Chanel announced in December 2024 that Matthieu Blazy would become the house's creative director, succeeding Virginie Viard, per the appointment coverage across the industry press. Blazy arrived from Bottega Veneta, with earlier stints at Celine under Phoebe Philo, Maison Margiela, Raf Simons and an earlier period inside Chanel itself — a résumé that made the run-up to his debut one of the most closely read transitions in recent French fashion.
Why was the appointment read as significant?
Because Chanel chose craft over celebrity. Blazy's Bottega Veneta had demonstrated that a quiet, material-driven wardrobe — woven leather, engineered knits, trompe-l'oeil cottons that looked like denim — could carry both critical approval and commercial growth at a Kering house. Moving that profile to Chanel, a privately held maison with couture at its core, signaled that the company wanted the product rebuilt from the hand outward rather than the image outward. He is also among the few designers to hold the combined role across the house's collections in the post-Lagerfeld structure.
What happened in the run-up to the debut?
The gap between announcement and show was unusually long by current standards: roughly ten months. Blazy's first collection, spring 2026, was shown on October 6, 2025, closing Paris Fashion Week; per Numéro, the debut made a strong impression and was treated as the season's most anticipated moment. Vogue followed with a four-month account of his first months at the house by Nathan Heller, per its October 14, 2025 feature — a level of documented access the maison rarely grants.
The reception
Reviews converged on a consistent reading: a Chanel recut through ease rather than costume, with tailoring, tweed and the house's accessory codes handled as wardrobe. Per Harper's Bazaar UK, the show was described as the opening of a new era at the French house.
What came after the debut?
The schedule confirmed momentum: per press coverage of the house's calendar, Blazy's Chanel staged a Métiers d'Art show in New York, extending the maison's tradition of itinerant craft presentations into his first year. For a house that had spent the post-Lagerfeld years in consolidation, the Blazy run-up — announcement, long runway, documented debut, immediate second act — reads as a deliberate rebuilding sequence, and the April 2026 collections will show whether the pace holds.
The background explains the patience. Virginie Viard had led Chanel since Karl Lagerfeld's death in 2019, and the December 2024 announcement ended a search conducted under unusual discretion. Blazy's route to the job was also a return: he had worked at the house early in his career, before the stints at Maison Margiela, Raf Simons, Celine and Kanye West's Yeezy that built his reputation, per the appointment coverage. The maison thus chose a designer with an existing relationship to its codes and a proven record of raising the material bar elsewhere.
For more context, read Louise Trotter's Bottega Veneta: First Chapters In Intrecciato.
For more context, read julian klausner.
For more context, read Haider Ackermann At Tom Ford: The First Runway, Measured.