Introduction
Robert Goossens was a French goldsmith and jeweller who began working with Gabrielle Chanel in the 1950s. He developed the post-war house’s gilded metal, rock-crystal, chain and faux-pearl jewellery, giving physical form to the contrast between restrained clothing and accumulated ornament.
The workshop continued beyond the founder’s lifetime and became part of Chanel’s craft network through acquisition in 2005. Goossens also worked within a wider field of couture and artistic commissions, but the Chanel relationship established the central vocabulary of his fashion jewellery.
Design ethos
Goossens used goldsmithing techniques to make non-precious and semi-precious materials carry the authority of fine jewellery. Rough crystal, hammered metal and baroque scale were valued for surface and form rather than for conventional hierarchy.
His jewellery was designed in relation to clothing. Long chains, cuffs and sculptural motifs supplied weight, movement and colour against tweed, jersey and black dresses.
Disclaimer
Career history
1953
Robert Goossens began working with Gabrielle Chanel in 1953 and developed the gilded metal, rock-crystal, chain and faux-pearl jewellery of the post-war wardrobe. The collaboration made costume jewellery a structural counterweight to the house’s restrained clothing.
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