It’s a new era at Chanel, and it’s big on personality and characters.
On a dark and stormy December evening, the brand’s 2026 Métiers d’Art runway show took place on an abandoned subway platform in New York City—an unusual venue for the French house, which is known to show at the Grand Palais, or in far-flung locations for its resort and pre-fall collections. This time, Matthieu Blazy—the newly named Chanel creative director, who made his debut for spring 2026 in October—made clothes that paid tribute to the quirky sensibilities and caricatures associated with New York. There were tons of pinstripes, feathered gowns, neon animal-print skirt suits, and enough statement coats to burst through the closet of any downtown apartment.
Models wove through a stationed subway train and onto the platform wearing a mix of New York classics, done through the lens of Chanel. Alex Consani strutted, hands in her pockets, while wearing an oversize pinstripe suit and fedora. Anok Yai sauntered from train car to platform, reading the Chanel newspaper the brand created for the occasion (which also served as the invitation to the show) in a cascading, green leopard print ballgown skirt with multiple tiers, a black turtleneck, and copious amounts of jewelry. Other fashion brands have hosted runway shows in the subway, but only Chanel could bring Tilda Swinton, Kristen Stewart, Solange Knowles, and newly named ambassadors A$AP Rocky and Margaret Qualley to the bowels of the city.
Blazy’s spring 2026 collection featured mind-bending trope l’oeil, a skill the designer mastered during his tenures at Bottega Veneta and Maison Margiela. Craft and handmade, unconventional details were huge sources of focus for Blazy’s ready-to-wear debut. Likewise, the Métiers d’Art collection aimed to be an example of the exceptional craftsmanship of the artisan houses inside Chanel’s creative hub, which include Lesage and Maison Michel.
“It’s not because it’s embroidered that it’s better, it’s because the embroidery serves a purpose,” Blazy said in an interview that was printed in the pages of Chanel’s newspaper invitation. “Then suddenly, you can tell a story, you can create things that serve the mood.” In that same Q&A, Blazy touched on the “character-driven” nature of the collection. There’s “a journalist from the ’70s. We have the ’80s businesswoman who’s going to rule the world. All those characters, they also have embroideries, but it needs to somehow create an alchemy.”
Blazy also nodded to the history of Gabrielle Chanel herself, who created costumes for films like The Rules of the Game from the 1930s through the 1950s. There were certainly theatrical looks in the mix; other highlights of the collection included a scarlet and ivory suit with an asymmetric cut and swinging black fringe, plus a chunky charcoal coat festooned with fluffy feathers. A sunset-pink ombré gown came covered in glittering beads, but denim, black dresses, and functional trench coats also prevailed. “The other thing that I found amazing about New York—I think it’s one of the unique cities in the world where, when you take the subway, you truly never know who you’re going to meet,” Blazy said. Spoken like a true New Yorker.
