Some fashion shows are judged as collections. Others are judged as appointments with history. Paris Fashion Week for Spring/Summer 2026 had more of the second kind than any season in memory. Between 29 September and 7 October, the official calendar held 76 shows and 36 presentations, and running through it was a chain of debuts that redrew the map of French luxury: Jonathan Anderson's first women's collection for Dior, Pierpaolo Piccioli's first for Balenciaga, a new design duo at Loewe, Glenn Martens at Maison Margiela, Duran Lantink at Jean Paul Gaultier. And, on Monday 6 October, the one everyone was waiting for. Matthieu Blazy's first collection for Chanel.
CHANEL — A NEW ORBIT The setting announced the ambition. The newly restored Grand Palais had become a galaxy, planets suspended in the air above a gleaming floor, as if the house were being remade from its own Big Bang. The weight on Blazy's shoulders was considerable. Chanel had been shaped for decades by Karl Lagerfeld, who turned Gabrielle Chanel's codes into a global language, and then by Virginie Viard, who carried the house forward after Lagerfeld's death in 2019. Blazy arrived from Bottega Veneta, where his work had made luxury feel tactile rather than loud — leather that looked like denim, craft hidden in plain sight. His first move was the boldest. For the first twenty or so looks, there was no tweed at all. Instead came sharp tailoring, draped and layered silhouettes, unexpected colours and textures. Crisp shirting recalled the men's shirts Gabrielle Chanel borrowed and made her own. Silk gowns slid across the floor. When the tweed did arrive, it had been taken apart and rebuilt: frayed, fringed, stretched long or cut short. The bags were softened, almost crumpled, and the two-tone shoe became pliant and tactile.
CHANEL — THE MOMENT The ending was the one nobody planned. As Blazy came out to take his bow, to the sound of "Rhythm Is a Dancer," the model Awar Odhiang broke the runway's composure and danced towards him. The house said afterwards it had not been staged. It became the image of the week: joy, at Chanel, on the first night of a new era. Harrods' fashion director, Simon Longland, called it his favourite debut of the season. "Outstanding," he said, singling out the shirting. Chanel's codes are commercial assets as much as cultural symbols. The tweed suit, the chain-trimmed jacket, the two-tone shoe, the camellia, the quilted bag — customers know what they mean before they walk into a boutique. Blazy did not throw them away. He made space inside them for a new generation to recognise itself.
CHANEL — BEYOND THE RUNWAY The runway is the smallest part of Chanel. The business behind it, one of the most powerful privately owned houses in luxury, runs on handbags, shoes, jewellery, watches, fragrance and beauty. Whatever Blazy changes has to work across all of it. Too little change and a house repeats itself. Too much and it loses the women who came for it. A spectacular set can frame a collection. It cannot replace one. The real verdict will come with the second and third collections, in the ateliers and the boutiques.
DIOR — ANDERSON'S FIRST WOMAN Across the city, in the Jardin des Tuileries, Jonathan Anderson presented his first women's collection for Dior, a few months after his debut menswear show for the house. He went straight to the archive and changed it. The Bar jacket, the most famous silhouette in Dior's history, was reinterpreted. Bows and hydrangeas, two of the house's oldest motifs, appeared in new proportions. The show ended to a standing ovation. Longland put it simply: "a revolution rather than an evolution." For Dior, the debut closed one long chapter, Maria Grazia Chiuri's nine years at the head of womenswear, and opened another with a designer who had spent more than a decade turning Loewe into one of the most talked-about houses in fashion.
BALENCIAGA — THE HEARTBEAT Pierpaolo Piccioli's first Balenciaga collection was called "The Heartbeat." The salon where it was shown was scented with Getaria, the fragrance named after Cristóbal Balenciaga's home town on the Basque coast. The first look spoke directly to the founder, a clear reference to his 1957 sack dress. Piccioli also revived neo-gazar, a modern version of the stiff silk fabric Balenciaga developed in 1958. Around those references, the collection was lighter than Balenciaga has looked in years: sculptural volumes that still moved, everyday pieces — leather jackets, chinos, T-shirts, knitwear — with altered proportions, oversized bug-eye sunglasses and elbow-length gloves. After a decade of Demna's provocations, Piccioli offered emotion and technique. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was in the audience to support him.
LOEWE — A NEW DUO At Loewe, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the founders of Proenza Schouler, showed their first collection on Friday 3 October. They opened with a tribute to Ellsworth Kelly's Yellow Panel with Red Curve, then moved through a strong, almost CMYK palette that broke into mint green, coral and shocking pink. Leather, central to Loewe's identity, ran through the collection in several forms, alongside streetwear and sportswear: jeans, polos, parkas, anoraks. A new bag, the Amazona 180, was introduced. The pair also nodded to their predecessor, revisiting the towel dress, the baby doll and the breastplate dress that defined Anderson's Loewe. It was a respectful first chapter. Their own voice will come with time.
PARIS AS THE SET Some of the season's most striking images came from the city itself. Celine showed in the Parc de Saint-Cloud, outside Paris, a moment of calm and intimacy in a frantic week. Saint Laurent staged its show at night against the illuminated Eiffel Tower, the kind of backdrop only Paris can offer. Elsewhere, the debuts kept coming. Glenn Martens presented his first ready-to-wear collection for Maison Margiela. Duran Lantink took on Jean Paul Gaultier, Miguel Castro Freitas began at Mugler, and Mark Thomas at Carven.
THE OPENING, NOT THE CONCLUSION Across the houses, buyers saw a return to elegance: lingerie details, decorative volume in feathers and fringing, black-and-white tailoring, silk scarves and bold belts. After several seasons of caution, Paris felt ready to dress up again. The real story was the change at the top. Dior, Chanel, Balenciaga and Loewe all opened new chapters within a single week. A show lasts minutes. Its photographs travel in hours. The orders come months later, and the verdict comes in the wardrobes of women who have worn these houses for decades. Blazy's first collection was the start of that conversation. It began with a dance.