A Year In, Blazy's Chanel Sends Tiger-Print Tweed and Sheer Skirt Suits Under a Flock of Light-Up Birds

Matthieu Blazy showed his second Chanel spring collection at the Grand Palais on Monday night, October 5, a year after his first. Reuters read it as a house riding momentum: his designs, it says, have brought new customers to Chanel and kept its stores busy while other luxury names struggle. WWD opened its review with Blazy returning to the Grand Palais with, in its words, the year's most successful brand revival behind him.

The room did a lot of the talking. Reuters describes a giant moon and a flock of luminous birds hanging from the glass roof, with a reflective resin floor in a Martian orange and green. WWD counts 95 birds, and says the set was inspired by the village in southern Italy where Blazy vacations, which has a river that is a sanctuary for migrating birds. Chanel's own collection page carries photos of the set and the show.

Chanel

The starting point, per WWD, was the way Gabrielle Chanel's own style changed over her life, from stiff Edwardian tailoring to borrowing her lovers' suits and then inventing the tweed suit itself. Blazy told WWD he was drawn to the playful side of her that the archive photos on his mood board show, including her love of costume. The result, WWD says, is his most varied collection yet: 83 looks, many of them closer to the body than the boxy shapes some Chanel followers had complained about, including clingy, semi-sheer knits and a pearl-embroidered corset top over masculine black trousers.

Tweed was the thing to watch. Reuters saw a wide windowpane tweed with mesh inserts, a red-and-white tiger-print tweed, and sheer cream and black skirt suits embroidered with flowers and beads. Some skirts were sliced into panels that swung as the models walked; others were pleated minis under cropped jackets that showed the midriff. WWD points to patchwork jackets with ribbon trim, a zebra gilet cinched at the waist, an ivory coatdress fastened with gold buttons that don't match, and parachute dresses printed with clouds or a night sky.

The part with a business angle is what WWD calls the next-generation Chanel suit: a newly developed stretch fabric that looks like tweed but wears like sportswear. Blazy told WWD that every design house is thinking about sportswear and the future, and that everyone looks at Nike. For a house whose tweed suit is its best-known garment, putting performance fabric inside that silhouette is a pointed move.

Accessories carried the colour. Reuters noted the house's two-tone pumps in new leopard, tiger and baby-blue-and-silver versions, chunky sandals with a big gold double C, and quilted bags in black, burgundy and white, with a few zebra-print ones in clashing primaries. WWD says model Dyanira Hurbuscher opened and closed the show with Gabrielle Chanel's own 2.55 bag from the archives. Nicole Kidman, the house's ambassador, was in the front row and, WWD says, read passages from Virginia Woolf's Orlando and To the Lighthouse on the soundtrack. Dua Lipa and Pedro Pascal were also there, per Reuters.

Reuters notes that Blazy is known for scoring his shows with 2000s anthems, and both it and WWD say this one ended on Britney Spears's "Gimme More"; Reuters adds that he ran out to greet the crowd afterwards. Chanel's page says the collection reaches boutiques in March 2027. For the house Blazy left to take this job, see our story on Bottega Veneta's Spring 2027 show under Louise Trotter.