The house of Chanel has always been a pioneer in working with ceramic, embodying their tradition for innovation. First, the maison introduced the sleek and modern material in their J-12 watches in 1999. Soon after, the timepieces were complemented by a jewellery collection – Ultra. It comprised rings and pendants in white gold and ceramic that perfectly matched the J-12 watch. Going further, the maison carried on exploring this material that bore a modern look and had a visually intriguing effect. Ceramic jewellery was created with various signature motifs among which are chains, camelia flowers and now, for the first time, stars and comets. Undoubtedly, Chanel Joaillerie has the widest selection of jewellery with ceramic.
On my visit to view the Cosmique de Chanel collection, I noticed that the black surface of jewels was not just black like we have seen before. This collection had an attractive metallic sheen. Also, the pieces from an earlier capsule collection of ceramic chain links launched in December bore the same effect. I imagine the maison has used some kind of special coating to create such an unusual eye-catching appearance on the ceramic surface. A special 30-second video has been created specially for the launch of the Cosmique de Chanel, featuring shining stars falling from the sky and turning into jewellery pieces as they fall – all to the sound of Marco Fraidscho’s music.
