It was in 1921 that Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and the legendary perfumer Ernest Beaux composed N°5, the first “perfume for women with the scent of a woman.” To celebrate its 100th year, Patrice Leguéreau, Director of the Chanel Fine Jewellery Creation Studio, has imagined the “Collection N°5,” the first High Jewellery collection ever to be dedicated to a perfume.
Collection N°5 comprises 123 extraordinary high jewellery pieces that express the different facets of the perfume, from the bottle to the sillage. With its hundred years of fame, only a perfume as mysterious and iconic as N°5 could inspire a high jewellery collection.
When Coco introduced the N°5 to the world, it caused a commotion – Its fragrance was fresh and modern, its bottle was revolutionary, and its name a mystery. Then in 1932, Mademoiselle Coco shattered the codes of French High Jewellery with her one and only collection in platinum and diamonds. These “Bijoux de Diamants” introduced new ways of wearing and took jewellery into another realm… that of allure. Now, in 2021, Patrice Leguéreau has decided to bring these two domains together with the Collection N°5.
He says, “Gabrielle Chanel approached these two universes with the same visionary values, focusing on audacity and the quest for excellence. I wanted to rediscover that creative gesture with this collection, which has been conceived like a journey through the meanderings of the N°5 perfume’s soul, from the architecture of the bottle to the olfactive explosion of the fragrance.”
The zenith of this 123 piece collection is the extraordinary 55.55 necklace that expresses all the codes of the fragrance, which radiate through an exceptional gemstone crafted in its honour, a 55.55-carat custom-cut diamond.
“This is an unprecedented approach,” observes Leguéreau. “We started with a rough diamond that we had cut, not to make the biggest stone possible, but to obtain a perfect octagonal diamond weighing 55.55 carats.”
The harmonious shape, in an emerald cut, the symbolic weight of 55.55 carats, the D Flawless quality of this stone and the 18-carat white gold bezel set with 104 round diamonds and 42 baguette diamonds testify to Chanel’s perfectionism and exceptional levels of creation and technical mastery.
The profile of the stopper, the silhouette of the bottle, the fastener shaped like the lucky number, and the cascading of pear-shaped diamonds in different sizes, cut one by one, mould this piece into an ultimate tribute to the perfume.
Figurative as much as it is abstract, the 55.55 necklace goes further than an exercise in style. It symbolizes the embrace between the spirit of the N°5 perfume and the most exceptional jewellery making.
The reckless is priceless not only in its heritage but in the literal sense as well. This is because, while other 122 pieces in the collection will be made available for sale, Chanel has chosen to keep the necklace 55.55 in its Patrimoine. Thus, this extraordinary piece will “forever be a part of the history of Chanel’s High Jewelry.”