Matthieu Blazy’s highly anticipated couture debut at Chanel delivered. Held in the historic Grand Palais against the backdrop of a poetic set filled with giant pink and red mushrooms, the couture show built on the fluidity established in his debut ready-to-wear collection.
The show opened with a transparent silk mousseline suit in a tender color palette of nudes and pinks. Then, “the women at the center of the collection begin to transform into birds”, according to the show notes: “raven black looks, to colored plumage evoked in embroidery, layering, pleating and weaving, where the feather is often conjured, yet hardly used.”
“I was interested in birds, because they are free, because they travel, because they come from every place. I thought it was a beautiful metaphor for women today,” Blazy told Vogue Business and Vogue Runway global director Nicole Phelps before the show.
The show carried high stakes both for the house and for Blazy, who made his ready-to-wear debut in October and presented his first Métiers d’Art show in New York in December (the collections will hit stores in March and early June, respectively). Chanel is one of the few houses that has a sizable couture business, but competition in the segment is ramping up, from long-time couture houses to newcomers like Balenciaga and soon Hermès (in February 2025, Hermès CEO Axel Dumas confirmed plans to launch couture). For Chanel, Blazy combines his experience designing such collections — he earned his couture stripes at Maison Margiela, designing the brand’s Artisanal line — with fresh creativity.
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“Haute couture is the essence of Chanel, built on the fundamentals Gabrielle Chanel established in 1915, and to which she dedicated her entire career: clothes made to measure, like a second skin, designed for real life, crafted through gestures passed down in the ateliers,” Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and Chanel SAS, tells Vogue Business. “Today, Chanel’s creative power also lies in our unique ecosystem — five haute couture ateliers and a sixth dedicated entirely to galons [stripes], together with the savoir faire of the maisons d’art at Le 19M,” the headquarters in Aubervilliers near Paris, which brings together the 12 specialist maisons d’art.
“Matthieu Blazy builds on these foundations as a field of experimentation, pushing boundaries with new materials and techniques,” Pavlovsky continues. While Chanel won’t publish its 2025 earnings before this spring, he noted in December that 2025 will be “an interesting transitional year of growth for the house”.
Two back-to-back shows were each attended by 750 guests. Like at Blazy’s ready-to-wear debut, the front row was a mix of longtime Chanel ambassadors including Penélope Cruz, Charlotte Casiraghi and Vanessa Paradis, as well as new faces like Nicole Kidman and A$AP Rocky, plus Dua Lipa, who starred in a Chanel campaign last year. The model casting included mature women, and Bhavitha Mandava, the Indian model who opened the Chanel Métiers d’Art show in New York, closed the show.
The soundtrack by Michel Gaubert and Fabien Leclercq included Moby’s “Porcelain” and Oasis’s “Wonderwall” mixed with The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” — each quintessentially millennial. “The music has this kind of melancholia, but also optimism, so I really hope that moment is not like a boom, boom, boom, but like a breath,” Blazy told Phelps.
Overall, guests were enthusiastic about the new direction of Chanel couture, which was light and feminine. It may take some adjustment for clients used to a more classic aesthetic — one noted the apparent departure from Chanel’s heavier tweed collections. But most welcomed the change.
Here’s what other attendees had to say about the show:
Olivier Gabet, director of the decorative arts department at Le Louvre and curator of “Louvre Couture”
A great sense of sprezzatura; such a couture collection is a lot of work, craft, design, fabric — but the real elegance is to avoid showing off all those efforts. On a more personal level, I must confess that I love a smiling bride. And how to not mention the homage to the famous image of Inès de la Fressange in the Galerie d’Apollon, pictured by Karl Lagerfeld in 1988, as mentioned in the “Louvre Couture” exhibition last year. Today, the model wears with discretion some embroideries by [Le 19M fabric studio] Lesage, like some replicas of the sapphire parure from Queen Marie-Amélie of France, whose parts were stolen in the dramatic robbery last October. I was moved by this refined echo.
Bryan Yambao, content creator
In spite of the grandness of the scale and the weight of the house — and Matthieu’s job, his first haute couture collection felt joyous, intimate, meaningful and extremely personal. I love how it explored lightness in the opening act. The touches of personal embroidery on little muslin handkerchiefs and the ‘ghost’ handbags were a clever touch.
How does one define what haute couture is in 2026 anyway? Is it a blockbuster, red carpet-ready full look? Is it something that requires 2,000 hours of handiwork? Or is it a super light pantsuit with very fine embroidery and details? Or all of the above!
Rachel Tashjian, senior style reporter at CNN
I loved the lightness of it, in particular, at the beginning of the show. I think clothing has been so heavy for such a long time, because it’s been about the still photograph or the social media moment, and this was so much about movement — this idea of freedom that seems so important to Matthieu Blazy and to Chanel right now.
Lucien Pagès, founder of Lucien Pagès Communication
You can feel that Matthieu Blazy is completely at home here, that he has perfect command of it. What really strikes me is the delicacy — especially the tailored pieces at the beginning. Those first suits are incredibly delicate; it’s truly refined couture, with a fairy tale set.
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Caroline Issa, CEO and fashion director of Tank Magazine
Here was a show that when you marry a lightness of touch with the right balance of using the tools that the ateliers of 19M give you — combined with a casting that reflects the world around us… you get a collection that delights, without even knowing the layers of stories, of craft and the effort it took.
Beka Gvishiani, founder of StyleNotCom
This was probably the lightest haute couture show I have ever seen.
Cécile Demole, Switzerland-based couture client
The embroidery was magnificent, showcasing Chanel’s impeccable craftsmanship. The collection conveyed femininity. Two pieces particularly caught my eye: a stunning beige suit adorned with embroidered roses, and the final look. The lighter pieces at the beginning were beautiful, though a bit more challenging to wear.
Jwana Karim, Dubai-based couture client
I might buy the black skirt in tweed. I love tweed. I am a tweed person.
Mindy Lin Prugnaud, co-founder of Paris-based consultancy and buying office Mint Group
This is my third Chanel show designed by Matthieu Blazy, and I think I am falling in love with him more and more. The show started with dreamy, sheer featherlight weights. From this delicate starting point, Matthieu walked us through the process of an innocent girl growing into a confident woman. He sent down a parade of exquisite silhouettes with intricate fabrics and complex embroideries. Every detail resonated with its unique material, shape and color. Surrounded by giant mushrooms and pink willow trees sprouting from a candy pink carpet, we escaped into Chanel’s magical world.
