At Paris Fashion Week, Matthieu Blazy presented his sophomore fall 2026 ready-to-wear collection for Chanel, inspired by founder Coco Chanel's ideas on functional and fantastical dresses. The show at the Grand Palais featured a construction-site set with primary-colored cranes, symbolizing a work in progress. Blazy drew from a 1950s interview with Coco Chanel, emphasizing dresses that 'crawl' for day and 'fly' for evening.
The collection opened with simple black skirt suits in a ribbed merino wool and silk blend, accented by gold buttons, evoking Coco Chanel's innovation of elevating working-class clothes to luxury. As the show progressed, it built to more elaborate looks, including belted drop-waist designs from the 1920s that elongated the torso, alongside iridescent pieces in printed chainmail and trompe l'oeil tweeds. Blazy explained backstage, quoting Coco Chanel from a 1950s Le Figaro interview: 'We need dresses that crawl and dresses that fly, because the butterfly doesn’t go to the market and the caterpillar doesn’t go to the ball.'
Highlights included a sleeveless top and skirt set with mother-of-pearl paillettes knitted in, skirt suits featuring 'action painting' stitching, and a shimmering lurex velvet slipdress with embroideries. Daywear referenced 1920s silhouettes, such as silky drop-waisted twinsets and patchwork flapper dresses dusted with floral embroidery. Evening options ranged from a caviar-beaded coat with silver constellation trim to metal mesh suits with printed tweed motifs. The finale was a little black dress in fluid jersey, simple from the front but with an exposed low back punctuated by a suspended camellia. Blazy described this as 'this quiet revolution, but boom.'
The soundtrack remixed Lady Gaga's 'Just Dance' with dialogue from the film Billy Elliot, where the character describes ballet as 'electricity,' while models like Bavitha Mandava and Esther Kim walked. Hairstylist Duffy created tight buns, nodding to ballet aesthetics. The Grand Palais set, with soaring cranes in green, yellow, red, and blue, evoked children's construction games and Blazy's vision of 'building a dream.' Signature skirt suits appeared in silicone and synthetic materials with sequins and floral flourishes. Blazy's debut collection has caused store pandemonium, with long waits reported among editors and buyers.
