Chanel Cruise 2027 Collection
For his first Cruise collection at Chanel, Matthieu Blazy went back to where it all began: Biarritz. More than a century after Coco Chanel established her first couture house on this stretch of the Atlantic coast, Blazy revisited the birthplace of Chanel style—then reshaped it with a contemporary, lightly subversive hand.
Staged inside a seaside Art Deco casino, the collection unfolded as a study in origins. Chanel’s early language—sportswear, maritime uniforms, and utilitarian dress—anchored the narrative. Stripes dominated, from Basque-inspired textiles to nautical knits, including a zip-up sailor sweater worn with a voluminous skirt printed like vintage beach umbrellas. The message was clear: observe, reinterpret, refine.
Blazy leaned into the radical simplicity that once defined Chanel. The opening look nodded to the little black dress—originally rooted in workwear—reframed here as a statement of quiet defiance. Elsewhere, retro swimsuits referenced Le Train Bleu, the 1924 ballet that linked Chanel to avant-garde figures like Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. Bathing caps, tweed suits, and jersey separates blurred lines between leisure and structure, past and present.
Yet this was no archival exercise. Blazy introduced tension through scale and styling: exaggerated double-C logos integrated into tailoring, gender-fluid suiting layered over swimwear, and a playful mix of textures and prints that bordered on excess without tipping into chaos. His now-signature details—like the reworked Charvet-style shirt with guipure lace—added a personal imprint.
There was also fantasy. A closing look—a turquoise sequined gown with a mermaid tail—captured Blazy’s fascination with mythology, while accessories injected irreverence: rubber wading boots, pepper-shaped earrings, and barely-there heels that functioned more as gesture than footwear.
Throughout, echoes of Karl Lagerfeld lingered—not in direct homage, but in spirit. Where Lagerfeld once infused Chanel with pop spectacle, Blazy absorbs that legacy into a quieter, more layered vision.
Cruise 2027 ultimately reads as both return and reset. By grounding the collection in Biarritz, Blazy reconnects Chanel to its founding principles—freedom, movement, modernity—while allowing himself room to experiment. The result is a collection that feels instinctive rather than nostalgic: rooted in history, yet fully alive in the present.
