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On Tuesday celebrities like A$AP Rocky, Linda Evangelista, Tilda Swinton and Kristen Stewart converged on a disused train platform beneath 168 Bowery. They had gathered to view Matthieu Blazy’s Métiers d’Art collection — the annual showcase from Chanel, but Blazy’s first since his Paris debut.
Blazy said he had drawn his inspiration from working women. “It’s very character‑driven,” read his post‑show notes, citing 70s journalists and 80s businesswomen alongside the image of Gabrielle Chanel visiting America in 1931. The story goes that Chanel once travelled from Paris to Hollywood to pitch her designs to a film executive, and along the way she dropped into New York. She drifted downtown to Union Square, where she saw knock‑offs of her couture circulating in discount stores such as S. Klein. Instead of anger, she felt a thrill — the fact that her aesthetic had sunk into everyday life, even across the sea, made her want to keep designing.
“When [Chanel] went back to New York, she went downtown and saw women who were not from the higher class who had adopted the Chanel style — it was not Chanel, but it looked like Chanel. When she returned to Paris, suddenly she had energy again and continued to design,” said Blazy after the show.
A distant rumble startled the audience, and models spilt out as if from a train car. Some strode forth in eveningwear — sharp, daring, ready for a party — others ambled as if headed to a lecture or the office. Blazy’s sophomore collection reworked everyday wear — jeans, pullovers — but pitched them with tension, as if costumes worn by famous actresses playing ordinary women. The colours were a touch brighter, the tailoring slightly exaggerated, garments falling just so, and the accessories resolutely luxe. Yet despite the glamour, these women felt like New Yorkers you might spot on the subway.
As his notes explained, in New York, everyone has somewhere to be. “The New York subway belongs to all. Everyone uses it: there are students and game‑changers; statesmen and teenagers,” Blazy wrote in his post‑show statement. “It is a place full of enigmatic yet wonderful encounters, a clash of pop archetypes, where everyone has somewhere to go, and each is unique in what they wear. Like in the movies, they are the heroes of their own stories.”
This thread of strong, unbreakable femininity found its symbolic high point in a model who emerged like a female Clark Kent: a soft knitted jumper embroidered with a double‑C fashioned into a Superman-style emblem, layered under a striped shirt and topped with an oversized shoulder‑padded blazer.
Even in the simplest looks, references to Chanel’s codes remained: two-toned slingbacks from Massaro — originally designed by Gabrielle Chanel — peeking from beneath loose denim, paired with jewellery by Goossens.
And there was that distinctive New‑Yorker blend of eccentricity and glamour: party girls next to oddballs wearing netted hats, hand-painted tulip skirts, hand-stitched leopard-print two-pieces. Blazy’s debut collection for Chanel was greeted largely with acclaim, and this time around, there was an unmistakable sense of joy and ease.
“I like the idea of doing a show where nothing is linear. I wanted to create a kind of happenstance — what we see every morning when we go to work, and you don’t know what’s going to be around the corner,” he said. “It’s playful.”
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