Matthieu Blazy’s Enchanted Haute Coutre Debut at Chanel Is Full of Whimsy
Signaling a lighter and more joyful era at Chanel.
Summary
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Matthieu Blazy inaugurated his tenure at Chanel with a Spring Summer 2026 Haute Couture show set within a whimsical mushroom garden, creating an Alice in Wonderland atmosphere that signaled a hopeful and imaginative new direction for the house
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The collection centered on the theme of avian metamorphosis, utilizing the supreme craftsmanship of the le19M ateliers to translate bird plumage into complex pleating and embroidery without the literal use of feathers
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Blazy redefined the soul of the house by integrating personal emotional artifacts like love letters and symbolic tokens into the garments, transforming the classic Chanel suit into a transparent, weightless canvas for the wearer’s own story
For his inaugural Haute Couture collection at Chanel, Matthieu Blazy breathed new life into the house by casting a spell of “impossible lightness” over the Grand Palais. Under the iconic glass dome, Blazy conjured a poetic dreamscape: a surreal garden of towering, candy-colored mushrooms and weeping willow trees in shades of soft pink. The atmosphere was a deliberate nod to an Alice in Wonderland fantasy—a playful, psychedelic forest where time seemed to stand still, offering a hopeful and restorative vision for the future of the maison.
At the heart of this “Far Eastern fantasia” was the concept of the bird as a symbol of absolute freedom. The show opened with a radical reimagining of the Chanel suit, stripped of its traditional tweed and reconstructed in weightless, transparent silk mousseline. As the collection progressed, a metamorphosis occurred; models began to embody the plumage of various avian species, from the deep blacks of the raven to the iridescent pinks of the spoonbill. Remarkably, this effect was achieved through heroic craftsmanship—complex pleating, weaving, and embroidery—rather than the literal use of feathers.
Blazy’s vision gives Chanel a newfound sense of hope by centering the wearer’s personal narrative within the couture. Each model selected a private token—a love letter, a line of poetry, or a lucky date—to be stitched into the lining of their garment by the artisans at Lesage. By merging these intimate “emotional artifacts” with a whimsical, storybook setting, Blazy has proven that the soul of Chanel is not a rigid archive, but a living, breathing canvas for self-expression.
