Chanel's "New Jewels"

Images from here

The "Grenade Cape" shown earlier this week at the Chanel Haute Couture show.

A cape fashioned out of the "gems" that I use to make The Empress Dowager's New Jewels!

I don't know if I should be happy, you know, the great-minds-think-alike thing. Plus I was there waaaay before the revered French fashion house. Well, we (me and all of you who saw enough value in The Empress Dowager's New Jewels to buy them) were there first.

Or be upset because the market might soon be flooded with cheap and nasty made-in-China pieces manufactured using my chosen medium of fabric "gems". Mass-produced and sold at lower-than-low prices that I cannot match because I am a one-girl cottage industry.

And you know what? I'm in the process of making a prototype for a capelet. Have had the idea since I started making The Empress Dowager's New Jewels last year but have not had the time to trial it (this Chanel piece took 700 hours to make) - pals can vouch for me. Now people are going to think that I stole Uncle Karl's idea.