The wait is over. Of all the big designer debuts taking place this season, Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel was the most anticipated—and for good reason. The brand is one of fashion’s most storied names and biggest moneymakers, but it had been operating on the same design frequency for decades—Karl Lagerfeld was there from the ‘80s until his passing; Virginie Viard dutifully carried on his vision, though without his cheek and campiness. Blazy was a much respected but insider-only name when he took the reins at Bottega Veneta and steered it on an explosive growth streak with his high-craft but lighthearted approach. If he could do that for Bottega, imagine what he could do at a House with Chanel’s heritage? Expectations were sky high.
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And Blazy delivered. Under a constellation of brightly coloured planets lit like galactic lanterns, he closed out Paris Fashion Week on a soaring note, with a collection that thoughtfully and joyfully fleshed out what Chanel is about and how it can look right for today. And he did it without resorting to cliches—which, these days, is often interchangeable with “codes”. Blazy’s Chanel feels so resonant because he didn’t just touch on surface things like the tweeds and the pearls. Instead, he keyed into what really drove Coco Chanel as a designer—her clothes were always about lightness and liberation. So first, he liberated the tweed suit from its standard cardigan-skirt confines. For the opening look: A cropped, boxy jacket directly inspired by the one Blazy wore on his first day at the Chanel studios; it was paired with loose, slouchy trousers.
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Those low-slung trousers and skirts were a big reason why the collection felt so fresh—they gave everything an effortless attitude. The dropped waists on the coats and dresses had the same effect. It’s not surprising that Blazy referenced the Chanel origin years of the ‘20s and ‘30s; what’s pleasantly surprising is that he did it in spirit only—not in some costume-y retro way. No flapper dresses here, though he did allude to them in abstract ways. Most compelling amongst the Thirties-inspired pieces were the languid silky dresses that almost trailed to the floor, nonchalantly draped and knotted around the body.
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The more pared back fare was equally well thought out and executed. Inspired by the way Chanel would borrow her lover’s shirts, Blazy made men’s shirting a core part of his collection. They were made by the Chanel ateliers, but with the savoir-faire (and the blessing) of Charvet. Of course, the Chanel versions come with hidden chain-trimmed hems. Blazy’s take on masculine-feminine dressing—a blue striped shirt paired with a fiery ball skirt exploding in silk feathers—looked sensational. If it’s the kind of life you lead, picture how fabulous that would look at a gala dinner or on a yacht.
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Blazy pulled off the tricky feat of moving the House forward without alienating existing customers. The woman who goes to Chanel for her chic, sensible skirt suits will still have options aplenty—and for the first time in a long time, they looked thrillingly, genuinely new. The most brilliant were the ones that looked like tweed, but were actually more surprising and delightful—openwork lattice knit, or woven from raffia, printed on silk, entirely beaded, even actual tweed gradually dissolving into beading. What Blazy seems to be saying is that if you’re forking out luxury prices, this is the level of craft you should be getting. But the genius here is that no matter how intricate the craft, the garments themselves were always light. What Blazy’s debut collection tapped into was best encapsulated by Awar Odhiang, the model who closed the show smiling, waving and pirouetting. The joy she felt was reflected in the audience, who leapt to its feet.
All photos: Courtesy of Chanel