Chanel is opening new stores in China as it bets that renewed “vibrancy” in the world’s second-biggest economy and the buzz around star designer Matthieu Blazy will revitalise the French luxury brand.Blazy’s products only began landing in stores in the second half of March 2026, but enthusiasm on social media and in boutiques for his first collections has been dubbed “Blazy mania”. The reception marks a rare bright spot for a major luxury brand amid a multiyear industry slowdown. Chanel’s sales accelerated in the second half of 2025 to “high single digit growth”, the company said on Tuesday (May 19), a momentum that has carried through into 2026. “It’s early to talk about holistic numbers . . . but the indicators [on Blazy] are strong. Clients are excited, new and existing generations of clients are engaging with the brand,” chief executive Leena Nair told the FT, noting the “exceptionally positive reception” of Blazy’s first collections. That marks a change in tone after a difficult few years for Chanel during which customers grew critical of steep price rises and a lack of appealing new products before Blazy’s arrival from Bottega Veneta last year. Those issues were compounded by the wider travails of the luxury sector, which included a string of geopolitical crises and weak demand in the key Chinese market.