PFW: A Bird's Eye View At Chanel Spring/Summer 2027

A year into his tenure at Chanel, Matthieu Blazy is continuing his conversation with the House’s history. For Spring/Summer 2027, the creative director turned once again to founder Gabrielle Chanel, exploring the many women contained within the designer’s life and work.

The collection, presented against a flock of majestic lit-up seagull figurines, moved between the young Chanel and the woman she would eventually become, from jersey underwear and the rejection of restrictive Edwardian dress to the suit that would become synonymous with her. Those references were rarely literal, but traces of corsetry, boning, peplums and curved bodices appeared as shadows within new, breezier silhouettes, while traditional men’s formalwear was stripped back and reconstructed as raw-edged gilets and pencil-skirt suits.

The masculine and feminine continued to blur, as was Chanel’s signature. Sequined 1930s-style gowns, knitted dresses and beaded pieces had an almost T-shirt-like ease, while layers of transparent silk created billowing silhouettes inspired by clouds, shifting from morning to golden hour and night.

As hinted in the show’s teasers, birds, particularly swallows and swifts, became a recurring motif across buttons, jewellery and embroidery, offering a playful symbol of freedom. But movement was also built into the clothes themselves, through the Maison’s intricate fabric development and a new “smocked tweed” that transformed Chanel’s famously structured suit into something lighter, stretchier and surprisingly agile.

Accessories followed the same idea of multiple identities, with archival and new flap bags appearing alongside cloud-shaped styles and a birdcage minaudière.

In his notes, Blazy described the collection as being about Gabrielle Chanel’s “layered stories” rather than a historical recreation. A year into his chapter, he seems increasingly skilled in exploring what happens when those stories are allowed to evolve and, ultimately, take flight.