The final day of Paris Fashion Week is almost always Chanel day. This season, it was Matthieu Blazy’s day as much as it was the house’s. The starting point for Blazy’s Chanel debut was the end, he told Business Of Fashion’s Tim Blanks ahead of the show. Metaphorically, he treated his first show for the storied house like it was his—and Chanel’s—last. Literally, it was the end of the Chanel we have known at least for the past five years, if not the past five decades. Matthieu Blazy is known for his knack of reinvention—this is perhaps why he landed fashion’s top job in the first place— and today in Paris’ Grand Palais, he couldn’t have done a more astute job at affirming that the planets have aligned for his success.
A monumental set is needed for a monumental day like today, and so a planetarium-like universe was erected in the halls of the Palais. According to Blazy, the dreamlike setting of the stars and the sky was meant to symbolize the way we share a universal experience. I think it’s safe to say that the universal experience most of us had was one of pure satisfaction for the whopping 78 looks that Blazy was able to produce for his Spring/Summer 2026 collection.
The first few exits were perfectly subdued: cropped wool blazers with cuffed sleeves and low-rise trousers, asymmetric silk skirts with slouchy knit polo shirts and flapper-style embroidered organza tops. Bias cut waterfall skirts in silk were paired with starchy, loose tuxedo shirts and button-downs before a series of ultra-’20s and ultra-Chanel monochromatic skirt suits came down the runway, all white and beige with stark black lines running through the hems and down the middle seams.
During Virginie Viard’s tenure at the house, the designer would often group a collection of tweed looks together at the beginning before moving into eveningwear. Here, Blazy mixed it all up together. A drop-waist sand colored tweed suit was paired with an oversized suede quilted flap bag and followed by a silk printed gown that was fitted to the body before exploding into watery layers of gathered fabric. His lesson in how to make tweed cool again came via boxy, relaxed shapes, low-rise skirts, and undone jackets that moved with each beat.
Other notable looks included a silk drop-shouldered t-shirt paired with an enormous black and white skirt that was covered with feathers for volume and impact, a series of transparent tartan pencil skirts styled with tweed jackets cut in Gabrielle Chanel’s signature way, and snug, body-hugging transparent evening dresses featuring embellished necklines and weighty, flippy hems to add maximum movement when models walked.
And then there were the details. Tweed melted into caviar-esque beading so intricate you couldn't tell if it was wool or glass from far away. Blazy's affinity for Trompe-l'œil techniques has been well documented from his time at Bottega Veneta, and here, his playful approach to leather is reinterpreted through the House's key codes and fabrications.Tops were embellished with plumes that evoked wheat fields, while the classic flap bag was reinterpreted, almost crushed and left open to signify renewal. The classic cap toe is fashioned in a simple, almost logo-less leather pump and suede mule to ground what was going on north of the ankle.
The finale dress was the obvious pièce de résistance: Another seemingly simple white silk t-shirt with a mass of multicolor fringe as a skirt, a code that references back to Blazy’s tenure at Bottega Veneta and was sprinkled throughout his first collection here in the form of earrings, necklaces, hats, and hems. Texture has always been a big one for Blazy, and at a house like Chanel, the Belgian designer is in a playground of sorts for this kind of tactility.
The best accessory on the model’s finale look? Her smile, which beamed brightly even under the low, dramatic lights of the show space, as if to say: “We’re here for joy.” This was the exact feeling as an orchestral version of “Rhythm Is A Dancer” came on as the finale began. Blazy’s Chanel woman is renewed. The codes of the house are intact, but a refreshed perspective has breathed life back into the brand, proposing a woman that possesses all of the Chanel looseness that has often underscored the brand’s history with a new sense of currency and modernity. She is boyish, masculine, contemporary, creative. She is the Chanel woman we’ve been searching for.
