CHANEL – THE CAFE SOCIETY COLLECTION
2015-05-18Chanel’s latest fine jewellery collection, Café Society, collates art deco and geometric mosaics that abounded Coco Chanel’s social set.
From flamboyant balls and cruises to extravagant parties held in elegant Paris hotels or fairy tale Venetian palazzi, the exclusive circles of the cafe society drew together aristocrats, millionaires, artists, couturiers, choreographers and musicians in a glittering whirl of fashion and frivolity, opulence and ostentation. Yet this cosmopolitan set was also lavish in the commissions it showered upon some of the greatest creative talents of the early 20th century.
The villas and yachts that acted as backdrops to the cafe society’s sumptuous parties were decorated by the most daring artists, its members sported the creations of up-and-coming couture and jewellery designers and this sophisticated, sometimes avant-garde, lifestyle, was captured by celebrated photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst and Richard Avedon.
A world in which fantasy and imagination mingled with thoroughbred elegance and beauty, the cafe society nurtured some of the most original and diverse talents of the last century including Cristobal Balenciaga and Elsa Schiaparelli, Edith Sitwell and Noel Coward, Tamara de Lempicka and Cole Porter, as well as the dancers of the Ballets Russes. Of course Gabrielle Chanel was a considered member this group – amongst other influences she designed costumes for Serge Diaghilev’s ‘Le Train Bleu’ with the ballet.
Photography – Sarah Moon
