chanel métiers d’art nyc | film teaser

Well, Blazy did it (again). After the cinematic chase with A$AP Rocky and Margaret Qualley, the Chanel Métiers d’art 2026 show landed and it’s official: the future of the House is taking the express line downtown through an abandoned subway station, to be precise.

This was Matthieu Blazy’s first Métiers d’art collection for Chanel and he used the New York subway as his muse – the ultimate democratic setting where, as he puts it, “everyone has somewhere to go and each is unique in what they wear.” His genius was making the grit of the Big Apple meet the gilt of the Maisons d’art.

The runway was a chaotic, beautiful flash of New York life, showing a cavalcade of personalities: the socialite, the superhero, the working girl and even Coco Chanel herself. 

The collection itself slipped between decades, letting 1920s Art Deco glamour rub up against modern utility, the handwork of the artisans at le19M the only consistent thread. Alex Consani set the tone in a sharp pinstripe suit and fedora, followed by traditional tweed jackets shimmering with metallic threads. 

Bouclé coats donned with feathers and a chiffon tulip skirt sporting an exaggerated leopard print that bordered on surreal. Model of the year, Anok Yai, also emerged in one of the spectacular, light-as-air butterfly skirts.

Blazy’s strength lies in the masterful subversion of the archive, referencing not only its founder Coco, but making a spectacular nod to the witty, graphic energy of the Karl Lagerfeld era. A sharp suit under which peeked a knitted sweater bearing the unmistakable Superman emblem walked in, offering a moment of playful ostentation embedded inside Chanel tailoring. Right next to it, the infamous ‘I LOVE NY’ message got a shiny rework, presented as a sequinned sweater layered beneath a sharp pink tweed set. 

Blazy even invented ‘lingerie denim,’ then covered it in complex embroideries for a new kind of subversive Western wear. An archive Art Deco dress, with its phenomenal fringed feather work by Lemarié, was paired with chunky illusion chinos. The classic Chanel suit was delivered in a captivating slubbed leopard tweed (handwoven by Lesage), turning the sophisticated lady into a chic, urban catwoman. Even the humble lumberjack flannel was reinvented as a sumptuous wool boucle tweed, anchored by a weighted Chanel chain.

The devil, as always, is in the exquisite detail. A discreetly chic woman carries a classic flap bag with golden scales inlaid, giving the illusion of gilded alligator armour. 

Jewellery flashed with deco-style glass cabochons and sculptural gold hummingbirds, courtesy of Goossens. The accessories are brilliantly humorous, feeling like talismans or souvenirs: the minaudières came as oyster with a pearl inside, or they took the form of enamelled monkey nuts and apples, exalting the humble trinket. While the hand-crafted classic slingbacks from Massaro anchored many looks – whether in delicate kidskin or contemporary, shaved shearling animal print – the overall feeling was one of restless energy. 

Blazy perfectly captured what Gabrielle Chanel herself discovered in downtown NYC in 1931: that the sincerest form of flattery is seeing her designs adopted and adapted by the people on the street.

Discover the collection and rewatch the show here.

photography. courtesy of Chanel
words. Gennaro Costanzo

Miuccia Prada has never been one for a silent night. While other luxury houses are currently serving up polite velvet dresses and sensible dinner attire, Miu Miu has arrived to remind us that the holidays are actually about disorder, micro-shorts and looking fabulous while slightly unhinged.

The Holiday 2025 collection captures that specific Miu Miu girl energy that has kept the brand at the top of the Lyst Index for what feels like an eternity. It’s a wardrobe designed for “optimism and wonderment,” but interpreted through Miuccia’s subversive lens. 

As always with Miu Miu, the styling rules are meant to be broken. The collection champions the no-pants policy even in deep winter, pairing glittering sequin knits with the brand’s signature micro-shorts. Opera coats in duchesse satin are presented crumpled and embroidered, shimmering in soft shades alongside opulent shearling stoles. 

It’s a playful provocation, softened by bias-cut satin slips and lingerie-inspired dresses trimmed with ribbons and ultra-feminine bows – a nod to the ‘girlhood’ aesthetic the brand practically invented.

The energy extends to the accessories, which remain the gateway drug to the Miu Miu universe. The iconic Wander, Arcadie and Beau bags return in special festive pinks and reds, but the real draw is the Miu Miu Custom Studio. Tapping into the current appetite for ‘Jane Birkin-ifying’ luxury goods, the studio invites clients to transform sneakers and bags into one-of-a-kind pieces using a chaotic array of tricks, pins and charms.

On foot, the duality continues. You can choose between the ultra-flat, shiny nylon sneakers (perfect for sneaking out early) or the formidable knee-high stretch leather boots fresh off the Paris runway. 

Once again, Miu Miu is showing that the best way to dress for the holidays is to refuse to grow up.

Discover the Holiday 2025 Collection here.

photography. courtesy of Miu Miu
words. Gennaro Costanzo

Under the creative direction of Alessandro Michele, Maison Valentino is effectively dissolving the boundary between the front row and the server room. To mark the arrival of the Valentino Garavani DeVain bag – a softer, deconstructed and fluid evolution of the Vain family introduced for Pre-Autumn 2025 – the House has bypassed the standard glossy campaign in favour of a digital hallucination. 

The ‘DeVain Digital Creative Project’ hands the new accessory over to a constellation of nine international artists, and the first chapter reveals five diverse visions that treat the bag like a protagonist of a surrealist film.

The project leans heavily into the new frontier of image-making, with five of the featured talents – Enter The Void, Paul Octavious, Albert Planella, Animus Pax and Total Emotional Awareness – utilising Artificial Intelligence to warp reality. 

Enter The Void, a visual artist who uses code to rebuild “the worlds of his childhood,” constructs a surreal “underwater desert hotel” inhabited by floating fish and drifting bags. Paul Octavious, a Chicago-based artist, remixes classical 16th-century portraiture with digital animation to embed the accessory into history, while Barcelona-based director Albert Planella blends AI with cinematic language to treat the bag as a metamorphic object suspended between lucidity and sleep. 

Total Emotional Awareness (Christopher Royal King) leads viewers into a surreal realm where pop imagery merges with the DeVain, with expanding and multiplying forms accompanying a visionary journey through boundless geometries. Meanwhile, Animus Pax creates a series of stop-motion films in which the bag comes to life frame by frame, revealing its texture and personality through a poetic, tactile approach.

Given the complexities and controversies of generative art, the House has been explicitly transparent about the process, stating that “the video and images by artists Enter The Void, Paul Octavious, Albert Planella, Animus Pax and Total Emotional Awareness were generated using AI. All featured imagery by Enter The Void was used with the informed consent of the models here portrayed and of all the talents involved.”

Not everyone is relying on the algorithm, however. Other artists use different mediums to deconstruct the bag’s identity. Austrian photographer Thomas Albdorf, known for his constructed still lifes, traps the DeVain in a hall of mirrors, creating video loops where the accessory multiplies and transforms in a sculptural study of symmetry. 

Bringing a more frantic, tactile energy is Tina Tona, a Rwandese and Ugandan visual storyteller based in Los Angeles. She uses mixed-media collage to view the accessory from multiple, chaotic perspectives, blending ‘anti-nihilism’ philosophy with vibrant textures and colour.

London-based photographer Annie Collinge constructs a dreamlike tableau, blending real objects and cut-out silhouettes to blur the boundaries between reality and play, inviting viewers into an immersive, ironic world. Similarly, Turkey-born conceptual artist, Z_Captures (Zeren Badar) sets the universe of the DeVain in bold contrast with everyday pop objects, creating striking visual collisions that fuse fantasy and pop culture.

It is a fittingly experimental launch for a bag named ‘DeVain’ (a play on the tension between the divine and the vain).

Available in a staggering twenty-seven variations, ranging from denim and crochet raffia to crystal-embellished shearling, the DeVain bag is now available in boutiques worldwide –complete with a customisable leather tag for that final touch of ego. 

Find out more here.

words. Gennaro Costanzo
photography + videography. courtesy of Tina Tona, Thomas Albdorf, Enter The Void, Paul Octavious, Albert Planella, Annie Collinge, Z_Captures, Animus Pax, Total Emotional Awareness

The video and images by artists Enter The Void, Paul Octavious, Animus Pax, Total Emotional Awareness and Albert Planella were generated using AI. All featured imagery by Enter The Void was used with the informed consent of the models here portrayed and of all the talents involved.