Step into the new Chanel fine jewellery and watch boutique in Takashimaya Shopping Centre and you could be forgiven for thinking the recession never happened.

Everything in the store - from the posh tweed sofas and lacquered screens in the private viewing lounge for VIP customers to the handpainted wallpaper in the main floor area - whispers luxe.

There is a fireplace made of marble and crystal and the store is bathed in a soothing, amber-hued light filtered through chandeliers created for Chanel by exclusive Parisian artisan jeweller Goosens.

Opened last month, this is Chanel's first South-east Asian boutique that specialises in watches and haute jewellery. The decor in the

1,000 sq ft premises is inspired by the Parisian apartment of brand founder Coco Chanel and designed by New York-based architect Peter Marino.

It is the latest of 44 such boutiques around the world operated by the luxury label.

Chanel's fine jewellery division was launched 16 years ago and the current recession, it seems, is not putting a stop to its expansion plans.

In a phone interview with Urban two weeks ago, Benjamin Comar, international director of Chanel Fine Jewellery, said the brand plans to continue opening such boutiques at the rate of six to eight stores a year in markets like Russia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

You get the sense that Coco herself would have approved of the plans.

It was in 1932, amid the Great Depression, that she designed her first fine jewellery collection at the invitation of Paris' International Guild of Diamond Merchants, which wanted to drum up publicity for the industry during the tough times. Chanel became the first couturier - and woman - to design a fine jewellery collection.

Named the Bijoux de Diamants, her collection featured stylistic motifs such as the star and the ribbon. These elements remain present in current pieces such as the Fil de Comete necklace and the Ruban necklace.

This echoes the strategy in Chanel's beauty and fashion divisions, where the square-cut Chanel No. 5 bottle and the quilted 2.55 bag - both groundbreaking designs when they were launched in 1921 and 1929 respectively - have been marketed as classic, classy staples for the Chanel woman.

The eclectic Coco Chanel was also famous for loving costume jewellery. However, do not expect styles with casual irreverence and rapid turnover at the new, specialised Singapore boutique.

Its gems and watches are priced from around $2,300 for a single-tier ceramic and white gold ring from the Ultra collection to millions for a customised piece, as befits heirloom pieces that are meant to be discreet, tasteful and versatile classics.

'We work a lot on wearability,' said Comar. 'Chanel fine jewellery is not ostentatious. It can be worn during the day and at night, in line with how women live today. You can wear it like a second skin - which is good for the mood in today's world.'

Chanel has not been totally immune from that 'mood' - the company joined a slew of downsizing fashion labels when it announced the elimination of 200 jobs in December last year.

Still, the opening of the Singapore store signals that growth is still on the cards.

The store here is meant as an inroad into

South-east Asia, said Comar. With 16 stores already in China, Japan and Korea, Singapore is a 'good link' to the region's ultra wealthy from countries such as Indonesia and Thailand.

This emerging market strategy has also been adopted by luxury conglomerate LVMH, whose chairman Bernaud Arnault recently told the Wall Street Journal: 'Every time there's been a crisis, we've gained market share.'

A recent report from management consultancy Bain & Company predicted that global luxury industry would face a net decline of 10 per cent this year, but sales are expected to grow 2 per cent in the Middle East and 7 per cent in China.

'During this current worldwide crisis, the brands that keep to their strategy and maintain their core values will emerge stronger than ever when the crisis ends,' Comar asserted.

Chanel, he added, has the added advantage of being a private rather than a public-listed company.

'We are not so linked with economic expectations and can take the long-term view and expand slowly in order to ensure exclusivity. We are not in a hurry; we don't want to lose our soul.'

This article was first published in Urban, The Straits Times.