The Chanel Signes & Symboles high jewellery collection arrives as an argument for the emblem as the highest form of design language, an 85-piece offering that moves through four of the house’s most enduring symbols with the kind of quiet authority that only comes from having very little left to prove. Structured around the Camellia, the Star, the Sun, and the Lion, the collection draws on Gabrielle Chanel’s personal history, her travels, her memories, and the specific quality of attention she brought to the objects and ideas that moved her.
Four Symbols, One Philosophy
Dividing a high jewellery collection into chapters is not in itself unusual. What distinguishes the Chanel Signes & Symboles high jewellery approach is the rigour with which each symbol is treated as a complete world rather than a decorative motif. The Camellia, long the house’s most recognisable flower, sits alongside the celestial geometry of the Star and the Sun, and the astrological weight of the Lion, Gabrielle Chanel’s own birth sign. Together they map something closer to a personal cosmology than a seasonal theme.
The collection is rooted in Coco Chanel’s belief that creation is an act of freedom. Reinterpreted through a contemporary lens, that philosophy manifests here in the tension between opulent form and geometric precision: stones set with an almost architectural exactness, pieces that feel considered rather than merely lavish.
The colour palette is built around what the house calls the ‘precious four’ gemstones: sapphire, ruby, emerald and diamond. Bold and unapologetic, the combination reflects the founder’s own approach to colour in dress, her instinct that restraint and intensity are not opposites but the same impulse applied differently. Against white gold and platinum settings, these stones read with the clarity of a signal rather than the noise of excess.
The Editorial Eye Behind the Images
For 10 Magazine, the collection is the subject of a dedicated shoot in Issue 77, themed FUTURE, LEGACY, HERITAGE, which reaches newsstands on 18 September, accompanied by the magazine’s watches and jewellery supplement. The images were made by photographer Rob Rusling, working under the creative direction of Sophia Neophitou, with text by Bella Koopman.
Models Dahan Phuong Oanh, represented by Women Management, and Naomi Apajok, at Select Model Management, carry the jewellery through the shoot. Hair was by Hiroshi Matsushita using Oribe Hair Care; make-up by Andrew Gallimore, working with the Coco Mademoiselle Make-up Collection and No1 de Chanel Revitalizing Body Serum-in-Mist by Chanel. Manicurist Sophie Adam at Calliste Agency, digital operator Manon Clavelier, and photographer’s assistants Cameron Koskas and Enora Portier complete the production team, with fashion assistant Georgia Edwards, casting by Six Wolves, and production by Zac Apostolou.
On the cover, Naomi wears the Symbole Emblématique ring in 18k white gold and platinum with sapphire and diamonds by Chanel High Jewellery, a single piece that concentrates the collection’s logic into one object: a precise geometric form, the cold fire of white stones against coloured ones, and a symbol worn as though it were always meant to be there.
Issue 77 of 10 Magazine is available to pre-order now ahead of its 18 September release.
