Matthieu Blazy drew inspiration from the style evolution of Gabrielle Chanel for his most versatile collection to date.

A year ago, Matthieu Blazy stood on the cusp of a new era as he prepared to show his first collection for Chanel. On Monday night, he returned to the Grand Palais a conquering hero, with the year’s most successful brand revival under his belt.

As guests milled in the vast steel-and-glass structure, under a flock of 95 birds suspended in midflight, you could visually tick off his various collections on the guests (look number eight from the Métiers d’Art show seemed especially popular.)

His spring 2027 collection was at once a digest of the codes established over the last 12 months, and a signal of what’s next.

It was rooted in an ongoing dialogue with founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, whose photos were plastered all over his mood board. You could track her progress from stiff Edwardian tailoring to cross-dressing in her lovers’ suits — and ultimately, inventing her own tweed suit, which was to become a defining garment of the 20th century.

“They are very interesting because you see a side of Chanel that is not known, which is the funny side, the joyful side, the fact that she loved to play music, the fact that she was obsessed with wearing costumes,” Blazy said.

This idea that a woman contains multitudes translated into his most versatile collection to date, with 83 looks that covered a lot of bases.

“Since I started at Chanel a year ago, we’ve tried with the team and the atelier to expand on the idea of women — so not just one woman, but the many women that could enter or belong to the world of Chanel,” he explained.

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