Fashion

Inside Matthieu Blazy’s Hotly-Anticipated Chanel Couture Debut

BYKhaoula Ghanem

January 27, 2026

Before the front rows, before the standing ovations, before the weight of Chanel’s camellias and salons settled on his shoulders, Matthieu Blazy learned how to disappear.

He entered Maison Martin Margiela in 2011, joining the house during its fiercely guarded anonymous era, when designers were deliberately kept out of public view. At Margiela, authorship was secondary to process, and clothes were expected to communicate ideas without relying on a name. Blazy worked across women’s ready to wear and Artisanal, where experimentation with materials, construction, and illusion formed the foundation of his design language.

But his anonymity didn’t last forever. In July 2014, after a Margiela Artisanal collection that felt unusually assured, British fashion journalist Suzy Menkes publicly identified Blazy backstage, declaring that “you can’t keep such a talent under wraps.” It was a rare rupture in Margiela’s code of silence and a signal moment. Shortly after, Blazy left the house.

Later that same year, he joined Céline under Phoebe Philo as a senior designer, primarily working on pre collections. Céline offered a different kind of discipline. Where Margiela encouraged conceptual exploration, Céline demanded restraint, proportion, and emotional clarity. Clothes needed to function in real wardrobes while still carrying intellectual weight. Blazy absorbed this approach, and those combined influences became fully visible during his tenure at Bottega Veneta, where he was appointed creative director in 2021. At Bottega, Blazy did not rely on logos or overt branding. Instead, he focused on material innovation and construction. Leather was treated as a sculptural medium, capable of mimicking denim, cotton, or knitwear. Trompe l’oeil became a recurring device, though always deployed with subtlety. The house’s emphasis on craftsmanship aligned naturally with his instincts.

Notably, he never touched couture at Bottega. His reputation was built almost entirely on ready-to-wear and accessories, which is precisely why his move to Chanel felt seismic.

In December 2024, Chanel named Blazy Artistic Director of Fashion, entrusting him with everything: ready-to-wear, accessories, and haute couture. The appointment ended months of speculation and marked one of the most consequential creative shifts at the house in decades. He officially joined in April 2025 and made his runway debut with Spring/Summer 2026 ready-to-wear last October.

Couture, however, remained the unanswered question.

On Jan. 27, during Paris Haute Couture Week, Blazy presented his first haute couture collection for Chanel. Attendees and friends of the house including Dua Lipa, Tilda Swinton, Kim Go-eun, ASAP Rocky, Penelope Cruz, Claire Foy, and Nicole Kidman were greeted by a carefully constructed woodland setting. Oversized sculptural mushrooms (the invitation was a silver mushroom pendant necklace) and drooping trees in muted shades of blush, cream, and deep red were arranged across the floor, lending the setting a calm, almost magical quality as the show began.

Chanel Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2026. Supplied

Dua Lipa attends the Chanel Spring 2026 Haute Couture show.

Several of the strongest looks hinged on material manipulation rather than overt silhouette shifts. The show opened with a sheer, pale blush ensemble that layered translucency with precision, using fine chiffon and organza panels that skimmed the body without clinging.

One fitted dress was densely worked with multicolored threads, creating a surface that appeared almost distressed up close, with flecks of red, black, cream, and gold woven irregularly across the fabric. Feathered cuffs and hemline softened the rigidity of the silhouette, allowing movement to do much of the visual work.

Bird references appeared through suggestion rather than costume. A flowing dress in red, cream, and black used layered textures to evoke plumage, relying on movement and construction to create depth rather than overt embellishment. The effect was expressive but measured, never tipping into excess.

Chanel Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2026

Tailored suits featured bird-shaped buttons and exacting fits, while the fabrics themselves appeared softened and worn in, as though time had already been worked into their surfaces. These looks grounded the collection, offering recognizable Chanel codes while quietly reworking proportion and texture.

One of the most quietly striking looks reduced couture to its barest elements. A white tank top paired with jeans appeared almost disarmingly simple, until it became clear that both pieces were constructed entirely from airy silk. The trompe l’oeil effect was subtle and precise, transforming an everyday uniform into something weightless and exacting, further proving Blazy’s ability to elevate the most ordinary silhouette through construction alone rather than embellishment.

Taken as a whole, the collection felt less like a dramatic debut and more like a considered introduction to how Blazy intends to work within couture. Expectations were unusually high, shaped by his reputation for precision and material intelligence, and the weight of stepping into one of fashion’s most codified houses. What he delivered met that pressure with confidence rather than excess. Instead of attempting to rewrite Chanel’s history, the focus remained on construction, proportion, and restraint, signaling a designer more interested in continuity than disruption.

Chanel Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2026

Chanel Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2026. Supplied

Chanel Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2026

Inside Matthieu Blazy’s Hotly-Anticipated Chanel Couture Debut

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Inside Matthieu Blazy’s Hotly-Anticipated Chanel Couture Debut

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