AT CHANEL this season, metamorphosis arrived with a certain pragmatism. Presented beneath the glass canopy of the Grand Palais during Paris Fashion Week, Matthieu Blazy’s Autumn/ Winter 2026 collection began not with spectacle, but with structure.
The set told the story first. Towering construction cranes, painted in primary colours and glowing softly against the vast glass hall, suggested a house still being built. Chanel, after all, is a structure of ideas as much as garments, and Blazy appears intent on laying each brick carefully.
His starting point was a line from Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel: fashion must be both caterpillar and butterfly. “Fashion is both caterpillar and butterfly. Be a caterpillar by day and a butterfly by night”, said the founder.
The early looks were resolutely earthbound. Tweed suits, Chanel’s eternal grammar, were rephrased with the quiet confidence of a designer who understands the weight of a classic. Jackets came slightly relaxed; bouclé “work shirts” peeked out beneath them, untucked with studied ease. Ribbed knits and pressed tweed blousons suggested a wardrobe that moves between office, street and dinner.
Then the silhouette shifted. Waistlines dropped dramatically, belts slung low across the hips or even the thigh, elongating the torso in a nod to flapper dressing of the 1920s. Skirts began where jackets ended; proportions slid out of alignment in a way that felt oddly liberating.
As the show progressed, the collection evolved into something more nocturnal. Tweed gave way to metallic mesh woven to mimic it; silk jersey glided alongside iridescent embroidery. Coats and dresses appeared almost sylph-like, cascading in soft arcs that caught the light as the models walked.
The accessories completed the transformation. Resin jewellery gleamed like Impressionist paintings, pastel cap-toe boots clung to the leg like a second skin, and a pomegranate minaudière shimmered with poisonous glamour.
If Chanel is a paradox today, Blazy seems comfortable inhabiting it. Sensible yet seductive. Functional yet fictional. In other words: a wardrobe for women who might prefer to be caterpillars by day but become butterflies by night.
by Imogen Clark