Celebrating the redesign of its fine watch and jewellery division’s Parisian home, @chanelofficial has returned to the cocktail piece that started it all – both named and shaped all-too appropriately. The 2/3 cover for 1010, in the latest issue of Port. Full story in bio, extract below – "‘Première’: the first; the most exclusive; the female director of an atelier. Chanel’s late, great artistic director Jacques Helleu must have had confidence in his creation, the first-ever watch to bear the Maison’s name, in order to choose a moniker with such power. “I fought to make a design that was strong, that was unique, that – more than just launching a single collection – would become an eternal reference,” he said at the time. And it certainly was unique. It’s easy to forget but back in 1987, women’s watches, as in watches designed specifically for women rather than downsized men’s watches, didn’t really exist. The fashion landscape was also not one into which a timepiece like the Première should have been launched. This was the 1980s. Ostentation was the name of the fashion game; minimalism meant maybe taking out your shoulder pads. However, the Chanel catwalks tell a slightly different story. In 1983, Karl Lagerfeld joined a business in need of a revamp, having become a brand that, in Lagerfeld’s words, was only worn by “Parisian doctors’ wives”. Charged with updating its look but not to alter its character, he went back to the archives, reviving the use of wool jersey for suits, bringing back the braid-edged suit, but subtly altering its proportions, bringing those recognisable elements of iconograph – the camelia, the double C motif, the chains – into the catwalk, where they hadn’t been before. This was restrained ostentation, “modern and chic-sexy, not Las Vegas sexy,” as Lagerfeld described it." Design @astridstavro & @alessandromolent. Words Laura McCreddie-Doak, photography @phildunlopstudio, creative and set design @serenekhan