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her tenacious desire to shield the fragility that lay beneath—could be traced to her astrological sign, she said. "I was born under the sign of Leo," Chanel once explained (she was born August 19, 1883). "I am a Leo and, like a lion, I use my claws to prevent people from doing me harm, but, believe me, I suffer more from scratching than from being scratched." Although Chanel transformed many items into icons—her favorite flower, the perfectly symmetrical, pure-white camellia, for example, or the number five, which she considered lucky—perhaps it's telling that she rarely introduced her astrological symbol into her collections. (A lion's head in gold sometimes adorned the buttons of haute couture jackets, but she demurred from placing the animal on an equal footing with more conspicuous iconography.) For the woman who injected so many of her personal desires into her designs, was the lion perhaps too personal? "I think so, because it also meant more than her astrological sign," Comar says. "We have come to think of it as being key to her rebirth." Venice, 1920: Coco Chanel arrives in the city long known as La Serenissima, "the most serene," her spirit in need of peace. She has come to the Italian coastal town to escape: In December 1919, the man widely known to be the love of her life, the polo player Arthur "Boy" Capel, was killed in an auto accident. The bereft Chanel sought solace in Venice yet soon found herself entranced by its abundance of Byzantine art, the gilt detailing splashed across its architecture—and the bronze winged lion that sits atop a tall granite column in the Piazza San Marco. "She had come to Venice because she was devastated," Comar says, "and soon she found herself inspired." Not unlike haute couture, high jewelry is often equal parts design laboratory and showcase for the pinnacle of handcraft, resulting in dazzling, often one-of-a-kind ornamentation. On the surface, Sous le Signe du Lion—informally dubbed Leo—is a terrific symbol of the duality of the woman who inspired it, brilliant jewels whose details could influence and even permeate the label's more affordable aspects. CLOCKWISE The lion and the designs seen here will do just that, FROM TOP: The diamond Lion according to Chanel's top executives. "Elements like Mosaïque the camellia or two-tone shoes have become synonynecklace; a Lion Royal piece mous with Chanel, but more than all of those, the lion being crafted in was perhaps most personally connected to her," says the workshop; a close-up of the Barbara Cirkva, president of Chanel's fashion diviexquisite Collier sion. "We see this as an element that will work its way Lion Talisman pendant; the into the collection for many years to come." Lion Talisman Leo has been two years in the making (a trio of capbracelet. sule pieces appeared in last year's commemorative 1932 high-jewelry collection), and Comar notes that this latest inspiration sparked conversations that had never occurred in the Paris ateliers where Chanel jewelry, of both the high and fine varieties, is crafted. "The lion's face presented its own unique set of challenges," he explains. "If there were too many hard edges, his face became like RoboCop, very roboticlooking. Too few edges and there was no character to his face. In every piece, this had to be considered very carefully." Comar points to pieces such as the Lion Céleste brooch in white gold and diamonds, with one paw perched on a globe, which is notable for its innovative openwork, allowing it to still feel light and easy to wear—principles that Chanel herself always demanded, he says. "Diamonds are not 132 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 130-133_V_Feat_Chanel_Dec13.indd 132 11/19/13 9:54 AM