IF PARIS IS THE CAPITAL OF romance, where does a Parisi-enne go to escape heartbreak? In the case of Coco Chanel, she retreated to Venice in 1920 to mourn her longtime love Arthur Edward "Boy" Capel, who had perished in a car accident. There, amid Titian-filled churches, stately palazzi, and the sunbaked Lido, she found a way through grief and toward fresh inspiration. Escale a Venise is an exuberant high-jewelry homage to Mademoiselle Chanel's beloved getaway. The 70-piece collection merges elements from Venetian architectural and cultural tradition with the brand's mainstay motifs; a bib necklace, for example, renders the signature Chanel camellia in a palette of precious gems that mirrors the Byzantine interior of St. Mark's Basilica. The Grand Canal plays muse, too. A trio of pieces-a pendant suspended from a strand of stars, a two-finger ring set with a luminous cultured pearl, a gleaming bracelet-riffs on the blue-and-white mooring poles used for gondolas, with stripes of lapis lazuli and diamonds. More than a century after Chanel's fateful first visit, the collection confirms that her safe harbor remains an inexhaustible source of creativity.
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