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Style Edit: Chanel’s Paris haute couture show was a storybook brought to life
STORYSCMP Style Reporter
Inspired by a fairy-tale book found in Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s library, Matthieu Blazy’s latest collection proves that fantasy and function can coexist
Chanel is always one of the most highly anticipated outings on the Paris Couture Week calendar, and Matthieu Blazy certainly didn’t disappoint this past season. For fall/winter 2026-27, Blazy made sure the follow-up to his first couture outing for the maison felt less like a collection presentation and more like a storybook brought to life.
Staged at the Grand Palais, the show turned the Salon d’Honneur into a fairy-tale landscape of giant flowers, hanging chairs, climbing vines and oversized vases, with a watercolour painter live-sketching the scene as the show was under way.
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Blazy’s inspiration came from a fairy-tale book discovered in Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s library, and the collection leaned into that sense of whimsy. “I started to wonder, was Gabrielle Chanel’s life a fairy tale?” Blazy wrote in his show notes. “[I] asked myself if, together with the haute couture ateliers, we could make garments that tell stories like a book.”
The opening looks set the tone with sheer, reimagined suits in checks. When you look closely, you’ll see the checks are in fact rendered in three-dimensional braided ropes. Floral appliqués were used liberally across skirts, suits and dresses, while the accessories took on a more playful note with bean- and animal-shaped minaudières which married fashion and jewellery.
Following drop-waist column dresses came airy lingerie-inspired pieces in soft hues. Translucent fabrics, flowing skirts, and cuts that bared the skin in all the right places conjured an array of fairy-like silhouettes which looked elegant and ethereal while channelling a childlike sense of wonder.
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