Luxury house Chanel presents the Fall Winter 2026 collection under the title La Conversation – Part Two, during the ongoing Paris Fashion Week. The collection continues a dialogue between Gabrielle Chanel’s philosophy and the contemporary vision of Matthieu Blazy, Artistic Director of Fashion Activities. At its foundation lies a reflection on contradiction within the house identity. Gabrielle Chanel described fashion through opposing states: the caterpillar and the butterfly, the everyday and the exceptional. Matthieu Blazy develops this idea into a collection that allows clothing to operate across multiple contexts.
FALL WINTER 2026 WOMENSWEAR
Gabrielle Chanel reshaped womenswear by transforming practical garments into fashion. She introduced elements drawn from menswear and work clothing and changed their context through design. Her work altered the direction of modern fashion while maintaining an appreciation for transformation through dress. Matthieu Blazy continues this exchange with the founder by addressing both aspects of the house vocabulary: practicality and fantasy.
Fashion is both caterpillar and butterfly. Be a caterpillar by day and a butterfly by night. There is nothing more comfortable than a caterpillar and nothing more made for love than a butterfly. We need dresses that crawl and dresses that fly. The butterfly doesn’t go to the market, and the caterpillar doesn’t go to the ball. – Gabrielle Chanel
Gabrielle Chanel valued natural colours, materials, and direct cutting methods. At the same time, Chanel history includes elaborate embellishment and decorative surfaces that evoke transformation. The Fall Winter 2026 collection acknowledges both tendencies. Simplicity in form exists alongside iridescent surfaces, decorative details, and richly textured fabrics.
The collection develops through shifts in silhouette that reference several decades. Shapes recall the twenties, thirties, fifties, and sixties while returning again to contemporary proportions. These references appear through layered structures that maintain a light visual quality. The approach creates continuity across time while allowing garments to reinterpret the house vocabulary in new contexts.
Chanel is a paradox. Chanel is function, Chanel is fiction. Chanel is sensible, Chanel is seductive. Chanel is day, Chanel is night. It represents the freedom to choose between the caterpillar and the butterfly whenever you want. I wish to create a canvas for women to be unapologetically who they are and who they want to be. – Matthieu Blazy
At the centre of the collection stands the Chanel suit. Blazy treats the suit as a framework capable of adaptation across materials and construction techniques. Traditional tweeds appear alongside ribbed knit structures and fabrics woven with artificial fibres, lurex, and silicone combined with natural gauze. The suit therefore functions as a flexible format rather than a fixed design.
Additional variations expand the language of tailoring. A boucle-tweed work shirt and a pressed-tweed blouson introduce references to workwear within the suiting vocabulary. Silk jersey garments echo the draped silhouettes associated with the twenties, bringing fluidity into the collection while maintaining dialogue with tweed textures. New knitted and beaded suits introduce lighter construction that allows increased freedom of motion.
As the collection develops, iridescent surfaces and fluid fabrics become more prominent. Daytime garments gradually give way to silhouettes intended for evening. Streamlined coats and dresses develop elongated forms that cascade around the body. These garments introduce a nocturnal character described through the figure of the papillon de nuit, the night butterfly.
Accessories complete the composition through colour and material. Jewellery crafted in enamel and resin appears alongside mother-of-pearl pieces tinted in vivid tones. Footwear includes cap-toed boots constructed from supple pastel leathers that follow the contours of the foot. Handbags range from practical designs to highly decorative objects. The suede flap bag references the quilted upholstery from Gabrielle Chanel’s apartment sofa, while the kinetic lock bag and the pomegranate minaudière introduce sculptural forms finished in enamel surfaces.
