Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/94837
Stars in Her Eyes Las Vegas, more than most cities, appreciates anything that dazzles— perhaps that's why the Strip boasts a quartet of Chanel boutiques. This season we take a look at the storied French house's brilliant high-jewelry tribute to the collection Coco debuted 80 years ago. BY LAURIE BROOKINS D 124 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM iamond merchants knew precisely what they were doing in 1932 when they asked to meet (one envisions the moment to be hat-in-hand) with Coco Chanel: Three years into the Great Depression, to say the diamond business had been languishing would be a severe under- statement. Faced with crisis, the gentlemen of the International Diamond Guild were look- ing to a woman to be the savior of fine jewelry. That Chanel had already built a business based on costume jewelry mat- tered little; rather, they were relying upon the dazzling reputation of one of the world's most celebrated women, whose very touch seemed to turn everything into gold—perhaps even, as they hoped, diamonds. "Gabrielle Chanel was very famous at the time, known for creativity and freedom and giving new blood to an industry, and they wanted that," says Benjamin Comar, international director of Chanel Fine Jewelry. "For her, it was a creative challenge, the chance to try something new." Fast-forward to November 6, 1932: The official opening-night party was set for the fol- lowing evening, but at a preview for members of the press, stylish Parisians clamored to crash the event, eager to see what Mademoiselle Chanel had concocted for her first-ever fine-jewelry collection. There, amid her pri- vate rooms at 29 Faubourg Saint-Honoré, guests were indeed met with a visionary collection, which she had dubbed "Bijoux de Diamants." A neck- lace inspired by a comet—from its five-point star to its round-cut diamonds that wrapped around the throat, finishing in a splashy tail—was roundly considered to be the highlight of the forward-thinking collection. When