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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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