Style Edit: Chanel Haute Joaillerie Sport collection celebrates freedom and movement

Of all the aspects of human culture, perhaps none unites us so thoroughly as sport. A celebration of physical and mental achievement, and of the people who push themselves to their very limits, the world of sport shows the finest of the human spirit in action.

A desire to free the female form has been written into Chanel’s DNA ever since the celebrated Parisian maison’s earliest days, when its eponymous founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel sought to push through boundaries with her innovative approach to haute couture. A similar spirit informs the new pieces unveiled by the house in its Haute Joaillerie Sport collection, which celebrate freedom, movement and sporting achievement with a dash of trademark Chanel sophistication.

The new 80-piece collection includes a necklace, earrings and two rings, one of them a solitaire ring with a fully transformable design. All of the pieces are set with magnificent Kashmir sapphires, and each blend the unmistakable glamour of Chanel with a fresh emphasis on sporty styling.

At the heart of the collection are reinterpretations of classic Chanel motifs according to new, sports-influenced codes. The number 5, which acts the world over as an instant signifier of the maison, has been given a high performance makeover, refashioned in the visual style of a precision timer. The brand’s trademark lion, meanwhile, comes as part of a dramatic coat of arms; its star reimagined as an emblem of victory; and the Chanel logo even finds its way onto the house’s high jewellery for the first time, given a new incarnation as a lightweight, openworked pattern that appears on the inner surface of the necklace and the earring clips.

A range of other similarly playful touches abound throughout the Haute Joaillerie Sport collection, consistently riffing on the much-loved codes of Chanel’s high jewellery, pushing them in innovative directions, while remaining true to the maison’s history. Each piece shows off a Chanel chevron line in a graphic style that instantly summons associations with speed.

Then there are the influences from the world of haute couture: a gold slider with a round head in the shape of a button, for example; a reinterpretation of the drawstrings of a classic sports sweater; and a clasp taken from the Chanel 2.55 bag.

The five sapphires that form the collection’s centrepieces are the finest ever to appear in a Chanel collection. The stone on the necklace weighs in at 10.15 carats, the pair adorning the earrings at 4.40 carats and 4.77 carats, and the gems on the two rings at 6.36 carats and 17.18 carats.

They are enhanced by the dramatic lines of custom-cut rubies, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds that accompany them, graduated for a sleek look that accentuates their brilliance and highlights their contrasting colours. Showcasing stunning gemstones alongside sporty styling, the Haute Joaillerie Sport collection exemplifies the best of Chanel tradition, reinterpreted for now.