American filmmaker Sofia Coppola has been named a Commander of France’s Order of Arts and Letters — one of the country’s highest state honors in the field of culture. The official ceremony took place in Paris to mark the 20th anniversary of Coppola’s cult film «Marie Antoinette», Vogue reports.

For the special occasion, the 55-year-old director chose a delicate powder-pink Chanel tweed suit. She was accompanied by her 87-year-old father — legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. Sofia shared a photo from the ceremony on Instagram.

The honor was part of a series of events celebrating the 20th anniversary of «Marie Antoinette». This week, an exhibition dedicated to the making of the film opened in Versailles. It is housed in the historic locations where Sofia Coppola filmed the movie.

Photo: Instagram @sofiacoppola

Fashion house Chanel has completed an extensive restoration of the gardens surrounding Coco Chanel’s iconic La Pausa residence on the French Riviera.

The main goal of the project was to restore the garden surrounding the estate in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin to the atmosphere of the 1930s, when the designer purchased the roughly four-hectare property overlooking the Mediterranean and named it La Pausa.

The residence became a place of rest, inspiration and gatherings with friends for Chanel. It was here that she spent time away from Paris and the fashion world. In 1953, however, the designer sold the estate to publisher Emery Reves.

Today, the restoration of the house and gardens has been overseen by American architect Peter Marino, who has worked with Chanel for many years and has designed numerous boutiques and offices for the fashion house.

Together with the Chanel Heritage team, Marino studied archival materials to understand what La Pausa looked like during Coco Chanel’s lifetime.

One of the estate’s defining features remains its olive trees. Around 250 grow across the grounds, and some are estimated by experts to be approximately 800 years old.

In the evening, the ancient olive trees are given a particularly striking illumination. Small LED lights have been installed directly on the branches, with the beams directed downward. In the darkness, the trees consequently resemble silhouettes illuminated by moonlight.

Particular attention was also paid to lavender and irises. They were planted in large expanses, creating distinct areas of colour.

On the slope in front of the house, the lavender appears to flow down towards the road. In France, this style of planting is known as «coulée» — literally, «flow».

The garden also has a special connection to Chanel’s world of fragrance. Jasmine and iris are among the aromatic components associated with the legendary Chanel N°5. Their presence at La Pausa is therefore far more than a decorative detail.

Today, La Pausa remains a private Chanel residence and is not open to the general public. From time to time, however, the property hosts corporate events, photo and film shoots, as well as creative residencies.

Photo: Architectural Digest

Paris Haute Couture Week is in full swing, and Chanel’s runway show was among the most anticipated events of the second day. Franco-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy unveiled his second haute couture collection for the legendary French fashion house, transforming the Grand Palais runway into an enchanting garden filled with oversized flowers, climbing vines and storybook-inspired scenery.

The Autumn/Winter 2026/27 collection continues the narrative Blazy began with his debut for Chanel. This season, he drew inspiration from fairy tales – most notably Jack and the Beanstalk – as well as from the rare volume Les Fées, Contes des Contes, once owned by Gabrielle Chanel. The book itself was carried by the model who opened the show.

«I found myself wondering whether Gabrielle Chanel’s life was, in many ways, a fairy tale of its own. In her library, I discovered a small book titled Les Fées, Contes des Contes, and together with the couture ateliers we explored the idea of garments that preserve stories in the same way books do», Matthieu Blazy said.

The show opened with a sheer tweed suit, offering a fresh interpretation of one of Chanel’s most enduring signatures. This season, Blazy reimagined the house’s iconic tweed in organza. The fabric became one of the collection’s defining materials, appearing in sheath dresses embellished with appliqués, crystal threads and intricate embroidery that resembled traditional tweed only from a distance.

At the heart of the collection was an imaginary garden where fairytale imagery merged seamlessly with Chanel’s iconic design codes. Flowers blossomed across jackets, dresses and skirts in the form of sculptural embroidery, elaborate beadwork, feathers, sequins and crystals. Coats evoked moss-covered forests, waistcoats resembled delicate spiderwebs, while sheer dresses intertwined with embroidered vines, appearing to dissolve into the runway set itself.

At the same time, Blazy remained faithful to the fashion house’s classic signatures. Familiar Chanel suits returned in a contemporary interpretation – sleeveless, paired with ultra-short skirts and jackets fastened at the back. The designer also presented several variations of the little black dress: one layered and richly trimmed with feathers, another designed to be worn as an elongated top.

The accessories were equally captivating. Alongside Chanel’s iconic two-tone shoes featuring decorative heels inspired by miniature fairytale scenes, the collection included handbags shaped like cats, a teddy bear and beans, as well as buttons crafted in the form of tiny chairs – another reference to the magical world Blazy created.

Following Chanel tradition, the collection also featured a bridal look. Blazy offered his own interpretation of the wedding dress, creating the illusion of a voluminous skirt paired with a white shirt worn backwards. He then surprised the audience by closing the show with a minimalist off-the-shoulder black dress – a subtle tribute to the fact that Gabrielle Chanel herself never married.

One of the show’s most unexpected elements was the participation of French artist Joël Blanc. Throughout the presentation, he painted a watercolour in real time, capturing the collection’s looks as they appeared on the runway.

Photo: chanel.com

Location

Chanel returned to the place where its resort mythology began – Biarritz on the Atlantic coast. It was here, in 1915, that Gabrielle Chanel opened her first couture salon, laying the foundation for what would become the fashion house.

The show took place at Le Casino Municipal, an Art Deco building with large windows overlooking the ocean. The interior functioned as a set without needing decoration: light, mirrors, and the atmosphere of old-world seaside glamour, with the sea itself as the leading character.

Teaser

The mood of the collection was established even before the show through a black-and-white video featuring the image of a mermaid, which became the central metaphor of the entire project. A dancer also appears in the film, while the closing scenes reference an archival photograph of Coco Chanel with Serge Lifar.

Here, the mermaid is not a decorative motif but a symbol of transformation, freedom, and duality around which the entire collection was built.

Invitation

The invitation to the show came in the form of a small shell-shaped pendant – a subtle yet eloquent hint at the maritime theme and the location of the presentation.

Guests included Nicole Kidman, Tilda Swinton, A$AP Rocky, Sofia Coppola, Marion Cotillard, Paloma Elsesser, Charlotte Casiraghi, and other stars seated in the front row.

 

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Публикация от Fimela.com (@fimeladotcom)

Collection

For his first Cruise collection for Chanel, Matthieu Blazy built the narrative around the image of the mermaid and coastal mythology, combining the house archives with beachside aesthetics. The runway became an imagined shoreline where reality and fantasy constantly exchanged places.

The collection featured dresses and suits covered in sequins resembling fish scales, textures inspired by coral and fishing nets, heavy boots, 1920s-style bathing caps, shell-shaped jewelry, and Basque stripes referencing the geography of Biarritz.

The eveningwear felt especially light: sandy hues, semi-sheer silhouettes, and newspaper prints added irony as well as a playful dialogue with archive and memory.

Blazy also reinterpreted the little black dress, restoring its volume and theatricality, while giving tweed softness and the faded effect of fabric bleached by the sun.

Matthieu Blazy’s first Cruise show for Chanel became a cohesive story about the house’s origins and their contemporary reinterpretation. Archival codes, maritime symbolism, and mythological imagery came together in a living, fluid system where the past is not recreated, but reimagined – lightly, ironically, and without losing its unmistakable identity.

Photo: Instagram @chanelofficial

At Paris Fashion Week, a new chapter in the history of Chanel was unveiled as creative director Matthieu Blazy presented his debut haute couture collection for the House.

The show felt truly springlike — light, whimsical, and imaginative. Blazy struck a delicate balance between fairy-tale fantasy and refined elegance, all while preserving Chanel’s unmistakable DNA.

Notably, the designer’s debut was accompanied by a genuine fashion fairytale: the invitations to the show came in the form of mushroom-shaped pendants with a bird inside. The set design echoed this mood, transforming the runway into an enchanted forest filled with oversized pink fly agarics and chanterelle mushrooms.

Blazy’s reinterpretation of Chanel’s timeless classics was expressed through tweed ensembles adorned with feathers along the hems, unexpected draping, and semi-sheer textures. Models also walked the runway in colorful tights, airy dresses with long trains, blouses featuring playful “mushroom” prints, and heels shaped like flower petals.

Matthieu Blazy also offered his own take on the iconic little black dress, extending it to a midi length. Meanwhile, the traditional Chanel bridal finale was reimagined as a relaxed, luminous suit rather than a classic wedding gown.

Blazy’s first Chanel show drew an impressive roster of A-list guests, including Nicole Kidman, who opted for a minimalist black dress and sunglasses; Penélope Cruz, who appeared in an intricate black suit; and Dua Lipa, who wore a vibrant look from Chanel’s pre-fall collection.

 

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Also spotted in the front row were Tilda Swinton, Vanessa Paradis, A$AP Rocky, Anna Wintour, and many others.

 

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Photo: vogue.com

At Villa d’Este, located on the shores of Lake Como, Chanel presented its new cruise collection. The legendary fashion house shared black-and-white, cinema-style photos of guests on social media ahead of the release of a film about the show directed by Sofia Coppola.

Among the invited guests were brand ambassadors Keira Knightley, Lupita Nyong’o and Margaret Qualley, as well as Sofia Coppola with her brother Roman, «White Lotus» actress Sarah Catherine Hook, Fernanda Torres and other stars.

The cruise collection was presented by Chanel’s in-house design team, while the new creative director, Matthieu Blazy, will reveal his debut only in the fall.

The show opened with an elegant pearl-white quintet — looks that captured the fatal glamour of the 1950s. Models stunned in robe-style dresses, metallic-trimmed cocktail dresses and knitted mini blazers.

Later looks included stunning evening gowns in metallic leather and perfectly tailored cocktail dresses with faux fur pockets adorned with rhinestones.

Many outfits were paired with printed scarves from Mantero — one of Como’s most renowned silk manufacturers, in which Chanel recently acquired a 35% stake. The accessories stole the spotlight: tiny evening bags, the classic 11.12 bag, the new model 25, and never-before-seen dumpling bags that brought a trendy and fresh vibe to the collection.

Photo: Instagram @chanelofficial ( Greg Williams)

Franco-Belgian designer Mathieu Blazy, who has served as the creative director of Bottega Veneta for the past three years, will take on the same role at Chanel. He will oversee the creation of haute couture and ready-to-wear collections. Under his leadership, the brand will also focus on expanding its accessories lines.

According to Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel SAS, Blazy will join the fashion house in the first half of 2025, likely in April. His first collection is expected to be unveiled in October.

«We hope to collaborate for 10, 15, or even more years. We are at the very beginning of our journey together. Together, we can write a new chapter for the brand», Pavlovsky emphasized.

Blazy will replace Virginie Viard as Chanel’s creative director. Viard left the fashion house in June 2023 after leading the company for five years. Before her, only Karl Lagerfeld and Gabrielle Chanel held the position of creative director.

«I am thrilled and honored to join Chanel. I look forward to meeting all the teams», Blazy shared.

Blazy secured the position over two other potential candidates, whose identities remain unknown. Rumors suggested that Chanel had considered Hedi Slimane, Simon Porte Jacquemus, and Pieter Mulier for the role.

«We chose someone whose values, talent, and vision of women, our clients, best aligned with our brand», Pavlovsky commented.

Pavlovsky highlighted that a key factor in selecting Blazy was the designer’s «immense admiration and respect for the legacy and work of Mademoiselle Chanel, Karl, and Virginie».

Before his time at Bottega Veneta, Blazy collaborated with Raf Simons, Calvin Klein, Celine, and Maison Margiela. Following his departure, Bottega Veneta’s new creative director will be Louise Trotter.

 Photo: Bottega Veneta