Luxury home Chanel presented the Haute Couture Fall Winter 2026 collection on July 7 in Paris, with Matthew Blazey delivering his second season of couture for the House as Artistic Director of Fashion Operations. Titled Gabby and the Beanstalkthe collection begins with a question drawn from the life and library of Gabrielle Chanel herself: could couture tell stories like a book?
COUTURE COLLECTIONS
Blazy found a small volume in the bookcase of Chanel’s apartment, Fairies, Tales of Talesand used it as the starting point for a collection shaped by fairy tales, private memory, everyday wear and the women who wear Chanel. The collection references Jack and the Beanstalk and Goldilocks and the Three Bears, yet Blazy keeps the clothes anchored in Chanel’s couture practice. The House’s tailleur, flou and galon ateliers guide the work, combined with textiles, embroidery, pleating, hat making, goldsmithing and shoemaking from le19M. Craft gives fairy tales their natural form.
“I created my life because my life didn’t please me” – Gabrielle Chanel
A Chanel suit opens the show, cut from guipure reminiscent of magic beans and paired with sheer lightweight silk mousse. The model wears Les Fées, Contes des Contes, taken from the bookshelf of Gabrielle Chanel’s apartment library. From that first look, the storybook goes right into the clothes. A vine climbs the heel of a shoe. A small minadie takes the shape of a sleeping bear. The buttons change from a duckling to a swan.
Blazy also places much of the importance of the collection within the clothing. Dyed silk linings offer a private treat for the wearer, while notes, charms and trinkets appear inside the pockets, inside and along the famous Chanel weighing chain. These details treat tailoring as a private exchange between maker, garment, body and mind.
The thieving magpie becomes a key figure in this build-up. Notes, charms, bric-a-brac and everyday artefacts are gathered through the collection and then move from interior detailing to exterior decoration. Necklines, hems, fabrics and accessories change through embroidery, layering, appliqués and handwork. Blazy transforms ordinary objects into sewing materials, placing make-and-make ideas alongside noble fabrics and refined atelier skills.
“I began to wonder, was Gabrielle Chanel’s life a fairy tale? I found a little book in her library, Les Fées, Contes des Contes, and I asked myself if, together with Haute Couture ateliers, we could make clothes that tell stories like a book.” – Matthieu Blazy
The showroom adds another layer to the story, filled with poisoned vines and toxic flowers. Within this setting, Chanel’s stories are centered around construction and the body. Blazy focuses on the cutting skills of the tailleur and the fluid work of the flou, using cut-out garments and bisected forms to recall Gabrielle Chanel’s natural approach to dressing. The clothes are aimed at the living room, but also suggest action and everyday life.
Blazy returns to the idea of the deliberately imperfect, giving tailoring a vibrant quality. His Chanel Haute Couture connects imagination with women, reality, dressing and everyday adventures in clothes.
