From the moment Chanel staged its Métiers d’Art show in New York this past December—transforming the mythology of the maison into a cinematic subway reverie—the fashion world began asking the same question, in a hushed but insistent voice: What will Matthieu Blazy do with couture?

Blazy’s first two collections for Chanel didn’t merely reassure—they recalibrated expectations. They were confident without being loud and suggested a designer deeply attuned to the house’s codes yet unafraid to stretch them, gently, into the present. Couture, of course, is another proposition entirely. It is Chanel’s most sacred terrain. For decades, the ateliers (housed at 19M) have been the ultimate expression of the maison’s discipline—camellias rendered in feathers, tweed elevated to near-religious significance, craftsmanship operating at a level that borders on the devotional. Couture is not simply designing a collection but entering a conversation with Gabrielle Chanel herself.

Stephanie Cavalli opening the spring/summer 2026 Chanel couture show at the Grand Palais, Paris.

On Tuesday, beneath the soaring glass dome of the Grand Palais (a venue synonymous with the house’s most theatrical moments), Blazy set his debut couture show in a pink fairy-tale forest, a wonderland with looming magic mushrooms framed by pink weeping willows. When the first look emerged, Stephanie Cavalli in weightless mousseline, it signalled immediately that Blazy was reframing couture as something meant to be worn, not merely admired.

The looks that followed—including a pair of jeans and a white tank top—flowed like lingerie around the body in mousseline so fine that even through multiple layers you could still see skin. Even the Chanel 2.55 handbag was a glorious see-through objet. Blazy’s choice of mousseline was a deliberate nod to Mademoiselle Chanel: she was the first couturier to use mousseline as a standalone fabric, liberating it from its decorative role.

After the usual parade of daywear, with models of different ages, the collection really took flight. There were feathers, tweed coats, cocktail suits, sleeveless sheaths, beaded dresses, and a velvet blue two-piece pant look that offered a counterpoint to the collection’s prevailing lightness. The final, signature look departed from the expectations of a classic couture wedding dress with Blazy presenting an oversized collared shirt and knee-length skirt made of mother-of-pearl scales. Shoes throughout the show translated the set into something wearable with mushroom heels.

The final look.

After the show, in the intimate salons of Rue Cambon, clients lingered in eager anticipation, the press brushing against the garments as if in a gentle caress. What seemed simple at first glance (some critics have commented) was transformed into the sublime. On closer view, jackets revealed extraordinary internal structure, hems were traced with a delicate signature Chanel chain, embroideries melted seamlessly into fabric rather than sitting upon it, and materials traditionally associated with formality were treated with unexpected lightness. Every piece whispered of alchemy, of artistry, of the poetry woven into every stitch.

Blazy is not a designer given to provocation for its own sake. His work suggests a fascination with the intelligence of clothes: the way fabric behaves, the way construction can be quietly radical. Couture, is by definition, an antidote to speed: months of labour, thousands of hours, hands trained over decades. In a fashion landscape increasingly driven by immediacy, Blazy’s couture debut for Chanel represents a pause worth savouring. It was a debut that asked for attention rather than demanding it. Blazy, it seems, isn’t promising fireworks, but rather meaning. And right now, that may be the most luxurious proposition of all.

Photographs courtesy of Chanel. 

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