Chanel Cruise 2027: Matthieu Blazy’s Biarritz Debut

For his first Cruise collection at Chanel, Matthieu Blazy returned to Biarritz, the French seaside town where Coco Chanel first began shaping the codes that would define modern resort dressing. Presented inside the city’s Art Deco casino overlooking the Atlantic, Chanel Cruise 2027 felt both cinematic and deeply personal, balancing the house’s history with Blazy’s growing confidence inside one of fashion’s most scrutinised roles.

Guests including Nicole Kidman, Tilda Swinton, A$AP Rocky and Sofia Coppola arrived at the seafront venue as waves crashed against the Basque coastline outside. Inside, mirrored columns, beige carpets and vibrant floral arrangements transformed the casino into a dreamlike Riviera set, somewhere between old-Hollywood glamour and a faded European holiday postcard.

The location itself carried significance. More than a century ago, Coco Chanel opened a couture house in Biarritz after observing the women, sailors and swimmers who moved through the resort town. That spirit of ease and practicality became the foundation of Chanel style, and Blazy leaned heavily into those origins throughout the collection.

Sailor stripes appeared across oversized knits, full skirts and lightweight tailoring, while references to vintage beach umbrellas and Basque linens introduced bursts of colour into the otherwise restrained palette. There were retro swimsuits paired with swim caps, sharply cut skirt suits, flowing scarf dresses and featherlight knitwear that recalled the glamour of 1920s seaside dressing without feeling overly nostalgic.

One of the strongest elements of the collection was its sense of movement. Rather than feeling rigid or heavily constructed, the clothes moved with softness and fluidity. Blazy’s now-signature oversized tailoring returned in relaxed pantsuits worn with swimsuits and two-tone slingbacks, bringing a contemporary ease to Chanel’s traditionally polished silhouette.

There was humour too, something fashion often takes far too seriously now. Earrings shaped like red peppers referenced Basque culture, oversized straw baskets nodded to the house’s Coco Beach line, while unusual heel-cap shoes and rubber wading boots introduced an almost surreal quality to the collection. The playful details stopped the show from becoming trapped inside archival reverence.

Blazy also continued exploring his fascination with fantasy and mythology. Mermaid references surfaced throughout the collection, culminating in a turquoise sequined fishtail gown worn by model Noor Khan during the finale. It could have felt theatrical, but instead added softness and escapism to a collection otherwise grounded in sportswear and practicality.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Chanel Cruise 2027 was how naturally Blazy balanced his own identity with the house’s legacy. Several looks directly referenced original Chanel garments, including knit skirt suits and oversized double-C logo pieces recreated from archival drawings. Yet the collection never felt like a reproduction exercise. Instead, Blazy approached the archives as starting points rather than restrictions, layering them with his own interest in proportion, texture and emotional dressing.

That balance feels increasingly important at Chanel. Following years of ultra-safe luxury minimalism across fashion, Blazy seems less interested in restraint and more interested in personality — without sacrificing wearability. Some looks bordered on excess, particularly the heavily layered scarf prints and embellished robe coats, but even those moments captured the energy of crowded European beaches and Riviera dressing far more convincingly than another sterile “quiet luxury” collection ever could.

As the finale closed to Charles Aznavour’s “Emmenez-moi,” guests rose to their feet in applause. And while Cruise collections often risk feeling commercially driven or disconnected from reality, Chanel Cruise 2027 succeeded because it understood something fundamental about fashion: people still want fantasy, emotion and beauty.

With Biarritz, Matthieu Blazy didn’t simply revisit Chanel’s past. He reminded the industry why the house mattered in the first place.