Be it the Brothers Grimm or H.C. Andersen, fairytales found their footing on Chanel's couture runway this season. From Puss in Boots buttons to – in our minds – frothy Little Mermaid hemlines, this is one looking glass we're glad to pass through
"Gaby and the Beanstalk." They're the first words that appear on Chanel's press notes after the French maison's resplendent couture runway show in Paris, where guests were pulled through the looking glass into a fantastical fairytale wonderland. And if you're a logophile, they sum up the spirit of what Matthieu Blazy wants to achieve with his sophomore couture collection. "I started to wonder, was Gabrielle Chanel's life a fairy tale?" says Blazy. "I found a small book in her library, Les Fées, Contes des Contes, and asked myself if, together with the couture ateliers, we could make garments that tell stories like a book."
A chequered Chanel suit constructed from guipure – a type of bobbin lace – shaped to look like magic beans, interspersed with sheer silk mousseline, opens the show. Fittingly, the model clasps a copy of Les Fées, Contes des Contes [Fairies, Tales of Tales], directly from the shelf of Gabrielle Chanel's apartment library.
What brings this fashion fairytale to life, however, are the hard-to-spot details made solely for the wearer. Puss in Boots buttons on a tweed jacket, for example. A diorama of Jack climbing the vine appears as the ornate heel of a shoe, as does the goose and her golden egg. A small minaudière might appear as a sleeping bear, while a model's short hair is gelled down into flapper-esque gilded curls in homage to Goldilocks. These details are all stitched into interiors, slid into pockets and suspended from the famous weighted chain. A series of memo notes, charms, and bric-a-brac for the Chanel woman to choose.
The thieving magpie becomes talismanic throughout the collection, nipping at necklines, for example, or preening itself, perched on a model's hip. Elsewhere, swans twirl across a column dress. Whether in reference to the Grimm’s Six Swans or H.C. Andersen’s Wild Swans is left unsaid. To us, the latter rings true. Maybe we’re reading into it, but given the frothy trims, there's perhaps an unspoken wink to our local Little Mermaid too.
Below, discover Chanel's full autumn/winter '26 Haute Couture collection.
