One of the two haute couture debuts of the season gifted us flowers, and the other filled our sky with birds. The delicate and intrinsic link between the highest form of fashion and nature keeps on being explored, this time being Matthieu Blazy the voyager that travels through Chanel’s history, its archives, the le19M ateliers and his own mind to collect the sentiments and feelings that became his first couture collection staged in the Grand Palais. With a lightness that gives a new meaning to what fashion can be, becoming something more like air that surrounds the body rather than an additional weight we are subjected to carry, the transparencies reveal not only the craft of the maker but also the soul of the wearer.
Matthieu Blazy has seemed to find comfort very easily and very quickly in the French maison; it seems like the role of artistic director at Chanel was one that was waiting for him. His celebrated debut collection, followed by the also successful pre-fall show in New York, and now adding the first haute couture runway; every look and every piece that he has put out to the world under his new house exudes and reflects a sense of effortless naturalness that has signified a breath of fresh air not only in the brand but also in the calendar. Despite this industry being the complete opposite, there's a sense of calmness, of peace and of tranquillity within his creations that can only be born by feeling confident, comfortable and inspired in his position.
As we often do when seeking an answer, a divine sign or just a moment of silence, Blazy looks up to the sky and finds inspiration In it. This inspiration is reflected in two big worlds: the poetic and ethereal freedom of the air, the wind, what's light and what floats, and the striking, hypnotising and vibrant beauty of the birds. Haute couture can be often associated with large creations, with heavy and intricate pieces that seem to fit better in a museum than on a human body, with such levels of luxury and opulence that are hard to place in the real world. Matthieu demonstrated how luxury can weigh the same as a feather, hiding in its lightness the complexity of a craft that does not equate size with quality.
It may not be evident, or maybe it is, but working with extremely thin, delicate and transparent materials, like the mousseline present in a wide majority of the looks, is infinitely harder than handling heavier materials. There's nowhere to hide even an inch of imperfection; anything that alters the fabric has the potential of easily ruining it, and what once had a volume that seemed to almost float can become a flat surface in a matter of
seconds. This collection, in the most real spirit of haute couture, demonstrated how what was light in the beginning can keep on being light in the end, while still holding within it external elements like embroidery, feathers, and beads.
The silhouettes constructed by these materials follow the staples of the maison already explored by Blazy in past collections, like the low waist, the signature suits and the boxy structures — 'structure' being too harsh of a word for the shapes created by Blazy. But within these staples new worlds are born by, for example, taking the usual tweed and deconstructing it into pearls, recreating its tiny squares with threads of mousseline or making it explode outside the body in a boom of feathers and threads that turn beautiful women into beautiful birds. The jewellery is actually fine embroidery, and the signature bags are now transparent; they hide nothing, and they weigh nothing, because we don't need any additional heaviness on our shoulders.
The trompe l'oeil has become the signature of Matthieu Blazy, and what once were t-shirts, jackets and jeans that appeared normal but were actually made of leather, in the best Bottega fashion, have now become t-shirts and jeans that appear (slightly) normal but that are actually made of mousseline, in the best Chanel fashion. Pieces that normally cover and hide the body are still doing so but revealing what's underneath in the most subtle and romantic way, like memories of themselves, like something that is there but at the same time is not.
The dynamic Blazy wished to reveal is evident to the eyes; haute couture is made by the blend of two, by the garments and who wears them. With the transparency, we are able to see both at the same time; both hold the same importance, and one doesn't exist without the other. What once was can still be, but different, lighter, free.
