Collections: Chanel’s Cruise collection crystallises its metamorphosis
Blazy reinforces he wants us to come into his world. With pleasure.
Calling back to Biarritz, the setting where Coco Chanel first opened her couture house in 1915, Chanel’s latest Cruise collection, Matthieu Blazy’s 5th catwalk show since joining in late 2024, crystallised the metamorphosis, cementing his vision in the most cohesive collection since his tenure began.
I could see the obvious mores of mythology and metamorphosis, both Chanel’s own and now Blazy’s, woven throughout the collection. The set and art direction of the show itself sang in harmony with the House’s motifs. The plush beige carpets mimicking sand, so piled it left footprints from models cascading down. The mirrored walls and ceilings, a call back to Rue Cambon’s famous staircase leading up to Coco Chanel’s private residence, dually impressing the sensation of water. Ary Barroso’s Aquarela do Brasil woven with Kylie’s Come into my World. It’s renewal. It’s the metamorphosis of the Chanel universe, coded by Matthieu Blazy.
The mermaid on land, she’s the metamorphic woman in form and identity. She’s still coming into focus. She’s wearing half-formed shoes for her newly formed legs. The woman by the sea, she’s self-actualised, is seen but still observes in her CC waders.
Similar to Matthieu’s previous Chanel collection, there was a large volume of looks - nearly 80. And with volume, there’s vast variety of individual pieces, accessories and shoes. This collection however felt the most cohesive of Matthieu’s collections so far. Clearly building from previous collections, pulling on Chanel codes from the 1920s (dropped waists, swim caps, more masculine tailoring), interlaced with Matthieu’s exceptional craftsman’s capability to blend surrealism with form and function in materials. XXL straw bags. Dresses made of fishing nets. Flotsam and jetsam in the form of newsprint dresses.
Blazy’s Chanel has come into harmonious form. This collection’s siren song draws these metamorphic women who are enraptured by his world in which we see ourselves reflected.
