“Ultimately, Chanel took off, and each step she took led to her being free, like a bird.”
‘Throughout their lives, women become multiple selves,’ Matthieu Blazy said in the show notes for his most recent CHANEL collection. ‘It’s about the women within a woman. And here, it’s about one woman, Gabrielle, who then became Chanel.’
The Spring Summer 2027 collection was an ode to the many different facets of Gabrielle Chanel, just as much as it was an ode to the many facets of every woman. It was one of my favourite Blazy collections for CHANEL to date — and not least of all because, in it, I recognised the many different facets of myself.
The young girl in me was thrilled by the ballerina skirts of layered tulle and looped strings of pearls, while the rebellious teenager coveted those sheer layers and fine openwork knits. The mother in me wished to slip into the relaxed tailoring of an oversized blazer, while my future self yearned for the perfect tweed twinset — albeit with a twist.
Hemlines danced with adornment and flowers bloomed upon a plunging neckline here or a scooped back there. Sparkly red pumps were like a grown-up Dorothy’s dream shoe. While handbags were left undone and lapels peppered with pearls. All the while, whimsical birds soared high overhead in the Grand Palais — a symbol of freedom, movement, and unbridled self-expression, much like Gabrielle Chanel’s own desires through dress.
As per the show notes, Blazy was here tracing Gabrielle’s ‘personal fashion journey: from the strictures of Edwardian corsetry and tailoring she once assumed and rebelled against, to her reconfigured, revolutionary ideas of suiting, slipped on and lightly sported.’
Fittingly, the show began with Dyanira Hurbuscher holding Gabrielle Chanel’s own 2.55 bag from the Patrimoine archives. ‘Eras and epochs conflate, particularly in the array of flap bags, both old and new.’ So, in a beautiful full-circle moment, the collection also returned to Coco’s handbag at the very end, worn by the same model.
‘Identities are tried on, enhanced, added to, played with, or at times discarded and fought against. They leave traces of their former incarnations behind; lines of shadow boning, the flourish of a peplum, the ruffle of a collar, the curve of a bodice, becoming the ghostly remnants of fashion lives past.’
It is this idea of fashion lives past — as well as the promise of fashion lives future — that felt so exciting about CHANEL’s Spring Summer 2027 collection. Familiar yet brand new, it aptly captured the art of becoming. A woman.
‘Throughout their lives, women become multiple selves,’ Matthieu Blazy said in the show notes for his most recent CHANEL collection. ‘It’s about the women within a woman. And here, it’s about one woman, Gabrielle, who then became Chanel.’
The Spring Summer 2027 collection was an ode to the many different facets of Gabrielle Chanel, just as much as it was an ode to the many facets of every woman. It was one of my favourite Blazy collections for CHANEL to date — and not least of all because, in it, I recognised the many different facets of myself.
The young girl in me was thrilled by the ballerina skirts of layered tulle and looped strings of pearls, while the rebellious teenager coveted those sheer layers and fine openwork knits. The mother in me wished to slip into the relaxed tailoring of an oversized blazer, while my future self yearned for the perfect tweed twinset — albeit with a twist.
Hemlines danced with adornment and flowers bloomed upon a plunging neckline here or a scooped back there. Sparkly red pumps were like a grown-up Dorothy’s dream shoe. While handbags were left undone and lapels peppered with pearls. All the while, whimsical birds soared high overhead in the Grand Palais — a symbol of freedom, movement, and unbridled self-expression, much like Gabrielle Chanel’s own desires through dress.
As per the show notes, Blazy was here tracing Gabrielle’s ‘personal fashion journey: from the strictures of Edwardian corsetry and tailoring she once assumed and rebelled against, to her reconfigured, revolutionary ideas of suiting, slipped on and lightly sported.’
Fittingly, the show began with Dyanira Hurbuscher holding Gabrielle Chanel’s own 2.55 bag from the Patrimoine archives. ‘Eras and epochs conflate, particularly in the array of flap bags, both old and new.’ So, in a beautiful full-circle moment, the collection also returned to Coco’s handbag at the very end, worn by the same model.
‘Identities are tried on, enhanced, added to, played with, or at times discarded and fought against. They leave traces of their former incarnations behind; lines of shadow boning, the flourish of a peplum, the ruffle of a collar, the curve of a bodice, becoming the ghostly remnants of fashion lives past.’
It is this idea of fashion lives past — as well as the promise of fashion lives future — that felt so exciting about CHANEL’s Spring Summer 2027 collection. Familiar yet brand new, it aptly captured the art of becoming. A woman.
