motifs,
resulting in collections that read like love letters to its cultural her-
itage. The centrepiece of her spring show in 1922, for example,
included tunics and blouses, embellished with Kitmir’s work.
It is t his roma ntic ised drea m of Russia t hat ha s prov ided Patr ice
Leguéreau with the heady inspiration for ‘Le Paris Russe de Chanel’.
‘I wanted it to be about what the country meant to Chanel, rather
than anything literal,’ he explains. Thus, the 69-piece col-
lection includes several vibrantly coloured pieces that
evoke the richness of Kitmir’s beading, among them the
‘Blé Maria’ tiara, finely wrought in gold and adorned with
tourmalines, and an enamelled ‘Folklore’ cuff, studded
with tsavorite garnets, while a glittering diamond necklace,
named ‘Sarafane’ after the folk costume, transforms into a
headdress. Dmitri, it is said, bestowed ropes of Romanov
pearls on Chanel, and pearls are used to luminous effect in
a dramatic multi-stranded sautoir, garnished on one side
w ith a sta r in homage to Dmitri ’s a r my meda ls. His milita r y g a rb is
also echoed in the pair of sparkling earrings named ‘Blé Gabrielle’,
which are fringed in gold frogging and have diamond stalks of wheat
in their centres (one of Chanel’s lucky symbols, wheat was also an
emblem of the Russian countryside). The imperial eagle from her
Rue Cambon mirror is present, too, its silhouette rendered in bril-
liants on an ‘Aigle Cambon’ cuff. ‘It’s definitely a more complicated
vision than previous collections I have designed, but I hope it will
be appreciated by real Chanel aficionados, as well as new cust-
omers,’ says Leguéreau. I have no doubt that it will. After all, as
Mademoiselle herself once declared: ‘Everyone should get to know
Slav ic cha r m, to see what it’s about.’Chanel’s apartment,
featuring her Baroque
mirror. Clockwise from
above right: the making of
the ‘Sarafane’ necklace.
The ‘Folklore’ cuff.
Photographs of Coco
Chanel and the Grand
Duke (left), and Igor
Stravinsky (below). The
‘A i g l e C a m b o n ’ c u f fCoco Chanel in- Left: Chanel’s
‘Motif Russe’
bracelet from the
new collection.
Below left: its ‘Blé
Gabrielle’ earrings.
Centre: the ‘Blé
Maria’ tiara