A piece of jewellery by her seems to be like a spiral which shapes around the body. Do you remember the set of five golden rings from Nicolas Ghesquière’s final collection for Balenciaga? Did you add them to the on-line store whishlist because you were so in love with them? Well, in reality, you were in love with Charlotte Chesnais already back then. Spending nearly a decade at the house, she appeared to be the main jewellery designer there by coincidence. “Nicolas wanted some pieces for his Les Parisiennes collection, and there was no one at the time doing jewelry in the atelier,” Chesnais recalls. She left Balenciaga just after Ghesquière did. “I had lost my master,” she explains, but not before debuting the “bow” bracelets that have since become an Alexander Wang signature. Later on, Chesnais worked for Julien Dossena at Paco Rabanne (the last season bracelets are also by HER) and designed the chain mail bags. And now, Charlotte Chesnais is here to present herself in the truest form, with her own namesake line. Inspired by the sculptural work of Constantin Brancusi and Alberto Giacometti, her eponymous collection is composed of metal pieces that look as if made of liquid – cuffs coil up the hand; circular earrings orbit the lobes. “Each one is a beautiful object—even just sitting on a table,” she says. “That’s my interpretation of timeless.”

Constantin Brancusi

Balenciaga SS13