Paris Fashion Week: Matthieu Blazy’s audacious Chanel debut brings fresh creativity to the iconic French fashion house

Oct 7 , 2025

The long-awaited Chanel show by Matthieu Blazy takes to the catwalk at the Grand Palais in Paris amid a constellation of stars and planets. Photo: AP

The storied maison’s new creative director shakes things up with a bold debut blending new ideas, reinvention and exactly the right amount of respect for the Coco Chanel legacy

When Chanel appointed Matthieu Blazy as its new creative director late last year, some industry insiders griped that the powers that be at the storied house wouldn’t give him free rein to express his creativity.

How wrong they were.

His debut at Chanel at the end of a very long Paris Fashion Week was a riot of creativity.

Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel show opened with this menswear-inspired look. Photo: EPA

Bold and audacious, his first show for the brand was hands down the most awaited debut in recent fashion history. This was a historic moment in fashion, not only because Chanel is more than just a brand – an institution with cultural cachet and soft power unparalleled in France and beyond – but also because the storied maison has only had two designers in its history: founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld.

To be fair, Lagerfeld’s immediate successor was his right-hand woman, Virginie Viard, who did a solid job during her relatively short tenure but closely followed Lagerfeld’s playbook and stayed true to his vision.

Blazy’s arrival is the biggest shake-up in creative direction Chanel has undergone in a lifetime.

A simple white T-shirt in silk with a feather skirt closed the show. Photo: AFP

The show was held at the Grand Palais, Chanel’s go-to venue, under a canopy of stars and planets to introduce the “Universe of Chanel”, as the show notes called this new era.

The opening look – a jacket worn with a shirt made in collaboration with shirtmaker Charvet and paired with matching trousers – was a bold choice for a house so steeped in femininity.

Chanel has such strong codes that any designer would easily feel overwhelmed and constrained by them, but Blazy subverted them with gusto and just the right amount of respect.

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