How Much I Paid For My Chanel Brooch Collection

My friends! I hope you are well! Today I want to share my Chanel brooch collection with you all and chat through how much I paid for each piece. Also, it’s well worth remembering that every year Chanel increase their prices, so the sooner you buy a piece of Chanel jewellery, the better because, friends, it’s only going to go up in price… and value. You know what they say about investing… well Chanel jewellery has turned out to be a pretty great investment! Anyway, we will get into that, as well as exactly how much each piece cost and also the quality. Let’s GO!

Chanel Jewellery Price Increase 2020

Chanel have an annual price rise, usually around April, but this year, it’s been rumoured that there have been two price rises. Yep TWO! In one year!!! Anyway, the cheapest brooch I can find is £330, which is actually a pretty fair price, however, this is a brooch I have never seen in store so it is worth mentioning that whilst this brooch might be online, the Chanel website is not shopable, so you would only be able to purchase it in store and in my experience, the jewellery selection in each store is limited and often the cheaper pieces, like £330 brooches get snapped up FAST, truly, finding these cheaper items in store… can be HARD!!!!! The rest of the brooches are anywhere between around £500 and £1200 this Spring / Summer 2020. FYI, if you want to see the prices for the Chanel Coco rings, you can see this post.

My Chanel Brooch Collection

Chanel Pearl CC Brooch: This brooch was bought around 7 years ago from the Chanel boutique in Selfridges. It cost £130 which at the time felt like a LOT, which is crazy as the prices are way higher now. Also when I bought this brooch it came with both gold and silver toned metal, as well as a version with a pearl drop, which was literally £5 more. After 7 years of fairly regular wear, the brooch has all the pearls perfectly in place still, the metal is in great quality and not tarnished and generally looks and feels like the high quality piece of costume jewellery that it did at the time of purchase. Truly, this is one of my greatest fashion investments!

Chanel Baroque Brooch: My mum bought me this brooch for my birthday, so I’m not sure of the price of it. It has since been discontined (as have most of the brooches in my collection) and if I remember correctly, in store around 6/7 years ago, I remember it being around £180. I might be wrong, but that’s what I remember it costing. I’m pretty sure my mum paid more for it (she bought it preloved) and on the pre-loved market it sells for around double it’s original price – around £380-400. It’s another lovely brooch which still looks in great condition even after all these years. The clasp is in good working order, the enamel work is beautiful and the metal is again, untarnished.

Chanel 1994 Gold Tone Button Brooch: I LOVE this button brooch. It’s simple, playful and easy to style up. I love the rich gold tone colour of it and I *think* this one might be gold plated – the newer styles are gold tone, rather than gold plated. It dates back to 1994 and I bought it on the preloved market for around £115. I’m so happy I did as it’s a real favourite in my collection.

Chanel Seashell Brooch: This little brooch is a real cutie! It’s one I only ever wear in summer, but it’s adorable on a teeshirt or cardigan. It is a pin badge style brooch, so it is by far the smallest in size of the five brooches and if I remember rightly, it cost around £150-£200, but I feel like it was closer to around £150-160. I’m usually really good at remembering prices, especially of luxury items, but for some reason, this one escapes me! It’s a cute little brooch for summer and whilst it’s only around 2-3 years old, it still looks in great condition! I love this one a lot!

Chanel Pearl & Crystals Brooch: Finally, this is a brooch my boyfriend bought for me at the Chanel store in Heathrow. It had 20% off because it was bought at duty free, but even with the duty free pricing, it was still around the £550. Which if I’m honest, is too much. I love this brooch but honestly, I’m not sure it was worth £550, let alone more like £750 which is what it would have been full price. Yikes, right!?! That being said I do love the enamelling, the colours and the crystals, but I’m not sure it feels quite as sturdy as some of the other brooches I own. It’s cute and colourful and I do love it, but it’s the one piece of my brooch collection which makes me think…. yikes!!

Are Chanel Brooches Worth It?

YES! Chanel brooches are worth it! They add to every outfit and you can pin them on your coats, jumpers, hats, blazers and wear them alone or layer them up in a cluster. They make every outfit more fabulous in a jiffy! However, I would be careful to make sure you buy them from an authentic source and not to overpay for them. Personally, I’m happy to pay up to around £350 for a Chanel brooch, I could probably be pushed to £400, but I’m struggling to justify the retail prices of £600+. So for me, from here on in, I’m all about buying Chanel brooches (and a lot of other Chanel pieces) on the preloved market. My personal go-to’s are Bonhams (who have some GREAT ones in their next sale!), Chiswick and VC. I’m also going to be looking out for more vintage brooches because I really love the rich gold tones they were producing in the 90’s.

Are brooches back in fashion?

Yes! Brooches are a wonderful accessory to wear! Timeless, elegant and incredibly versatile. They can be worn in multiple ways; on coats, jumpers, hats, even in your hair. They also make wonderful heirlooms.

How can you tell a real Chanel brooch?

Chanel brooches are costume jewellery and are not made of real gold or silver, however, some pre-90’s Chanel jewellery was gold plated. Testing the metal or looking for a hallmark will not prove the authenticity of your Chanel jewellery. Instead you want to look closely at the jewellery, does it look and feel like high quality costume jewellery, is the finish lustrous? Is it heavy in weight, does it have a quality finish? Do the crystals and pearls look high quality? Also, on the back you should look out for a small oval metal plate which will feature the Chanel logo and interlocking C’s, as well as codes like the date the jewellery was created and what seasonal collection it was part of. Between the makers mark and the high quality look, feel and finish, this should denote the authenticity of the jewellery. If in doubt, you can always get the jewellery authenticated too.

How Do You Wear Chanel Brooch?

Fasten it to your jumper at the on your right hand side, below the collar bone
Attach it to your hat, it is especially cute on a beret!
If you are wearing a pussy bow house, attach it to the centre of the bow
Pin it to the collar of your coat
Knot your scarf securely and then pin your brooch to the scarf, make sure that the scarf and brooch are attached very securely so the brooch won’t come loose
If you are wearing a polo neck, attach it to the neck on either the left or right hand side
Wear multiple Chanel brooches and cluster them on the lapel of your blazer

Where To Buy Preloved Chanel Jewellery?

When it comes to buying Preloved Chanel, it’s more important to buy AUTHENTIC Chanel, than cheap Chanel! Remember – It’s not cheap, if it’s not real!!!! So if you are ever in doubt, don’t buy it! My BEST advice, is ALWAYS to buy from a retailer who is trusted and can guarantee it’s authenticity! Personally, I love Vestiaire Collective, because they have constantly changing stock and good prices. But I also really, really, really love buying at Specialist Auction houses like Bonhams and Chiswick Auctions. Fyi, Bonhams have an auction next week and I wrote about Chiswick Auctions in this post.

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Thank you for reading, I’m SO happy to share my chanel brooch collection with you! Please let me know if you have any questions, I’m aways happy to help! Also this post contains affiliate links. You might also like this post on the three best value Chanel bags and why you should buy the Chanel WOC.