Blazy takes flight of fancy with bird-themed Chanel show

A model wears a creation as part of the Chanel Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

PARIS, France -- After reaching for the stars in his first show for Chanel, new chief designer Matthieu Blazy took a feathery flight of fancy for his debut Haute Couture collection inspired by birds and nature on Tuesday.

The vast Grand Palais exhibition space in central Paris was transformed into an enchanted and psychedelic forest populated by giant mushrooms and pink weeping willows.

Blazy, 41, said he intended to “probe and explore the heart of Chanel” with his Haute Couture creations following his highly acclaimed first ready-to-wear women’s collection in the same space in October.

That show was set against giant glowing planets that signalled his ambitions, while Tuesday’s looks were rooted in earthly beauty, particularly the elegance of bird life.

With stars from Nicole Kidman to Dua Lipa looking on, the first outfits made abundant use of sheer silk muslin alongside Chanel tweeds before the arrival of more whimsical, avian-inspired styles.

“The idea of the feather runs through the collection, though seldom in its natural form. All kinds of birds appear, as if by magic, from the most familiar to the rarest,” Blazy wrote in his show notes.

The Franco-Belgian couturier referenced the extravagant plumage of a roseate spoonbill or the crested cockatoo alongside the humble crow, grey pigeon and magpie.

Even for Haute Couture dresses, typically worn at gala or red carpet events, Blazy told the WWD website that he had tried to strip back some of the excess to focus on the “essence of the house, which is clothes that women actually wear.”

Creative overhaul

Blazy’s debut show was one the most hotly anticipated moments of Haute Couture Week, alongside new Dior designer Jonathan Anderson’s first outing on Monday.

Anderson, a 41-year-old Northern Irish designer, also honoured nature, but through highly floral silhouettes that were both sculptural and airy.

The two contemporaries were promoted as part of a vast overhaul of creative director positions in the European luxury clothing sector in the last 12 months.

Seen as new generational talents, both have the daunting task of modernizing some of the most venerable and profitable labels in fashion.

Blazy was poached from Italian leather goods brand Bottega Veneta in December 2024 and handed the task of turning the page on the era of Karl Lagerfeld, who reigned for more than three decades at Chanel.

“The new man in arguably the biggest job in fashion proved once more that he is also inarguably the right man,” The Times of London’s fashion editor wrote of Blazy in a review of his show on Tuesday.

Anderson has had more mixed reviews, with some critics seeing the risk-taking son of a former rugby player as still searching for a clear identity having now completed a full set of womenswear, menswear and Haute Couture.

Debuts

Among other highlights this week in Paris, Armani will later unveil the Italian house’s first Haute Couture collection without the oversight of its founder, Giorgio, who died in early September at the age of 91.

French designers Stephane Rolland and Julien Fournie as well as eco-minded Dutch couturier Ronald van der Kemp will also unveil their collections later in the day.

There will be a historic debut on Thursday by Phan Huy, who will become the youngest designer ever invited to Paris Haute Couture Week -- aged just 27 -- as well as the first Vietnamese couturier in the programme.

Only 13 fashion houses hold the official “Haute Couture” accreditation, which is a legally protected term in France, although France’s FHCM fashion federation invites guest designers to join the programme.

The twice-yearly event is a celebrity magnet, with actor Jennifer Lawrence and singer Rihanna as well as Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez spotted at the Dior show on Monday.

By Adam Plowright and Marine Do-Vale