7 July 2026
Once upon a time, a French fashion house conjured an enchanted garden inside the Grand Palais and the whole world watched, breathless…
For CHANEL’s Fall/Winter 2026 Haute Couture collection, Matthieu Blazy drew inspiration from classic fairy tales like Goldilocks, Jack and the Beanstalk, Swan Lake, Puss in Boots and The Wizard of Oz, setting the stage with massive green vines and a rainbow of exotic colourful flowers, as if Jack’s magic beanstalk had burst through the Grand Palais ceiling. It was theatrical without being frivolous. It was Blazy.
Image Credit: CHANEL
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
The inspiration, as it turned out, had deeply personal roots. Backstage after the show, Blazy clutched an old leather-bound book of fairy tales he had found in Gabrielle Chanel’s Rue Cambon apartment: ‘Les Fées, contes des contes’ (which translates as ‘Fairies, Tales of Tales’ by Charles Perrault). In a statement Blazy elaborated: “I asked myself whether Chanel’s life was a fairy tale and, together with the Haute Couture ateliers, we explored the idea of clothes that carry stories, like books.” The seed was planted, the magic woven into every look.
The first look specifically – the model who opened the show was carrying a copy of Perrault’s book. Models continued in a botanical assortment of flowing dresses and gauzy silk skirt suits covered in a garden’s worth of blossoms. And yet this was never spectacle for its own sake. As Blazy himself noted, “CHANEL couture is not about the big ‘wow.’ CHANEL couture is about the details.”
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Image Credit: CHANEL
Image Credit: CHANEL
Image Credit: CHANEL
Image Credit: CHANEL
Image Credit: CHANEL
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Those details were extraordinary. Many draped dresses and tweed skirt suits were trimmed with layers of tangled gold chains, crystals, and pearls. Visible stitching, layered pockets, and contrasting colours put the handiwork of CHANEL’s couture atelier on full display. Some jackets were lined with elaborate illustrations, while others concealed notes embroidered in silk. These are the kinds of secrets that only the woman wearing them will ever truly know.
Many looks came with frayed edges, inspired by Chanel’s aggressive approach to fittings. “She’s attacking the garment. She’s not pinning the sleeve, she’s ripping the sleeve off,” Blazy explained. This physical evidence of hands and pins and conviction made the collection feel alive in the way that only true couture can.
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Image Credit: CHANEL
A farmer-like section of the show elevated a flannel shirt and blue jeans with frayed tweed and beading, while versatile black and brown suits, long vests, and knee-length skirts proved the collection could translate to everyday wear. Blazy’s gift is exactly this: the ability to hold poetry and practicality in balance.
A favourite among celebrity guests were the shoes. Various colour combinations of Blazy’s rendition of the two-tone slingbacks displayed true artistry with magic beans, golden eggs and fairy wings, among other things, as the heel itself.
Image Credit: CHANEL
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
The closing look said everything. Ending a couture show with a wedding dress has long been a CHANEL tradition, but Blazy chose to go another way. He placed the bride in a lace drop-waist gown and veil and mesh shoes, several looks before the finale. The reason? “This would not be Chanel’s fairy tale,” he said. “She never got married.” Instead, as the final look, Blazy showed Gabrielle Chanel’s greatest creation: a little black dress.
There it is. The darkness at the edge of the story. The refusal. That is CHANEL. Matthieu Blazy continues to prove that he understands this house not merely as a place of beautiful things, but as a philosophy. One that belongs to a woman who has somewhere to be, something to say, and absolutely no interest in an ending she didn’t write herself.
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Image Credit: Vogue Runway
Image Credit: CHANEL
Image Credit: CHANEL
Image Credit: CHANEL
Coco Chanel once said, “If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing”. That is how she lived her life. She created her freedom and wove her own tale.
The fairy tale is far from over.
Image Credit: CHANEL
Image Credit: CHANEL