Chanel Took Flight. I Wanted More Turbulence.

There was a flock of illuminated birds suspended beneath the Grand Palais roof, Gabrielle Chanel’s own battered 2.55 on the runway and Britney Spears demanding “Gimme More” on the soundtrack. On paper, Matthieu Blazy’s Spring/Summer 2027 Chanel show had everything required for lift-off.

And yet, looking at the clothes, I found myself wanting a little more turbulence.

That isn’t to say the collection was unsuccessful. Far from it. One year into his tenure, Blazy understands how to engage with Chanel’s history without becoming trapped inside it. The opening white lingerie dress referred to Gabrielle Chanel’s early work in a lingerie atelier; tweed was smocked, stretched and made light enough to wear almost like a T-shirt; familiar jackets were cut away, softened or worn against bare skin. This was serious design work disguised as ease.

The idea behind it was lovely, too. Blazy began with Chanel’s description of a woman who is “friends with all her selves”: someone free to mix decades, moods and identities without submitting to one fixed idea of elegance. A little Edwardian corsetry here, a dropped waist there; masculine tailoring beside frothy tulle, lingerie and abbreviated tweed.

The woman made sense. I’m just not sure she surprised me often enough.

Beautifully behaved

At its most restrained, the collection was almost too well mannered: immaculate skirt suits, elegant midi lengths, soft pastels and precisely judged flashes of skin. Every proportion had been considered. Every house code had been intelligently loosened. The result was beautiful—but often more admirable than irresistible.

Perhaps that is partly because Blazy’s Chanel has already set such a high bar. His work has restored appetite to the house. Even the quieter pieces carry extraordinary fabrication, and there is no shortage of women ready to buy them. But intellectual lightness and visual excitement are not quite the same thing. For a show built around freedom and flight, I wanted a few more looks prepared to risk bad taste.

Then the collection misbehaved, and everything sharpened.

The good stuff got strange

The red, black and white tiger-striped tweed suit was Chanel dragged through the gift shop in the best possible way: unmistakably expensive, slightly outrageous and impossible to ignore. A corseted jacket exposed its own construction. A sober grey top erupted into a huge, uneven tutu. Sheer tweed revealed the body beneath all that propriety. Cropped jackets, displaced belts and slashed skirts interrupted the neatness just as it began to settle.

Then there was the checked coat that reversed into what read as a separate top-and-skirt look. One immaculate Chanel proposition hidden inside another: genuinely ingenious, and exactly the sort of quiet technical surprise the collection deserved more of.

Even the quieter looks became more interesting when one element went rogue. A fitted yellow tweed top and matching skirt were perfectly poised; the clashing, multicoloured bag made them memorable. An oversized checked blazer and mint silk tie had the louche confidence missing from some of the more conventional suits. The best styling suggested someone had inherited an impeccable Chanel wardrobe and refused to follow the instructions.

“The best styling suggested someone had inherited an impeccable Chanel wardrobe and refused to follow the instructions.”

That is the version of Blazy’s Chanel I want more of: not rebellion for its own sake, but elegance with a mischievous streak.

The shoes understood the assignment

The clearest expression of that spirit was at ground level. The new double-C vamp shoes are knowingly obvious, just this side of kitsch and completely desirable. The logo becomes both decoration and structure, stretched boldly across the foot rather than applied as a discreet finishing touch. They are ladylike shoes with the volume turned up.

They also capture the tension Chanel handles best. The house has never really been about minimalism; it is about codes—pearls, quilting, chains, camellias, cap toes and those interlocking Cs—repeated until they become a language. The fun begins when those codes are pushed close to caricature without losing their glamour.

The shoes do exactly that. So do the stranger bags, clashing animal patterns and jewellery-heavy necklines. These pieces do not politely ask to be noticed. They wink across the room.

Admiration, not infatuation

Spring/Summer 2027 confirms that Blazy has both the intelligence and technical command to make Chanel feel relevant without flattening its history. The collection is thoughtful, accomplished and full of beautiful clothes. Its commercial appeal is not difficult to understand.

But I came away admiring more than coveting.

The promise of the show was a woman liberated from one version of herself. The strongest looks delivered that freedom through contradiction: demure and exposed, proper and peculiar, archival and a little tacky. When everything remained tasteful, the collection lost some voltage. When it embraced kitsch, clash and excess, Chanel felt genuinely alive.

Blazy has given the house wings. Next time, I hope he lets it ruffle a few more feathers.

Runway images: Courtesy of Chanel.