On the closing day of the Paris fashion week, Chanel hosted the hotly anticipated debut collection of its new artistic director, Matthieu Blazy, who wowed guests with his resolutely modern take on the signature styles invented by Gabrielle Chanel.
Among the 2300 guests who gathered inside the Grand Palais, a Parisian landmark decorated for the occasion as a colorful galaxy, were a flurry of stars from the film world, including Sofia Coppola, Tilda Swinton, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman (who attended with her two daughters), Pedro Pascal, Margot Robbie, Carrie Coon and Marion Cotillard.
Cruz, who is about to start filming Florian Zeller’s “Bunker” alongside her husband Javier Bardem, said she felt “emotional” seeing the enthusiastic reaction to Blazy’s first collection, noting that seeing that level of excitement at a Paris show is a rarity.
“He took such a big risk and it completely works. To see everyone standing and giving him that ovation, it’s really hard to get that reaction in Paris in a Fashion Week, you don’t see that very often and he really deserves it,” said Cruz with teary eyes. “It’s completely the essence of the brand. He has respected that and he has also created a new thing,” she continued.
Coppola was also taken by Blazy’s innovation.”It was so exciting because it looked like Chanel, but it looked like a new voice here, and his version of Chanel. It something new that I’ve never seen before,” she said, adding that her favorite look was “some beautiful silk T-shirt dresses” and “a black suit with little chameleons.”
Equally ecstatic, Swinton said Blazy’s Spring/Summer collection felt like “an absolute breath of fresh air. It feels like the future. I’m very happy and very admiring of Matthieu and his team. It’s not easy to pull off a new evolution of this house, but he’s done it,” Swinton said. The actor, who was already wearing a look for the collection, said she enamored with “a number of styles” from Blazy’s creations. “The skirts, I’m wearing one of them right now. The skirts are sublime. They’re so comfortable and so flexible and on the hip, they’re so slouchy. You just feel completely 21st century. But at the same time, incredibly 1920s. They’re very Gabrielle Chanel herself,” continued Swinton, who has been an ambassador for the French fashion house for over a decade.
Coon, meanwhile, was struck by how Blazy “took the DNA of Chanel, and he deconstructed it, and he put it back together, and he made astonishing clothes that everyone will want to wear. He turned it inside out, and he made it really sexy, and he made it really edgy. And I just feel like people will be clamoring to wear this collection,” predicted “The Gilded Age” and “White Lotus” star.
Cotillard, who was recently in Los Angeles for the premiere of “The Morning Show” season 4 in which she stars alongside Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, was also lured by the sex appeal of Blazy’s collection. “I thought he went all out with the codes of femininity and masculinity, fluidity, and body movement, and that he made it his own, making the tweeds completely transparent, this mix of very masculine and very feminine,” Cotillard said.
In his note of intent, Blazy set the tone for the show, saying that “Chanel is about love. The birth of modernity in fashion comes from a love story.” As such, Blazy, who joined Chanel from Bottega Veneta, chose to have the models walk the runaway to the beats of iconic love songs, from Connie Francis’ “I Was Such a Fool (to Fall in Love With You)” to Mc Solaar’s “Caroline.”
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