For Cruise 2026/27, Matthieu Blazy revisits one of Gabrielle Chanel’s defining moments in Biarritz, where she first reshaped modern dressing. Drawing from this historic foundation, the collection reinterprets Chanel’s early designs, rooted in freedom, movement, and practicality, through a contemporary lens. The result is a refined revival of a classic, where heritage silhouettes and codes are brought back with a renewed sense of ease and modernity.
“Far from the Paris salon, Chanel found in Biarritz different ways of being and seeing, of movement and freedom. She made them her fashion pedestal. It is a place that offers the perfect balance between function and fiction. Among artists, workers, nobility, sailors and the natural world, everyone and everything shared the same stage, living together as a norm. All had a role to play.” Matthieu Blazy
Sous le salon la plage: In Biarritz, Gabrielle Chanel opened her couture house and presented her first collections. Here she aligned the timeless natural world with the timely modern one, and in so doing definitively changed the existing order of fashion.
Helping to free women from the literal constraints of convention found in a salon-bound existence, it was the world of the outdoors, of the elements, of the sea, the beach, the sun and the wind, that demanded practicality and comfort in movement. In her new jersey and sportswear, Gabrielle Chanel so provided.
In his first CHANEL Cruise collection, Matthieu Blazy, Artistic Director of Fashion Activities, celebrates the Basque coast, both purposefully and playfully. Experimenting with effortless ways of being and seeing, from the functionality of the black dress to the fiction of the mermaid, a new CHANEL folklore is formed.
Uniting French workwear, leisure wear and grandeur, the effervescent with the rigorous, from the uniforms of sailors to the flourish of gowns, hierarchical clothing codes are dispensed with. The salon slips into the beach, comfort is allied with sophistication, and the Basque stripe is a linking line throughout.
Perpetually in motion, from fluttering silk foulard ensembles and rustling raffia skirts to washed cotton canvas suiting, the essential enjoyment of dressing and undressing – the bathing suit is also key – guides the collection. Sensorially pleasurable and experimental, peerless fabrications echo the abundance of the surrounding natural world in fluid silks, springy tweeds, compact flocks, soft beaded knits, and shimmering fish-scale paillettes.
Here, the double C is the other linking line represented, not as an exercise in branding, but as part of an elemental architecture in garments. Radically introduced to clothing in the 1930s, its sinuous contours denote the rigorous signature of Gabrielle Chanel and a sense of her manifesto and autobiography in attire. Now it is up to the wearer to add her own.
The accessories of the collection reinforce the idea of a journey, spanning the practical and playful across an abundance of styles. From a small valise handbag to a full-grown holdall; from a waterproof flap bag to a giant striped beach panier. Even a pala carrier makes an appearance. Shoes straddle both salon and beach, taking the wearer wherever they please, from elegant Art Deco heels to barefoot ‘heel caps.’ The jewellery, too, echoes the Art Deco architecture of Biarritz, alongside its life aquatic, where shell earrings are held to the ear, and the CHANEL pearl finds its spiritual home.
“There is no beauty without freedom of the body.” – Gabrielle Chanel
CHANEL’S BLACK DRESS
“I imposed black; it is still going strong today, for black wipes out everything else around.” – Gabrielle Chanel
“Much is said about the ‘revenge dress’ – this might be considered the original one.” – Matthieu Blazy
A classic is rarely born as one, it begins as a revolution. This was the case with Gabrielle Chanel’s black dress. Introduced in 1926, its simplicity and precision stood in stark contrast to the excess of haute couture. That same year, Vogue famously called it Chanel’s “Ford,” recognising its transformative impact.
What made the dress radical was not its novelty, but its context. Black had long been worn by working women, servants, shopgirls, and nuns. Chanel redefined it, making elegance out of utility and shifting desire itself. In doing so, she blurred social boundaries, creating a garment that was both democratic and deeply modern.
The black dress marked a shift from fashion to archetype, stripped back, self-assured, and expressive of the wearer rather than the garment. Its influence would later echo in pieces like denim, another staple rooted in workwear.
For the Cruise collection, Matthieu Blazy revisits this icon, presenting it as the opening look. Drawing from the original archival sketch, details are reimagined, the bow now transformed into a clutch, while the collection extends into French workwear traditions, reinforcing the enduring link between function, rebellion, and timeless style.
