It’s what Gucci needs, Dior is on its way to have, Prada mostly has, Hermès never will, Louis Vuitton hardly ever has, and Chanel now nearly has too much of – runway collections which translate into hungry desire. Clients who cannot wait to buy into the fashion of the house and even stand in line for it. Matthieu Blazy is the industry’s new wunderkind, who shines so bright for Chanel that even a newly published novel by ex-designer Virginie Viard was released so close to Paris fashion week that it had all the ingredients to turn out to be a major stink bomb for the house which makes beautiful fragrances as well. But then, it wasn’t. In fact, it only underlines how intelligent succession is managed and sometimes must be performed ruthlessly. Even with good sales to support her, Alain Wertheimer personally let Viard go over lunch in June 2024 because he knew from the Lagerfeld days that Chanel needs a designer’s gold dust to stay relevant for decades to come. Probably many luxury group owners, brand CEOs, a major female designer and owner and others currently mulling succession are biting themselves to not have had Blazy on their radar. Chanel got him and only one year after his hit debut in the Grand Palais he delivered another slam dunk of a show yesterday. It’s unmistakably Chanel, it’s structured but so much less rigid, so much more airy and lighter, more colorful and just so much more fun than many of the years before. Understanding codes and DNA is easy for Blazy, but then he also propels them forward so his over-the-knee skirt silhouette is working so well because he uses less tweed, less checks and more details like trims and studded hems to thrill and applies unusual deep reds to punch up his classic Chanel pieces like long cardigans.

The Chanel jacket?

There was a jacket in nearly half of the collection often worn straight on the skin like the look on Mariacarla closed with a chain. But when you make men’s jackets with proper men’s wear makers for friends like Jacob Elordi and you start seeing male editors wearing them during fashion week, you know the back bone of Chanel RTW is having a proper comeback.

That’s Chanel?

Blazy pushed hard in a new direction with his first lingerie inspired look in all white with a feathered bra and see-through cardigan, but then calmed the boudoir notions. Maybe a sign of things to come?

Owning the room?

The Grand Palais is a giant space and while Lagerfeld often built crazy sets like galleries, supermarkets, rocket launch stations or rodeo barns, Blazy kept it clean with a beautiful flock of children’s animation birds hanging from the ceiling and a marble looking floor. The rest was just his models and clothes. And every single model looked proud and happy to be in the show, clearly loving their look and regally sauntering through the space. That’s what we call owning a room. Tom Cruise does it, too.