When Chanel unveiled its Métiers d’Art 2026 collection in New York, it wasn’t just another destination show. It was a portrait of the city — raw, restless, imaginative — offered through couture craftsmanship and restless urban energy.
Set inside an abandoned subway station in Manhattan, the show unfolded underground, literally and emotionally. Under the creative direction of Matthieu Blazy, guests including Margaret Qualley and A$AP Rocky were taken far from gilded salons and into the pulse of the city below street level.
It wasn’t a fantasy. It was real life, elevated.
A New Era Takes Shape
The New York presentation came just months after Blazy unveiled his first Chanel ready-to-wear collection — a debut that quickly became one of Paris Fashion Week’s defining moments. His spring/summer 2026 collection was widely seen as a reset: sharp yet tender, rooted in history without looking backward.
The Métiers d’Art show carried that momentum forward. Less grandiose, more intimate, more alive.
This collection didn’t try to overwhelm. It invited you in.
A Stage Like No Other
The choice of venue made a statement before the first model even appeared. Instead of marble staircases or historic theatres, guests descended into a restored but still unmistakably gritty subway station in the Lower East Side — an area long shaped by migration, nightlife, and creative rebellion.
Models walked the platform as if they owned it — stepping out of train cars, leaning against tiled walls, standing with newspapers in their hands while waiting for trains that never came.
It looked unscripted. It felt human.
Dressing the Beautiful Mess
This show wasn’t about glamour in isolation. It was about friction, contradiction, contrast.
Sharp tailoring met slouchy streetwear. Tweed was torn and reworked. Corporate silhouettes shared the runway with party looks that suggested sunrise walks home after nights that blurred into morning.
The collection wasn’t polished — it was lived in.
Blazy described it as an ode to chaos: the kind you find in subway crowds, in languages mixing on platforms, in the anonymity of a city where everyone passes through but no one quite belongs.
Craftsmanship Disguised as Simplicity
What looked casual wasn’t.
A denim-like outfit was in fact silk, intricately embroidered by master artisans. A leopard-print look — inspired by one Gabrielle Chanel wore decades ago — was crafted in handwoven tweed. A simple T-shirt bearing “I Love NY” shimmered in sequins beneath tailored skirts.
Luxury didn’t shout here.
It whispered.
Every piece embedded the legacy of Chanel’s ateliers — Lesage, Massaro, Maison Michel — into clothes that felt like they belonged on real people in real places.
Channeling Gabrielle’s Spirit
In a quiet post-show moment, Blazy reflected on Chanel’s relationship with the city. Gabrielle Chanel once observed New York women dressing practically, with speed and independence. That clarity, she believed, was worth translating into fashion.
This collection carried that philosophy forward.
Not costumes.
Clothes for movement.
For work.
For nights out.
For life.
A Love Letter Written Underground
After the celestial spectacle of Blazy’s Paris debut, New York felt grounded. Intimate. Almost confrontational in its honesty.
Velvet evening dresses sat beside sneakers.
Silk shirts looked like denim.
Elegance stood next to exhaustion.
And it worked.
Not because it was perfect — but because it wasn’t.
The Métiers d’Art 2026 show reminded everyone that fashion doesn’t live on runways alone. It lives in streets, stations, late nights, missed trains and accidental encounters.
New York didn’t just host the show.
It was the show.
