Matthieu Blazy ushers in a daring new era at Chanel

Matthieu Blazy made his grand entrance at Chanel – and what an arrival it was. Taking the closing slot of Paris Fashion Week at the Grand Palais, the French designer unveiled his long-awaited debut for the legendary house.

If he felt the weight of history – where does one begin reworking the codes of Gabrielle Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld and, more recently, Virginie Viard? - he didn’t show it. Instead, he channelled the house’s inherent cool and made it look effortless.

He opened with a boxy jacket and pleated trousers slung low on the hips, reimagining the classic Chanel tweed with rolled sleeves and a popped collar. A wrap skirt in boucle tweed followed, paired with a maroon red knitted cardigan.

Blazy's tweed suit was looser, more relaxed, its structure softened for a new era. AFP

By the seventh look, proportions had loosened – a black wrap skirt lined in white, worn with a long V-neck. Hands in pockets, the new Blazy Chanel woman felt modern and unhurried.

A sheer embroidered chiffon top came with a straight, dip-dyed skirt; a Prince of Wales check jacket met a frayed wrap skirt.

By the 12th look, silhouettes became more fluid – a bias-cut, asymmetric skirt teamed with an oversized jumper, half-tucked for real-world ease. This is Blazy’s signature – injecting clothes heavy with legacy with a sense of lived-in, wearable cool.

Masculine meets feminine at Blazy's debut collection for Chanel. Getty Images

His technical mastery was clear in the play of texture and movement – a masculine pink shirt paired with a red asymmetric skirt, rippling like water.

That masculine-feminine dialogue returned in a cropped shirt worn with a vast, feather-covered skirt in the same vivid red – a bold, dramatic new direction for the house. Loose-knit skirts, dresses and tops with floral hems expanded Chanel’s vocabulary, signalling change without rebellion.

Even the house’s emblematic tweed suit made a late appearance – not until Look 38 – and when it did, it was looser, more relaxed, its structure softened for a new era.

In the audience, Nicole Kidman, Chanel’s newly named ambassador, arrived in a crisp white shirt and jeans – a look almost unimaginable in the previous years and a telling sign of the shift underway.

Boucle tweed got a modern twist as part of Matthieu Blazy's new vision for Chanel. Getty Images

Blazy, one of the most respected designers of his generation, was brought in to breathe new life into a brand that aims to balance its storied past with its global reach.

Chanel is a cultural institution as much as a fashion house, and Blazy’s task is to make it feel relevant without losing its soul.

With this first Parisian salvo – filled with an unhurried, edgy chic, against which the work of the last designer Viard looks frumpy in comparison – Blazy has announced a daring, dazzling new direction.