Chanel artistic director Matthieu Blazy turned to birdlife and Coco Chanel's life for his latest show in Paris on Monday, exactly a year after his first collection for the famed fashion house.
The display was heavy on Chanel's classic tweeds, but with new modern flourishes, as well as knee-length skirts which are roaring back into fashion in the Spring-Summer 2027 shows.
"It's a collection about Gabrielle Chanel's layered stories. Ultimately, Chanel took off, and each step she took led to her being free, like a bird," Blazy said in his notes for his third ready-to-wear collection.
The show took place in the Grand Palais exhibition space in the French capital, beneath a display of giant illuminated origami cranes that looked like a mobile hung above a child's bed.
Brand ambassadors and Hollywood A-listers Pedro Pascal and Nicole Kidman sat on the front row alongside other VIPs such as singer Dua Lipa and actor John Malkovich.
Chanel had offered a preview of the highly avian collection through a series of black-and-white art photographs by British photographer David Bailey, featuring motifs of feathers, nests and bird's feet.
Blazy, 42, has made gently modernising Chanel his mission since his debut collection in October last year, which was widely praised by fashion watchers and lapped up by luxury buyers.
While other fashion houses are struggling with weak or dipping sales, Chanel's are taking flight.
Some of Blazy's designs have proved so popular they have sparked so-called "Blazymania", frenzied buying in stores of items that often cost thousands of dollars.
The family-owned company's revenues jumped by around 16 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period of 2025, according to a recent report from financial news agency Bloomberg.
Agence France-Presse