In the world of fashion, where collections come and go with the rhythm of the seasons, there is rarely a moment so dense with meaning that it stops the breath of an entire industry. Yet Chanel can do it. The fall/winter haute couture show for the 2025/26 season was not simply a presentation of more silhouettes - it was a manifesto. A farewell. The epilogue of a chapter and at the same time, almost cinematically, the prologue of a new era. Because we already know that this is the last collection before Matthieu Blazy takes the helm - the designer whose vision revolutionized Bottega and who will now face his most difficult task: to breathe new life into a legend.
The Grand Palais Éphémère - a place already almost organically associated with Chanel shows - this time looked not like a fashion stage, but like the site of a rite of passage. The granite staircase, which is familiar to every regular of Paris fashion week, took on a unique solemnity. The interior was drowning in twilight, as if it didn't want to reveal too much too soon. And the air... was thick. From emotions. From memories. From expectations. This was not a show. It was a mass. For everyone who believed in Chanel as an idea, not just as a brand.
The silhouettes that appeared on the catwalk had the weight of a story in them. They did not lend themselves to easy interpretation. Long coats with sculptural shoulders, corset jackets reminiscent of fashion armor - all seemed to say: “See where we've been before we move on.” Tweeds - the fashion house's inherent genetic code - appeared here in an almost contemplative version: woven with metallic threads, set against silk in a shade of dove gray. And the sequined gowns? They shone not like glitter, but like a memory. Like the surface of a frozen lake, beneath which the years of splendor shimmer - Gabrielle, Karl, Virginie.
The collection's color palette seemed to conduct an emotional monologue. Blacks were heavy, deep - as if they had been weeping for decades. The whites were not fresh, but ceremonial - reminiscent of a veil, not a shirt. Beiges? Faded, like sepia photographs. It was a collection of woven melancholy - tailored longing. Every detail - from the pearl clips to the hand-embroidered cuffs - was like a punctuation mark in a goodbye letter.
There was no shortage of motifs that every Chanel lover knows: peas, camélie, gold buttons. But this time not as ornaments, but as quotes. One felt that the designers were consciously rewriting the brand's code, but not with the ambition of revolution, but with the sensitivity of a curator who closes a cabinet of relics. The past has been honored here with dignity - without cliché, without exaggeration. It's as if someone wrapped us in a memory, but allowed us to move on.
Behind the scenes there was talk in whispers, with a hint of devotion: “This is the end of an era.” And indeed - from the catwalk minimalism, dramatic silhouettes and dark palette emerged an atmosphere of mourning, though not without hope. It was a farewell to something that molded the imagination of generations - from the first Chanel No. 5 fragrances to the last tweed suits of Virginie Viard. But it was also a welcome to something unknown - and in the fashion world, unknown means exciting.
Blazy is coming. His name is spoken today with excitement and anxiety. His aesthetic - sculptural, intellectual, non-obvious - is something very different from Chanel's previous DNA. But maybe that's what's needed? Maybe the fashion house, which built its power on the Coco revolution, needs a gentle shake-up again? Time will tell. One thing is certain - this is a breakthrough, not a metamorphosis.
And we? We will miss. Not just for the silhouettes or accessories. We'll miss the time when one look at the runway was enough to make us feel like we were witnessing history. Chanel 2025/26 was not a show. It was a moment frozen in fashion amber - beautiful, fragile, priceless.
Photos courtesy of CHANEL
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