At the outbreak of World War I, finding yourself in Paris wasn’t really a choice, and neither was the exit route. Unless, of course, you were part of the crème de la crème, the intellectuals, the artists, or Coco Chanel. The Atlantic sun was still shining in Biarritz, though exclusively for those mentioned above. In 1915, Chanel arrived with her lover, Arthur “Boy” Capel, and the idea of opening her first fashion house was quickly born, funded, and built. Biarritz saw some of her earlier collections, as fashion bent a little by necessity. Matthieu Blazy takes us back for the maison’s Cruise 2027 collection.
With summer sounds and whale songs (at some point interrupted by Kylie Minogue’s “Come Into My World”) the models started coming down a runway designed to resemble Chanel’s first salon, which to be honest, wasn’t far from the city’s municipal casino that hosted the show. A light beige carpet made you think of sand, and the Bay of Biscay, visible from the windows, completed the image. Prior to that, Blazy had already taken a peek at archival photos of Picasso, Dalí, and a 1926 sketch which American Vogue described as Chanel’s ‘Little Black Dress.’ The opening look was Blazy’s version of that. A loose drop-waist, v-neck, midi dress featuring well-behaved white stitching, paired with a clutch bag whose ribbons traced the floor (the original had the bow on the back).
The resort customer has to like logos, they were everywhere. Double Cs became part of the construction, scaled up, scaled down, repeated until they stopped looking like a detail. “I used to work at Bottega,” Blazy told Harper’s Bazaar, laughing. “No logo. I got familiar with the idea of a logo here, and I love a logo. This one is beautiful… thank god.” The customer also seems drawn to the sea, we’re on the French West Coast, after all. Tight swimming caps, oversized wading boots, alarmingly big beach bags, urchin-like hair accessories, mermaid-coded dresses, and fishy details all made it into the lineup. One can only hope the sequins catching the light didn’t blind Nicole Kidman in the front row (already the talk of the day, before the show, at least), or A$AP Rocky, who later performed at the after-party. Everyone’s crazy for Blazy.
