How Matthieu Blazy debuts Chanel, merging cosmic elegance, contemporary womenswear, and subtle nostalgia—and why it matters today
Matthieu Blazy makes his long-awaited debut at Chanel during Paris Fashion Week 2025, ushering in a bold new era of luxury fashion. Drawing on Karl Lagerfeld’s legendary legacy, this SS26 ready-to-wear showcase blends timeless Chanel tailoring with contemporary womenswear trends, and even carries a hint of Dawson’s Creek nostalgia. Here’s why it represents a cosmic reboot.
Matthieu Blazy Debuts Chanel SS26 at Paris Fashion Week 2025
As the lights dim at the Grand Palais in Paris, it doesn’t feel like darkness. Instead, it feels like the moment before a dawn you didn’t know you were waiting for. Hanging above the runway, planets spin in slow motion, their surfaces brushed with metallic light. Shooting stars streak across the ceiling, and at the centre of this perfectly choreographed universe, a new sun rises: Matthieu Blazy, making his long-awaited debut as Chanel’s creative director.
The Chanel SS26 ready-to-wear show is not an explosion; it’s something subtler and deeper. It’s like an eclipse in reverse—the return of light, measured and magnetic. Chanel has never just been a fashion house; it’s France’s gravitational centre—a national constellation that defines and reinvents what style means. And now, Chanel is shifting its orbit.
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A new era rises for Chanel: Matthieu Blazy’s debut brings light, precision, and poetic balance to the maison’s universe
A New Era of Luxury Fashion
When the legendary creative director Karl Lagerfeld passed away, Chanel entered a strange kind of limbo—caught between nostalgia and the daunting task of moving forward. Lagerfeld’s vision had become part of fashion mythology with his sharp wit, precision, and relentless discipline. Taking that throne was never going to be easy. But after Virginie Viard’s short tenure, Matthieu Blazy doesn’t step into the role as a conqueror. He arrives like an astronomer, quietly recalibrating the stars.
Blazy’s first move? A simple yet audacious one: for his Chanel SS26 debut, he starts with a white shirt. This is not just any shirt; it resembles the kind that founder Gabrielle Chanel once “borrowed” from her lovers. This gesture is both intimate and rebellious, serving as the seed for a revolution that turned masculine tailoring into a symbol of female empowerment. From that singular act, Matthieu Blazy constructs an entire narrative in three movements: Paradox, Le Jour, Universal.
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Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel debut rewrites legacy—starting with a borrowed white shirt, reawakening Gabrielle’s spirit through elegance, rebellion, and renewal
Paradox: Balancing Femininity and Masculinity in Chanel Womenswear
The Chanel SS26 ready-to-wear show opens with tension—the kind that makes beauty crackle. Sharp shoulders. Floor-skimming trousers. White shirts embroidered with pearls from the legendary Charvet. It’s a study in duality: grace versus grit, softness meeting structure.
This is femininity that requires no permission. It’s for women who don’t smile to be liked; they smile because they command the room. The silhouettes are precise yet dynamic, featuring tailored lines that move with ease.
The palette is restrained, almost minimal, yet the details whisper luxury: hand-finished seams, fabrics that catch the light like it’s liquid. It’s Chanel stripped to its bones, and those bones are pure strength.
Strength in softness: Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel SS26 merges structure and grace—precision tailoring meets effortless movement in modern femininity. Courtesy of CHANEL
Le Jour: Chanel’s Nostalgic Yet Modern Fashion Trends
Then, the atmosphere changes. The pace loosens. The soundtrack—yes, it includes a few dreamy chords from Dawson’s Creek—takes us back to our teenage years, caught between romance and rebellion. It’s unexpected, nostalgic, and somehow perfect.
“I don’t wanna wait…” echoes through the hall, prompting smiles from the audience—even the editors who are usually stoic. This moment reminds us that fashion isn’t just about what’s new; it’s about what we remember.
In Le Jour, the tweed—Chanel’s timeless fabric—transforms into air. It flutters, shimmers, and dissolves into light. Skirts open like petals, frayed edges sway with every step. It’s the Chanel woman in motion: walking through Paris at sunrise, her heels tapping on cobblestones, radiating effortless elegance.
This is the chapter of possibility in the Chanel SS26 runway show—the kind of fashion that makes you want to immerse yourself in it.
Tweed takes flight: Chanel’s SS26 “Le Jour” captures movement, light, and the effortless grace of Paris at dawn. Courtesy of CHANEL
Universal: Matthieu Blazy’s Cosmic Vision for Chanel SS26
Then comes the expansion—the cosmic finale. Universal is Chanel reaching beyond itself. Transparent tweeds, mineral hues, and silhouettes that stretch, aspiring for new heights. Metallic threads gleam like constellations stitched into fabric.
It’s a vision of the future—not cold or robotic, but sensual and human. You can almost hear Matthieu Blazy asking: What does luxury mean now, when the world feels unstable? His answer is clear—luxury is honesty.
The hems are raw, the edges imperfect, as if to say: perfection isn’t the point anymore. Realness is what matters now. The clothes still whisper Chanel, but the tone has shifted—lower, warmer, closer.
A cosmic finale: Chanel SS26 closes with ethereal tweeds and luminous silhouettes—luxury redefined through honesty, imperfection, and human warmth
Key Luxury Details in Chanel SS26 Ready-to-Wear Collection
The Chanel SS26 accessories tell the story in miniature. The legendary 2.55 bag makes a return, but it’s crushed—literally softened, deflated, and reimagined for a generation that values ease over armour. Next to it is a pillow bag inspired by Coco Chanel’s apartment interiors—ironic, playful, and weirdly desirable.
The shoes are grounded—with block heels and supple boots—because the modern Chanel woman doesn’t float above the world; she strides through it.
The entire Chanel SS26 collection feels like a love letter to contradiction: strong yet delicate, grounded yet celestial.
The Chanel Woman: Embodying Cool Power
What’s truly radical here isn’t the cut or colour—it’s the attitude. Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel shows a new kind of coolness—quiet, self-assured, and infused with just the right dose of nostalgia. The references to Dawson’s Creek, the softness of the shirts, and the lived-in feel of the fabrics all create a world where power doesn’t need to be polished. It can be tender, imperfect, and even a little sentimental.
This new Chanel is no longer about unreachable glamour. It’s about the beauty of being in orbit—always moving, always glowing, and never static.
How Matthieu Blazy Is Redefining Chanel and Luxury Fashion
As Matthieu Blazy’s debut at Chanel ends, the lights fade back into cosmic dusk. The audience sits still, enveloped in that rare silence that follows a truly novel experience. That’s Blazy’s real talent—not merely redesigning Chanel but reanimating it. He brings back curiosity, friction, and emotion, reminding us that fashion isn’t just about what we wear; it’s about how we navigate the universe. Under Matthieu Blazy, Chanel doesn’t just change with the seasons. It changes its very orbits.
Angelo Ruggeri
Journalist and Tutor for Styling, Business and Design Course and Master’s Programmes, Milan