I’m Like A Bird: Matthieu Blazy’s First Chanel Couture Collection, Shot By Grazia

Amid nan awesome manner reset of 2025 – which saw 16 awesome Maisons farewell their respective imaginative board and subsequently invited caller ones – couture successful Paris astatine nan commencement of 2026 was ever going to present a definitive answer. With this full rearrangement, location were a number of highly anticipated debuts, but location was 1 we were each waiting for: Matthieu Blazy’s debut for Chanel Haute Couture.

Following a wide acclaimed ready-to-wear debut successful October 2025, swiftly succeeded by a headline-making Métiers d’Art show successful New York City, it’s safe to opportunity Blazy had group nan barroom precocious for his Chanel Haute Couture debut.

DRESS IN GRADIENT VELVET EMBELLISHED WITH FEATHER-EMBROIDERED BRAID, CHANEL

So, for his first-ever haute couture postulation – not conscionable astatine Chanel, but successful his profession – what precisely was Blazy’s starting point? A mobility disarmingly simple: What makes Chanel, Chanel?

“Haute couture is nan very psyche of Chanel – it is nan instauration and nan afloat look of nan house,” Blazy himself explained successful nan show notes. “These are apparel that are arsenic overmuch astir nan wearer arsenic nan designer.

“It’s nan apparel worn that springiness them a existent story; their ain communicative and an affectional resonance, giving women a canvas to show their ain story.”

JACKET IN PEARLY TWEED-EFFECT RAFFIA WITH BRAID, SKIRT IN PEARLY TWEED-EFFECT RAFFIA WITH EMBROIDERED FLOWERS IN CREAM AND PEARLY RAFFIA TWEED BASE, CHANEL

Doing precisely that, and alternatively than pulling nan codes apart, he reduced them to their affectional structure. Case successful point: nan opening look, which was a suit successful sheer silk mousseline, which was followed by a assortment of looks that group nan reside for a postulation which was little concerned pinch show and much of an allowance for nan apparel to breathe. The French-seamed cloth successful mobility was besides utilized to trade iterations of nan Chanel 2.55 bag, arsenic good arsenic a brace of trompe l’oeil ‘denim’ jeans and a achromatic tank.

It was this anonymous haiku – Bird connected a mushroom / I saw nan beauty astatine erstwhile / Then gone, flown distant – that served arsenic nan cardinal inspiration for Blazy’s inaugural collection, not conscionable successful nan pieces themselves but besides to return formation astatine nan Grand Palais. The group itself was for illustration thing retired of a Disney movie (very overmuch reminiscent of Alice successful Wonderland), complete pinch towering toadstool mushrooms and weeping willows.

TOP IN TWO-TONE TWEED WITH BRAID IN FABRIC THREADS AND FANTASY THREADS, SKIRT IN TWO-TONE TWEED AND SILK GAZAR EMBELLISHED WITH A FRINGE IN SILK PLEATED FEATHER, CHANEL

But what stood retired nan most, if you looked beyond what was correct successful beforehand of you, was nan subject down nan full collection, showcasing that nan astir powerful motion is often nan lightest one. In fact, it was among Blazy’s extended investigation into nan archives and into Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel herself, wherever he discovered she was nan first to usage nan mousseline arsenic a cloth successful its ain right.

In a twelvemonth defined by melodramatic change, Blazy offered thing somewhat off-piste: a recalibration and a compelling lawsuit for continuity. Nowhere was this clearer than successful nan Chanel suit – still unmistakably nan Chanel suit, yet loosened into thing fluid, responsive, tin of moving pinch nan female who wears it, precisely arsenic couture intends.

So yes, it was different debut successful a twelvemonth of debuts. But erstwhile nan sound settles, what remains is nan psyche of nan house, which, from nan outset, was precisely Blazy’s point.

PHOTOGRAPHY: ÀLVARO GRACIA
FASHION STYLIST: ENOL BLASCO
HAIR: CARLA CIRUJEDA
MAKEUP: RAFFAELLE ROMAGNOLI
MANICURE: NAFISSA DJABI / B-AGENCY
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: STEFF HAWKER
CASTING DIRECTOR: JEAN-MARC MONDELET
FASHION ASSISTANT: JULIETA MOREIRA
LIGHTING ASSISTANTS: ALESSANDRO FERRAIOLI & MATEI FOCSENEANU
MODEL: ATETA / SELECT MODEL MANAGEMENT
WORDS: OLIVIA MORRIS

“i’M LIKE A BIRD” IS PUBLISHED IN THE 17th EDITION OF GRAZIA mediate east. ORDER YOUR COPY HERE.