Chanel’s Extrait de Camélia collection gets two new styles

Florals are a forever muse.

A subject tirelessly reworked and renewed through time, moulding to whichever discipline — fashion and art to interiors and architectures — and whatever style. It’s something that can be as obscure as a motif hidden in your patterned accessories or as substantial as an emblematic House code.

The Camellia flower is one of the latter. Once an unassuming blossom — it bears no thorns, no fragrance, no extended weeks of blooms — the Camellia, beloved and fervently accessorised by Coco Chanel, has become infamous with the French maison Chanel, assuming its role as an enduring symbol of femininity, grace and elegance.

Chanel ‘Camélia’ fine-jewellery celebrates the floral in a myriad of dazzling, decadent ways: some a simple, gold-dusted openwork design (Pétales de Camélia); others a sprinkling of light-catching diamonds (Bouton de Camélia). However, it is the miniaturised buds dipped in warm 18k rose gold that defines the Extrait de Camélia line.

Two new styles are introduced: Extrait de Camélia Charms, a duo-floral open ring, and Première Extrait de Camélia, Chanel’s signature debut watch, dating back to 1987, with an octagonal case inspired by the Chanel No.5 perfume stopper.

Both designs gesture towards the understated, subtle style of the ‘Extrait’ collection — miniature size; diamond-studded; gold-filled design — but instead of a fixed embellishment, the Camellia is newly reimagined as a inhibited swinging charm, attached to and grazing the edges of both designs.

As a first, the Extrait de Camélia Charms ring is awash in a gleaming 18k yellow gold rendering, while the Première Extrait de Camélia arrives in two variations, albeit subtle in differences: first, a sleek, black- lacquered dial that reaches for modernity, and second, a 26 brilliant-cut diamond- set dial that unapologetically announces shimmering, occasion-led decadence.

(All images: Chanel)

This article first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Hong Kong.