In the days leading up to Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel couture debut, the designer shared teasers on social media, showing animated woodland creatures working in the atelier. While Disney princesses have their clothes made by mice, chipmunks and songbirds, at Chanel, couture is crafted by les petites mains (the little hands) – the vast team of seamstresses who work tirelessly on every last detail.

Luxury fashion, for most of us, is a fairytale. It’s a world that sucked us in, not because it was attainable or realistic in any way, but because it transported us from our suburban bedrooms to bright lights, big cities and beautiful gowns. For Chanel’s SS26 couture show, Blazy combined fashion fairytale with storybook princess – complete with a soundtrack courtesy of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, and a set ideal for Thumbelina. If les petites mains are the charming woodland creatures in this scenario, then Blazy is officially fashion’s fairy godmother. Here’s what you missed…

BLAZY TOOK US ON A MUSHROOM TRIP

While Blazy’s recent Métiers d’Art show headed underground to the New York subway, this morning’s show made a return to the well-heeled Grand Palais (this is couture, after all). In typical Chanel fashion, from within, the venue was unrecognisable. In keeping with the fairytale theme, the Grand Palais was transformed into a rose-hued woodland dreamcape. Pink weeping willows almost shrouded the guests, while giant toadstools lined the runway – the home of fairies, of course (or so we were told as children). 

CHANEL ROYALTY SAT FRONT ROW

For his SS26 ready-to-wear debut, Blazy invited house loyalists Nicole Kidman, Vanessa Paradis and Tilda Swinton, while also bringing in new faces like Ayo Edebiri and Pedro Pascal. For couture, the frow was just as starry, with Kidman, Paradis and Swinton returning, alongside Dua Lipa, Arthur Jafa, Penélope Cruz, Xavier Dolan, A$AP Rocky, Margaret Qualley and former Dazed cover star Quenlin Blackwell.

A GENTLER APPROACH TO COUTURE

For a Chanel couture show, there was surprisingly little sparkle. Though the set was flashy, the clothes were subtle and effortless, showcasing nature’s beauty through shapes, prints and textures. A series of floating sheer two-pieces were as light as air and as delicate as a butterfly’s wings. Classic Chanel tweeds were carefully dyed to resemble owl feathers, while one cocoon dress featured rounded brown sleeves (like wings), with red colouring around the neck, like a woodpecker. There were peacock prints, beetle-like silhouettes and repeated patterns that looked like drawn-on feathers or scales. More toadstools were embroidered onto tops, while Bhavitha Mandava closed the show in a pearlescent two-piece, wearing a crown of white feathers in her hair, like Chanel’s own Swan Lake. If Mandava was Odette, then Alex Consani played the role of Odile, the black swan – swathed in sheer black chiffon, with wing-like sleeves that reached the ground. 

THE SOUNDTRACK SPOKE TO MANY DIFFERENT MOODS

Beyond the birdsong that played consistently throughout the show, the soundtrack placed us directly within the world of Disney, with the opening track taken from Sleeping Beauty. This was followed by a quote spoken by Catherine Deneuve, who played the princess in the 1970 fairytale Donkey Skin (based on the 1695 story by Charles Perrault). Then came the 1961 track, “Barbara Allen” by Joan Baez, based on 17th century English folk music, and then, to some surprise, the sweet sound of Nelly Furtado (a pop princess in her own right). Much like the dramatic end of Cruel Intentions, Blazy’s debut Chanel couture show ended with The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, though this version was spliced with Oasis’ “Wonderwall” – and Dua Lipa couldn’t get enough (as evidenced in the video above).