Ever the ex-urchin (she was raised in an orphanage but declined to ever really tell that story), Chanel disdained jewelry that was worn as a sign of a "respectable" lady's wealth or status. Her bogus baubles expressed her love/hate relationship with snob appeal--exaggerating it to the point of subversion.
Amazingly, the jewelry she designed in order to poke fun at status symbols became the ultimate status symbols--and they were gloriously fake!
Chanel's designs played with the tension between artifice and status: the "fake" gems were "real" Chanel.
