If anything has characterised Matthieu Blazy’s tenure at Chanel so far, it must surely be a smile. Specifically that belonging to the model Awar Odhiang, who closed the designer’s debut show. Walking through a Grand Palais all spun with multicoloured planets, Odhiang unleashed a mega-grin. It was accessorised with a white silk T-shirt and a “piña colada” skirt. Bouncing down the catwalk with her own cosmic energy, she inaugurated a total shift in mood.
It was what they call in the industry a “moment”, and the climax of a season in which more than a dozen designers had made debuts. Anticipation about Blazy’s vision had reached a crescendo well before the unveiling of his interstellar show. He did it again in December, with a Métiers d’art presentation in New York in an abandoned subway station. The collection – surprising, chic and featuring a Superman sweater – combined expertise and wit.
The 41-year-old Belgian-French designer was not initially rumoured to be a frontrunner to lead the house founded, in Paris, by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel in 1910. But according to Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel haute couture and fashion, there was never any contest: “From day one, the way he talked about Chanel, about Gabrielle Chanel, and about what Chanel could represent left us in no doubt.” Blazy’s role as artistic director of fashion doesn’t include beauty, jewellery or watches, but as the most public-facing figure of the house, his influence is vast. Chanel is a behemoth, still held in private ownership by the Wertheimer brothers, and a sprawling empire whose revenues were $18.7bn in 2024. For many decades, the creative leadership was steered by the late designer Karl Lagerfeld. Blazy has been tasked with writing a new creative chapter and freshening up the “assortment”, as Pavlovsky describes it, in a deeply respectful way.
