Style Edit: Chanel Haute Joaillerie Sport collection celebrates freedom of movement
- The Parisian brand’s collection connects its heritage of celebrating freedom of movement with sporting endeavour and excellence
Of all the aspects of human culture, perhaps none unites us so thoroughly as sport. A celebration of physical and mental achievement, and of the people who push themselves to their very limits, the world of sport shows the finest of the human spirit in action.
A desire to free the female form has been written into Chanel’s DNA ever since the celebrated Parisian maison’s earliest days, when its eponymous founder Gabrielle Chanel sought to push through boundaries with her innovative approach to haute couture. A similar spirit informs the new pieces unveiled by the house in its Haute Joaillerie Sport collection, which celebrate freedom of movement and sporting achievement with a dash of trademark Chanel sophistication.
At the heart of the collection are reinterpretations of classic Chanel motifs according to new, sports-influenced codes. The number 5, which acts the world over as an instant signifier of the maison, has been given a high performance makeover, refashioned in the visual style of a precision timer. The brand’s trademark lion, meanwhile, comes as part of a dramatic coat of arms; its star reimagined as an emblem of victory; and the Chanel logo even finds its way onto the house’s high jewellery for the first time, given a new incarnation as a lightweight, openworked pattern that appears on the inner surface of the necklace and the earring clips.
A range of other similarly playful touches abound throughout the Haute Joaillerie Sport collection, consistently riffing on the much-loved codes of Chanel’s high jewellery, pushing them in innovative directions, while remaining true to the maison’s history. Each piece shows off a Chanel chevron line in a graphic style that instantly summons associations with speed.
Then there are the influences from the world of haute couture: a gold slider with a round head in the shape of a button, for example; a reinterpretation of the drawstrings of a classic sports sweater; and a clasp taken from the Chanel 2.55 bag.