CHANEL IS CHANGING WITHOUT LOOKING LIKE CHANEL HAS CHANGED
Chanel Spring/Summer 2027: How Matthieu Blazy Is Rewriting the Codes of the House
With his second Chanel collection, Matthieu Blazy is not abandoning the house codes. He is loosening them, moving them, and making them feel relevant to a new generation.
The Chanel we know is still there. It just moves differently now.
At Paris Fashion Week, Matthieu Blazy presented Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection — his second ready-to-wear collection for the house — and made the direction of his Chanel increasingly clear.
This is not a radical rejection of Chanel’s past. It is something more commercially and creatively interesting: a reinterpretation of the codes that made Chanel recognisable in the first place.
The tweed remains. The skirt suit remains. The two-tone shoes remain. The quilting remains.
But the way those elements behave has changed.
Blazy is making Chanel lighter, more fluid, more sensual, more playful and considerably less rigid.
THE BIG GNG TAKE
Chanel isn’t changing its identity. It’s changing the way its identity moves.
That is the most important story coming out of the SS27 show.
Rather than treating heritage as something that must remain untouched, Blazy appears to be treating it as raw material.
The result is Chanel that can move between masculine tailoring, lingerie references, fluid dresses, athletic flexibility, sheer fabrics, exaggerated tweed and youthful styling without completely losing its visual vocabulary. AP News
01 — CLASSIC CHANEL → MODERN MOVEMENT
The traditional Chanel suit has historically represented structure: jacket, skirt, tweed, polished femininity.
Blazy loosens that formula.
For SS27, tailoring becomes more fluid, with raw edges, softer proportions and silhouettes that allow the body to move rather than simply presenting a polished silhouette.
The collection included masculine tailoring alongside fluid dresses and more revealing looks, creating a dialogue between structure and freedom.
GNG DECODE:
The modern luxury customer doesn’t necessarily want to look formal. She wants to look expensive without looking restricted.
02 — TWEED → FLEXIBLE, STRETCHABLE & UNEXPECTED
This may be the most important evolution.
Blazy’s Chanel is continuing to experiment with tweed rather than simply reproducing the classic bouclé jacket.
The SS27 collection pushed tweed into looser windowpane constructions, mesh combinations and even striking red-and-white tiger print. AP also highlighted Blazy’s development of “smocked tweed” with athleticwear-like flexibility. AP News
That changes the emotional meaning of tweed.
From:
formal → ladylike → traditional
To:
textural → flexible → youthful → expressive
Tweed is no longer simply something you wear because it is Chanel.
It becomes something you can move, layer and experiment with.
03 — TAILORING → LESS FORMAL, MORE PERSONAL
One of Blazy’s strongest ideas is that tailoring doesn’t have to mean stiffness.
The SS27 collection played with cropped jackets, raw-edged waistcoats, fluid silhouettes and masculine references. Some jackets exposed the midriff, while skirts were shortened, sliced into panels or finished with deliberately unfinished details. AP News
This creates a different Chanel woman.
She isn’t necessarily entering a room in a perfectly coordinated suit.
She might be wearing:
a cropped Chanel jacket + a mini + statement shoes + exposed skin.
The codes are familiar.
The attitude is different.
04 — HERITAGE → A YOUNGER CHANEL
This is where Blazy’s strategy becomes particularly interesting.
Chanel has enormous heritage — but heritage can become visually static if it is only reproduced.
Blazy is making those codes desirable to someone who may not want the traditional Chanel look.
The collection introduced:
- Sheer skirt suits
- Fluid dresses
- Cropped jackets
- Pleated minis
- Animal-print tweed
- Mesh
- Frayed finishes
- Chunkier footwear
- More playful handbags
- Stronger colour combinations Reuters
The result is a Chanel that can speak to the traditional customer and someone discovering the house through fashion culture, celebrities and social media.
THE MOST INTERESTING CONTRADICTION
It looks new because Blazy understands what must remain familiar.
This is why the collection doesn’t feel like Chanel has suddenly become another fashion house.
The visual anchors are still there:
Tweed.
Black and white.
Tailoring.
Quilting.
Two-tone shoes.
Chain details.
The Chanel silhouette.
But each has been given permission to behave differently.
That may ultimately become Blazy’s most important contribution to the house.
THE “LIBERATED BODY” MOMENT
One of the strongest shifts is the relationship between Chanel and the body.
The collection incorporated sheer fabrics, lingerie references, fluid dresses, cropped proportions and exposed midriffs. Reuters described the collection as introducing a new sense of sensuality and a more liberated body. Reuters
This is significant because it moves Chanel away from the idea of femininity as purely polished elegance.
Blazy’s Chanel can be elegant and sensual at the same time.
AND THEN THERE’S THE TIGER
Tiger-print tweed is perhaps the clearest visual metaphor for the new Chanel.
Take one of the house’s most recognisable materials.
Then make it louder.
More graphic.
More provocative.
More unexpected.
That is Blazy’s approach in one garment.
THE ACCESSORIES ARE CHANGING TOO
The accessories followed the same philosophy.
Two-tone pumps appeared in leopard and tiger variations, while chunky sandals carried oversized gold CC detailing. Quilted bags remained recognisable but appeared in bolder colour combinations and animal-inspired treatments. Reuters
Again:
The code remains.
The attitude changes.
WHY THIS MATTERS BEYOND CHANEL
Blazy’s Chanel reflects a broader luxury-fashion shift.
Today’s customer increasingly wants heritage without feeling trapped by heritage.
She wants:
craftsmanship + comfort
heritage + individuality
luxury + movement
recognition + novelty
That is why the idea of the “new Chanel” isn’t necessarily about making Chanel look futuristic.
It is about making Chanel feel alive again.
AP notes that the collection included 83 looks and positioned Blazy’s approach around the tension between tradition and reinvention. AP News
GNG VERDICT
Matthieu Blazy isn’t designing a different Chanel.
He’s designing a Chanel that can move into the future without asking its past for permission.
And perhaps that is the cleverest way to change an iconic fashion house:
Don’t erase the codes.
Don’t worship the codes.
Rework them.
That is the Blazy era.
GNG QUICK TAKE
THE CODE: Tweed
THE CHANGE: Flexibility + transparency + unexpected prints
THE CODE: Chanel suit
THE CHANGE: Cropped, softened, loosened
THE CODE: Femininity
THE CHANGE: More sensual and liberated
THE CODE: Heritage
THE CHANGE: Youthful styling
THE CODE: Luxury
THE CHANGE: More movement, personality and play
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