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Seagulls crowed as the sun bounced off the glittering water. Celebrities, VICs (that’s Very Important Customers for the uninitiated) and Australian fashion media were gathered at The Cutaway in Barangaroo, eagerly anticipating a world first: Chanel’s Cruise 2026/27 Replica show in Sydney. Through the excited chatter, you could make out a whale’s whistle and sounds of flapping wings. As the crowd funnelled through the building’s sandstone nooks, the space suddenly unfolded, revealing high ceilings and mirrored walls that lined one room, then another, and another. Atop the carpet — Chanel Beige, of course — sat ornate Art Deco-style chairs and vases overflowing with plumes of violet snapdragons and vivid orange pincushion flowers. You were in Sydney, but you were also in Biarritz, preparing to see Matthieu Blazy present his first cruise collection for Chanel.
When Blazy showed his cruise 2026/27 collection for Chanel back in April, his inspiration was clear: Biarritz, the coastal enclave on France’s Basque coast where Chanel opened her first couture house in 1915, and the elegant, laid-back lifestyle its residents enjoy. A maritime sentiment has always been part of Chanel’s DNA — the stripe, the boat-neck, the straw hat — so it was fitting for Blazy to stage his cruise debut in the place where Chanel herself gleaned endless inspiration.
A few months later, the news came that Chanel would be restaging its cruise 2026/27 collection in Sydney. The synergy between the two locations was obvious — both Biarritz and Sydney are orientated around the ocean and our lifestyles are similarly relaxed — but as far as luxury markets go, Australia is small, paling in comparison to our Asian and Middle Eastern counterparts. What our country’s luxury market might lack in size, though, it subsidises with its sartorial inclination. Australia’s aesthetic is best described as resort-wear, favouring unfussy silhouettes and breathable, breezy materials that lend themselves to stifling heat, so for Chanel, Australia presented an opportunity to tap into a market that would understand Blazy’s buoyant cruise collection and, crucially, buy it.
Very Important Clients (VICs) from around the country and Asia were invited to two shows — one at 2:30pm and another at 6pm — alongside global house ambassadors Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie and the likes of Kylie Minogue, Baz Luhrmann and Jenny Kee to observe Chanel’s cruise collection in person. As spectacularly as the clothes photograph, no image can capture the magic of hearing the raffia swish or the sequins crunch as the models traipse past, so for avid buyers of the brand, observing how the clothes move is often what determines which pieces they’ll buy. One can bet there will be countless orders placed over the coming days.
The show opened with Australian model Julia Nobis, who wore a relaxed silk crepe dress with a deep V plunge at the front and back. A pair of shell-shaped enamel and resin earrings enveloped her ears, and on her feet were a pair of silver-buckled moccasins. The next look saw the Chanel jacket adopt an under-the-sea quality, its perimeter embroidered with starfish and coral motifs, worn atop a mini dress with shorts peeking out from beneath the hem and a knitted beanie resembling 1920s swim caps. As the collection continued, it oscillated between practical and playful. There were knitted tops and skirts emblazoned with the ‘CC’ logo, silk shirts and pleated skirts, relaxed blazers and trousers, all of which could be worn year-round and interspersed with pieces from the wearer’s existing wardrobe.
For the adventurous sartorialist, there was plenty to revel in. Long pleated silk skirts were made voluminous with underskirts of raffia; a shirt and pair of matching jeans that appeared as denim were actually entirely embroidered with sequins; a classic Chanel skirt suit swapped tweed for cotton crochet, adorned with delicate knitted flowers and swinging woven strands. The accessories, too, adopted a fun, frivolous holiday sentiment — knitted headwear that, from the side, resembled a fish’s dorsal fins; necklaces strung with pendants in the shape of chillis; a maxi Flap Bag made from raffia and embroidered with fish. Two mermaid-inspired looks closed the show, worn by Nobis and another Australian model, Josephen Akuei. Both covered in iridescent cabochons — one, a red skirt suit, and the other, a turquoise dress — you could still hear the pleasant clinking of the pieces long after the models had walked past.
To observe the show — which featured an impressive number of Australian models, like First Nations models Charlee Fraser, Cindy Rostron, Tatyana Perry, Tarlisa Gaykamangu and ELLE cover star Latahlia Hickling, alongside Gemma Ward, Nobis, Akuei and Blazy favourite, Emma Balfour — the sheer spectacle of it was almost overwhelming. Logistics aside, Chanel’s presence in Australia was a watershed moment — for the models who walked, the people who got to observe it and the country’s fashion industry at large. In a time when keeping fashion alive is becoming increasingly challenging, especially for small businesses, Chanel’s cruise 2026/27 replica show in Sydney was a buoying reminder of the joy and energy fashion can cultivate — one pair of fish pendant earrings at a time.
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