Europa Star Jewellery: Can you introduce yourself?
Coco Crush: I’m Coco, Coco Crush.
Where does your name come from?
I share my first name with one of the grandes dames of fashion: Gabrielle Chanel, aka Coco. My surname comes from the technique of engraving and pressing—crushing, if you like—the quilted design into the gold. Not forgetting that a lot of people have a crush on me!
What’s your job?
I’m an embellishment. And don’t go telling me this isn’t a useful occupation. That would be an error of judgement. When a woman wears me on her throat, her finger, her earlobes, at the crook of her wrist, precisely where her pulse beats, she feels supported, empowered, elevated by beauty and light.
What qualifications do you need?
Flexibility and rigour: qualities I’ve inherited from the woman whose name I share. She was a style icon and a brilliant entrepreneur. Frankly, what choice did she have? When you’re a woman, born penniless in the late 1800s, the future is anything but bright. It took grit and determination, an iron will (or should I say gold?) to reach the pinnacle of success the way she did. As for flexibility, well, that was a given. Coco Chanel wasted no time in liberating women from their rigid corsets to give them newfound freedom of movement, thanks to innovative designs in materials such as jersey, at that time unthinkable in women’s couture.
What about you? What do you like to wear?
Nothing. Others wear me: women who cherish their freedom and want jewellery that moves with them as they dance their way through life. I’ll leave rigid thinking to others…
When were you born?
That’s an indiscreet question. Age has no hold on me. I belong to yesterday, today and tomorrow.
If I might insist…
Fine, but try and keep up as it’s rather complicated. Officially, I was born in 2015 but in reality I was born much earlier, in 1906 when Gabrielle Chanel saw quilted horse blankets at the home of her then lover, Etienne Balsan, a stable owner and the son of a wealthy family. I was born again in 1955 when she imagined a leather bag with the famous matelassé quilting: the 2.55. Then in 2015 I made my first appearance, created from incisions sculpted into gold. And here I am, born again in 2026. Jewellers have given me a new fluid form with interlocking elements that recreate my quilted design, finished with a sliding clasp so I adjust perfectly around the neck. Like a luminous ray of golden beige, yellow gold, white gold or flecked with diamonds.
Beige is an unusual colour for gold. Where does that come from?
Beige was one of Coco Chanel’s favourite shades. The colour of wet sand, it’s said that one of her friends, the artist Paul César Helleu, suggested it to her while walking on the beach in Deauville, in 1912. Coco—she wouldn’t mind my calling her that—made her mark with a palette of just three colours: black, white and beige. When I was born, in 2015, Maison Chanel came up with the idea of using beige gold, which is warmer than white gold and has a softer glow than yellow gold. A shade that beautifully complements the House’s clothes. Don’t ask me what it’s made of. The composition of this exclusive, proprietary alloy remains a closely guarded secret.
Earlier in the conversation, you said you wanted to empower women. How does jewellery make a woman feel more powerful?
You only need imagine where I originate. I’m made from gold, a metal formed among the stars, amidst supernovae, delivered to Earth by the millions of asteroids that have bombarded our planet over billions of years. Once extracted, I undergo trial by fire before being forced into a given shape. You wouldn’t believe everything I endure before sitting close to a woman’s skin. All of which makes me stronger, and this is the strength I convey to whoever wears me. Oh, and don’t forget the significance of jewellery, which has always held countless meanings, whether a sign of belonging, a symbol of power or wealth, a messenger, a witness or a legacy. Jewellery is so much more than simply adornment.
Do you ever dream?
Of course I do! Like anything with a soul. My dream is to sparkle and for whoever wears me to sparkle, too. Women and men: I love the thought of grazing a man’s neck. Still, my dearest wish is to live life to the full, to dazzle by day, or by night, not spend my time shut away in a jewellery box or a safe. Although you could say my greatest wish has already come true: to scatter seeds of beauty.
