CHANEL CRUISE 2026/27 RETURNS TO BIARRITZ WITH MATTHIEU BLAZY

CHANEL Cruise 2026/27 begins with a return to a place that occupies an unusually important position in the history of the house. Before 31 Rue Cambon became synonymous with CHANEL, Gabrielle Chanel established her couture house in Biarritz in 1915, bringing a boutique, ateliers, salons and her apartment together under one roof. It was on the Basque coast that she presented her early collections and began defining a vocabulary that would eventually become recognisable around the world.

More than a century later, Matthieu Blazy has chosen Biarritz for his first CHANEL Cruise collection, turning the location itself into part of the creative conversation. The setting offers a different perspective on the house: away from the formality of Paris, CHANEL is considered through the seaside culture, movement, and informality that influenced Gabrielle Chanel from the beginning.

The collection reflects that shift in atmosphere. The little black dress remains present, but it is approached as something capable of changing shape rather than a fixed symbol. Across the collection, the double C appears throughout silhouettes designed to move between different settings, while the traditional distinction between salon dressing and beachwear becomes deliberately less certain. CHANEL describes the collection through this movement from the salon towards the beach, and the clothes follow the same logic.

Lightness becomes one of the defining qualities. Silk foulard pieces flutter around the body, while raffia introduces a dry, tactile texture associated naturally with summer and the coast. Washed cotton canvas brings a more utilitarian note, appearing in suiting that retains the structure of tailoring while feeling considerably less formal. The result is a wardrobe that moves between refinement and ease rather than choosing one over the other.

That tension has become increasingly relevant to Blazy’s interpretation of CHANEL. Since taking the creative helm, he has explored the possibility of loosening the house’s established codes without abandoning them. His Spring 2026 ready-to-wear debut, for example, approached CHANEL signatures through altered proportions, jersey references and updated interpretations of established accessories. The intention was not to erase the vocabulary of the house, but to make its individual elements capable of being read differently.

For Cruise 2026/27, the seaside setting gives that approach a particularly natural context. The collection draws on the visual language of Biarritz itself, with references to marine life, beach culture and the relaxed social world surrounding the Atlantic coast. Vogue’s review noted seashell jewellery, coral and starfish-inspired braiding, aquarium-like embroidery, striped towel-inspired suits and oversized straw baskets among the collection’s coastal references.

There is also a distinct sense of historical layering. Blazy looks towards the 1920s and to Gabrielle Chanel’s early relationship with sportswear, workwear and seaside dressing, but the references are not presented as archival replicas. Striped sweaters, ticking-inspired fabrics, cotton drill and khaki bring a practical quality to the wardrobe, recalling Chanel’s willingness to borrow from everyday clothing and transform it through cut and context.

That instinct has deep roots. Chanel began not as a couturier but as a milliner, opening her first independent hat boutique at 21 Rue Cambon in Paris in 1910. Two years later, she opened a boutique in Deauville, where she began offering sportswear made from jersey, a material then associated with men’s underwear. In 1915, her Biarritz couture house followed, employing hundreds of workers and producing her first Haute Couture collection. By 1918, she had established her couture house at 31 Rue Cambon, the address that remains at the centre of CHANEL Haute Couture today.

This history explains why Biarritz is more than a picturesque backdrop for the Cruise collection. It represents one of the moments when Gabrielle Chanel was actively changing the relationship between fashion and everyday life. Her early use of jersey, her interest in sportswear and her engagement with resort culture were part of a broader approach to clothing that prioritised movement and freedom alongside elegance.

Blazy’s collection revisits that spirit through a wardrobe that is intentionally broad in its references. Formal tailoring sits alongside pieces that appear designed for warmer, more relaxed surroundings. Beach-inspired elements are elevated through CHANEL’s construction and embellishment, while tailoring is softened through fabric, proportion and styling. The distinction between what belongs to the city and what belongs to the coast becomes increasingly fluid.

The accessories reinforce that dialogue. Large woven forms and straw baskets give the collection a distinctly summer character, while CHANEL’s familiar quilted language appears in new materials and proportions. Vogue highlighted a sea-blue resin interpretation of the quilted bag, designed to be waterproof, alongside gilded sandals and other pieces that leave conventional notions of occasion dressing behind.

The collection also carries the playful sensibility that has become increasingly visible in Blazy’s work for the house. Alongside sophisticated tailoring and evening silhouettes are details that invite a lighter reading of CHANEL, including references to newspapers, nautical dressing and the visual culture of the seaside. The effect is not nostalgic so much as conversational: the past is present, but it is allowed to collide with contemporary proportions and a more relaxed way of dressing.

For CHANEL, this return to Biarritz also places Blazy within a lineage of creative directors who have used destinations to illuminate different facets of the house. Cruise collections have long allowed CHANEL to travel beyond Paris, but Biarritz carries a particular significance because it is not simply another location associated with Gabrielle Chanel. It was one of the places where the foundations of her fashion house were laid.

The current CHANEL presence in the UAE includes fashion boutiques at The Dubai Mall, on Fashion Avenue across the ground and first floors, and at Mall of the Emirates on the first level. CHANEL’s official UAE store locator also lists its Abu Dhabi presence at The Galleria Al Maryah Island, alongside dedicated fragrance and beauty and watches and fine jewellery locations.

Cruise 2026/27 ultimately brings CHANEL back to an idea that was fundamental to Gabrielle Chanel herself: that elegance does not have to be separated from movement, practicality or pleasure. In Biarritz, Matthieu Blazy finds a setting where those principles already belong to the history of the house. The collection’s most compelling quality may therefore be its ease — the sense that CHANEL can leave the salon, reach the shore and remain unmistakably itself.