Very Cabmate No. 32

Chanel, 2026: Joy as a New Code

May 04, 2026

Very Cabmate is back. Filtered through a Cabmate lens on the fashion industry and beyond, here’s this week’s round-up of what to see, read, listen to, and shop — mixed with some quick thoughts and feelings from a Cabmate POV.

Matthieu Blazy at Chanel

After two prêt-à-porter collections, a Métiers d’Art show, and a haute couture debut, Matthieu Blazy presented his Chanel Cruise 2026/27 collection in Biarritz last week. It marked his fifth collection for the house—just five months into his tenure.

Since his debut, Blazy has managed to wake what had long felt like a sleeping beauty. Not gradually, but with immediate effect: within a single quarter, he moved the house of Chanel straight to the number one spot on Lyst’s Q1 Hottest Brands Index, after not even placing in the top 20 the quarter before.

Just the act of pushing a sleeping giant back into the centre of fashion conversations and consumer demand is significant in itself. But in the case of a house with such deep history, cultural resonance, and iconic imagery, the way Blazy did it is even more so. Without relying on the codes that defined the house in pop culture for decades—tweed jackets, pearls, the double C’s, so deftly executed by designer and marketer Karl Lagerfeld—Blazy has managed to establish a new signature in just six months.

By moving past the designers who came before him and returning directly to the origins of the house and its founder Coco Chanel, he has shaped a voice that feels closer to the house’s codes themselves than their pop-cultural shorthand. The clearest example is his reinterpretation of Chanel’s tweed jackets—more fluid, more contemporary, and often paired with masculine shirting—capturing the house’s core codes of dynamism, ease of movement, elegant simplicity, and functionality.

Chanel Cruise 2026/27 Collection

Within that broader arc, the Cruise collection stood out slightly.

Cruise collections have historically sat outside the main rhythm of the fashion calendar, often carrying less weight than prêt-à-porter or couture. Yet with a house I’ve grown increasingly close to over the past six months, this time I was paying close attention.

At first glance, the Cruise show felt like a departure from the direction Matthieu Blazy had been setting so far. Where his previous collections were clearly aligned with a more contemporary reading of the house’s foundations, this show in Biarritz felt closer to the Chanel that came before him: heavier on logos, more frivolous elements, and details that don’t necessarily read as functional. Historically, Cruise collections were designed for the very rich, the modern equivalent being the VIC. The emphasis on logos may reflect a renewed appetite among that audience for more visible expressions of luxury—something this Cruise collection seems to address directly.

Yet as the show unfolds, the reading shifts. The collection celebrates Chanel on the Basque coast—both playfully and intentionally—balancing the functionality of the black dress with the fiction of the mermaid. It draws on different forms of French workwear, from the marinière to the bleu de travail, while the accessories extend the idea of travel across something both practical and decorative.

The details can at first read as frivolous, but they hold a clear narrative. A story of the Basque coast, with its peppers, fishermen, and sea life; and a story of Coco Chanel and her ascent through the social ladder, transforming workwear and the color black—once associated with servants—into something luxurious and emblematic of style.

Most importantly, through layers of storytelling, detail, and craftsmanship, Matthieu Blazy introduces something less defined but equally present: a human lightness. Alongside the house’s codes—dynamism, ease of movement, elegant simplicity, and functionality—he introduces a new one: a sense of joy.

Intrinsically, luxury fashion carries a sense of elitism and snobbism. Chanel, on its own, is breaking this mould, inviting everyone to dream and to live a life of fairytales. It’s exactly this that we need in the times we’re in. In a world that feels increasingly dystopian, with technocrats taking over control of their countries and, in effect, the world, Chanel feels the zeitgeist and lifts us up.

Dynamism, freedom of movement, elegant simplicity, functionality, and joy—five pillars of a coherent, uplifting story now taking shape at Chanel.