HEAVENLY BODIES

When Gabrielle Chanel unveiled the first high jewellery collection some 90 years ago, it was unlike anything the world had seen before. With this same spirit of audacity, freedom and femininity, the maison reinterprets her celestial creations for its 1932 high jewellery collection 

- Annabel Tan

The year 1932 was an extremely dark one around the world, a period where most countries were fraught with economic hardships brought on by the Great Depression. The decade‑long economic downturn that began in the US was the longest and most severe one in modern history, collapsing consumer demand and causing mass unemployment as well as severe increases in poverty and inflation; the overall outlook was grim.

In France, like everywhere else in the world, morale was low and in the midst of the slump, there seemed to be no end in sight. However, it is from the darkness that the strength of the human spirit often emerges. From that year on, a series of surprising events unfolded, providing beacons of hope and encouragement to the country, from the long‑awaited launch of the glorious ocean liner SS Normandie, which was witnessed by 200,000 people, to the premiere of the opera Un Jardin sur l’Oronte at the gilded Opéra Garnier in Paris and the founding of the first all‑French jazz group, Quintette du Hot Club de France, whose energetic rhythms resonated globally.

ROARING REVIVAL 

While all were significant, uplifting moments in history, one in particular has had a continual impact and influence that persists today—and it came about when the London Diamond Corporation made the inspiring choice of approaching Gabrielle Chanel to help boost the struggling diamond market with her creativity and vision.