PARIS — One year after his first show for Chanel, Matthieu Blazy returned to the Grand Palais on Monday night with a collection about freedom, flight and the many lives of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.
The Spring/Summer 2027 show — Blazy’s third ready-to-wear collection for the house — unfolded beneath a flock of birds suspended in midflight inside the vast glass-roofed hall, according to AFP and WWD. “Ultimately, Chanel took off, and each step she took led to her being free, like a bird,” Blazy said in his show notes.
Many women, not one
Blazy built the collection around the founder’s evolution, from stiff Edwardian tailoring to borrowing her lovers’ suits to inventing the tweed suit that defined 20th-century dressing, WWD reported. He said he was drawn to a lesser-known side of Chanel: “the funny side, the joyful side, the fact that she loved to play music, the fact that she was obsessed with wearing costumes.”
The result was what WWD called his most versatile collection yet, at 83 looks. Highlights included:
- Plenty of formfitting shapes — clingy semisheer knits and a pearl-embroidered corset top with masculine black trousers — a possible answer to fans frustrated by his boxier silhouettes.
- His signature wide, cropped jackets, plus patchwork jackets with corset-style ribbon trims and a zebra-patterned gilet nipped at the waist.
- Playful pieces, including frothy dancer tutus and parachute dresses printed with clouds or a sparkling night sky.
- Knee-length skirts, a length AFP said is roaring back across the Spring 2027 shows.
A tweed you can move in
The biggest news may be technical. Blazy introduced what WWD described as a next-generation Chanel suit, made from a newly developed stretch fabric that looks like tweed but moves like athletic wear. “Every design house is obsessed with the future, the sportswear. We all look at Nike,” he said.
The show opened and closed with model Dyanira Hurbuscher carrying Gabrielle Chanel’s own 2.55 handbag from the archives. The soundtrack featured house ambassador Nicole Kidman reading from Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando” and “To the Lighthouse,” and the finale played Britney Spears’ “Gimme More,” WWD reported.
Kidman sat in the front row with Pedro Pascal, Dua Lipa and John Malkovich, AFP reported. Chanel had previewed the collection with black-and-white photographs by British photographer David Bailey featuring feathers, nests and bird feet.
‘Blazymania’ and the bottom line
The 42-year-old designer arrives at his first anniversary with momentum. While many luxury houses are struggling with weak sales, AFP reported that Chanel’s revenue jumped about 16% in the first half of the year, citing Bloomberg, with some of Blazy’s designs sparking frenzied buying that has been nicknamed “Blazymania.”
Blazy said the set drew on a village in southern Italy where he vacations, along a river that serves as a sanctuary for migrating birds. “I think there is a space for poetry, beauty, joy, and it’s a good remedy to the dark times,” he told WWD. Asked how his first year went, he grinned: “It’s a good start.”
Paris Fashion Week was set to close Tuesday with shows including Louis Vuitton.
Photo: Guilhem Vellut via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). The Grand Palais in Paris, site of Chanel’s Spring 2027 show; 2016 file photo.
Sources: WWD; AFP (via France 24).
This article was produced with AI assistance and is based on reporting from WWD and AFP (via France 24).