Credits: nicolas genin / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 2.0.
At the Grand Palais, on October 6, 2025, the day before the last day of Paris Fashion Week, Matthieu Blazy presented his first Chanel show, Spring–Summer 2026. Cosmic staging, softened tweeds, reinvented accessories: the house announces a new course without denying Gabrielle Chanel’s DNA. Warmly applauded, this launch aims to revive desirability after 2024, under the watch of Bruno Pavlovsky and faces like Nicole Kidman and Ayo Edebiri. Virginie Viard, former Chanel director, is hinted at through the continuity of the codes.
Chanel Show: Reworked Codes, Tweed, Suits, Jewelry in Orbit
At 41, Matthieu Blazy signed his first Chanel show on October 6, 2025. The collection Spring/Summer 2026 opens a new era that claims continuity as much as rupture. From the first silhouettes, the house’s vocabulary is rewritten: softened tweed, shortened trouser suits, fringed skirts, floral dresses whose petals seem scalpel-cut. Chains lengthen and camellias take on stylized, almost graphic shapes. Also, metallic bags look like satin meteorites. Additionally, baroque chokers structure the look. Overall, the focus is on line and movement: clean falls, lowered waists, flexible sleeves, shoulders that read strong but not stiff.
Faced with the legacy, Blazy opts for subtle shift rather than showmanship: the classic suit passes through an androgynous prism—softened trousers, shortened jacket—while the little jacket sometimes yields to a masculine blazer with crisp edges. The tweed becomes more tactile, brushed, sometimes almost plush, while floral prints move away from expected romance toward abstraction. The accessory, Chanel’s beating heart, is treated as punctuation: “flattened” minaudieres, crumpled leathers, rosary-like sautoirs and camellias fractalized into light brooches. The message is clear: heritage, yes, but momentum.
A Galaxy Narrative: Staging That Changes Scale
Under the nave of the Grand Palais, now restored, the staging transforms the show. It immerses it in a cosmos of luminous planets. A mirrored runway reflects the suspended stars and multiplies the silhouettes; the room becomes a celestial dome. The motif is not gratuitous: it speaks of a “universal chic”, concerned with openness and scale, as claimed by Blazy. The effect on the crowd—journalists, clients, celebrities—is immediate: silence at the first look, then a final ovation. The production evokes a house memory, that of Karl Lagerfeld’s grand theatrical sets, without pastiche. It thus marks a return to the spectacular after quieter seasons.
The visual narrative supports the cut: cloudlike feathers on evening skirts, sparkling knits catching the planets’ halos. Also, the chains vibrate with each step. Humor surfaces in tame wigs and offbeat details to remind that Chanel style can smile while keeping its poise. In the nave, the sound is restrained and the lights rub the aluminum of the accessories. Everything contributes to a precision that prevents the spectacle from becoming garish.
Ten Looks That Set the Course
- Low-rise long trousers, loosely buttoned shirt, baroque choker: the look is fluid, rigor comes from the cut.
- Fringed skirt in brushed tweed, shortened jacket and double chain: a classic energized.
- Floral dress cut into applied petals, oversized camellia at the waist.
- Androgynous trouser suit, “men’s” jacket with crisp edges, long sautoir.
- Sparkling knit dress “deep-sky,” crumpled metallic bag carried by hand.
- Tweed coat with visible exterior pockets, jewel collar like a soft armor.
- Day silhouette in clean dark denim, jeweled ballet flats and micro chain bag.
- Cocktail dress of feathers and silk, patent ankle boots, double-strand choker.
- Elongated twin-set with raw edges, multiplied chain belt.
- Evening finale: voluminous feather skirt, minimal corseted top, hammered metal minaudiere.
These ten moments sum up the Blazy method: lighten, shift, re-materialize. Garment first, ornament follows.
Celebrities and Image Diplomacy: Kidman, Edebiri and the New Grammar of Brand Ambassadors
The front row said much about the strategy: Nicole Kidman has become the house’s new ambassador, a symbolic return more than twenty years after her film for No. 5. Her appearance—pristine white shirt, wide jeans, burgundy flap bag—set a tone of casual luxury that doesn’t relinquish poise. Ayo Edebiri, a widely followed American actress, present in the front row, embodies a young guard whose controlled playfulness answers the new silhouette. Beyond the souvenir photo, Chanel organizes an image diplomacy: a living heritage (Kidman) and a rising voice (Edebiri), to move between generations and cultural territories.
The guest casting of Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Anna Wintour and other friends of the house testifies to a desire to bring together rather than cut across the Chanel hierarchy. Like a choral film, the evening assembles key figures from past and present to signal that the stylistic reset is not a breach of contract with the public but a reformulation.
The Show’s Storytelling: Heritage, Modernity, Restraint
Blazy tells Gabrielle Chanel without repeating her alphabet. Thus, the trouser, the ease, the freedom of movement are reinjected into a visual project. Moreover, this historic core where measure is the first boldness reveals itself with elegance. By foregoing easy excess, the proposition becomes more legible: you see the line, you read the hand. The featherers, embroiderers, tweed weavers are brought forward by the cut, not hidden under effect.
The cosmic staging pushes the idea: Chanel defines itself not by fixed nostalgia but by a universality—that “universal chic” claimed backstage. At a moment when fashion is reclaiming its grand rooms, the Grand Palais becomes a sounding board. Indeed, it serves a house that assumes its role as cultural spectacle as much as an industry.
Business Breakdown: Why This Turn Matters
On the numbers side, Chanel emerges from a 2024 slowdown—revenues $18.7B (−4.3%), operating income −30%—alongside record investments ($1.755B capex, +43%) according to Chanel’s 2024 results. This long-term strategy aims to capture destination commerce and consolidate the boutique experience. It also supports the creative ecosystem, explaining some pressure on profitability. In this context, Blazy’s appointment answers a dual need: reignite desirability among historical clients and win younger audiences, without succumbing to the noise of short-lived trends.
For Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Fashion activities, the stake is clear: continuity of know-how and renewed energy. Choosing a Chanel designer versed in materials and volumes rather than in perpetual logomania can create, in the medium term, a differentiation in an image-saturated market. The return to the Grand Palais, where Chanel is a major patron, also sends a signal of cultural power: the brand invests in venues and narratives that exceed the commercial sphere and anchor its legitimacy.
Finally, the already-high price positioning calls for matching perceived value. By showing couture gestures in ready-to-wear, reinventing hardware, and carefully crafting bags (the most-watched category), Blazy provides visible justifications for aspiration and price. If responses from key markets (mainland China, United States) remain to be seen, the critical reception is encouraging. Moreover, the public reaction suggests a quick image rebound, a prerequisite to any commercial recovery.
And Now?
The Spring/Summer 2026 season sets a platform: lightened silhouettes, rethought accessories, significant staging. Next steps—resort, Métiers d’art, haute couture—will show whether the proposal deepens. But Act I has fixed its coordinates: embraced heritage, measured boldness, universal as an horizon. At Chanel, the reset does not erase: it inscribes anew.