There are fashion shows, and then there are fashion homecomings. Chanel’s Cruise 2027 presentation belonged firmly to the latter.
For Matthieu Blazy’s first cruise outing at Chanel, the house travelled to Biarritz, the French seaside town where Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel first began shaping what would become the codes of the maison. More than a century later, Blazy brought Chanel back to its point of origin with a collection that felt part archive love letter, part beachside fantasy, and part declaration of where his Chanel is headed next.
The setting did half the talking. Guests including Nicole Kidman, Tilda Swinton, A$AP Rocky and Sofia Coppola gathered at a seafront Art Deco casino, transformed with plush beige carpeting, mirrored columns and bright floral arrangements.
Chanel’s early style was born from watching real life, swimmers, sailors, working women, sports clothes, uniforms, the ease of movement. Blazy leaned into that story with sailor stripes, Basque-inspired fabrics, graphic beach umbrella patterns, retro swimsuits, swimming caps, straw hats and crisp seaside tailoring.
The opening look nodded to the little black dress, reimagined through the workwear attitude that originally made it so radical. Elsewhere, archive shapes were revived with purpose rather than nostalgia. A black-and-white skirt suit borrowed directly from Chanel’s own drawings made the double-C feel less like branding and more like adornment. Knit suits, zigzag edges and ’20s-inflected silhouettes gave the collection its historical spine, while Blazy added his own sense of play through genderless pantsuits, lace-panel shirting, rubber wading boots, pepper-shaped earrings and barely-there heel-cap shoes.
Then came the mermaids. Blazy’s fascination with the mythic sea creature gave the collection its fantasy charge, most memorably through a turquoise sequined gown with a fishtail hem that closed the show. It could have gone costume, but instead it captured the wider mood of the collection.
There were also flashes of pure fashion theatre. A giant straw basket, baby shoe charms dangling from a bag, a pregnant Kaya Wilkins styled in a bikini top and tweed skirt suit, and accessories designed to spark instant Chanelmania. In those moments, Blazy seemed to nod gently to Karl Lagerfeld’s talent for turning a collection into a pop-cultural event, while still keeping Gabrielle Chanel’s original language at the centre.
The collection had confidence in abundance. Featherlight knits, robe coats, scarf dresses, sarong skirts, ballgowns, stripes, textures, sequins, beach references, archive echoes, silly shoes, serious tailoring. On paper, it sounds like too much. On the runway, it felt like exactly like summer should.
Chanel Cruise 2027 did not read like a designer cautiously taking ownership of a house. It read like someone understanding that Chanel is not one thing. It is discipline and fantasy. Uniform and theatre. The little black dress and the mermaid gown. Biarritz and the world.
