the wicker man | mcqueen ss26

For Pre-Autumn 2026, Erdem Moralioglu has found a muse who perfectly disrupts the prim-and-proper narrative the brand is so often associated with: Maud Wagner.

If the name doesn’t ring a bell, the visual certainly will. Wagner was America’s first known female tattoo artist, a circus aerialist and contortionist from the Belle Époque who not only performed but also turned her own body into a living gallery. At a time when women were laced into corsets and silenced, Wagner was covered neck-to-ankle in ink, trading the Victorian parlour for the tattoo parlour.

It is a delicious contrast for Erdem, a designer who usually deals in polite florals and historical romance. But here, he draws a sharp, clever parallel between the needle of the tattoo machine and the needle of the embroiderer. 

For this collection, the decoration feels etched into it. The tattoo-like motifs appear as tiny emblems of memory and mark-making, featuring classic American traditional designs like swallows, nautical anchors, and blooming roses, rendered not in black ink, but in meticulous micro-beadwork or delicate chain-stitching.

To prevent the Belle Époque silhouette, with its typical high necks and subtle S-curve structure, from feeling heavy, Erdem looked to the photography of Jacques Henri Lartigue. Lartigue was renowned for capturing life in motion – early race cars, leaping figures and women braving the elements.

That sense of ‘wind-caught’ immediacy is stitched right into the seams. The collection features pleated ruffles that look like they’ve just been whipped up by a gust of wind and skirts that feel lifted mid-motion. The shapes shift fluidly from the structured to the elongated, echoing the social loosening of the era itself.

It’s a particularly poignant collection as it also marks a moment of introspection for the House, revisiting signatures from the past twenty years. But rather than a dusty retrospective, this feels like a remix. By channeling Wagner’s rebellious spirit and Lartigue’s kinetic energy, Erdem proves that while style might be ephemeral, the stories we write on our bodies – and our clothes – are permanent.

Discover the collection here.

photography. courtesy of Daniel Archer 
words. Gennaro Costanzo

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

While the invite might be digital for most of us, the energy is very real. Tonight, December 2nd, the fashion world’s centre of gravity shifts firmly to Manhattan as Matthieu Blazy unveils his debut Métiers d’art collection for Chanel.

If you thought his Paris debut was a planetary shake-up, buckle up. Blazy is taking the House’s most sacred tradition – the annual celebration of its artisanal workshops – and dropping it into the grit and velocity of New York City.

For the occasion, Chanel dropped a short film that feels like a fever dream directed by Michel Gondry. Starring the House’s newest (and coolest) ambassador, A$AP Rocky, alongside the perennial muse Margaret Qualley, the film is a high-speed romance that treats NYC as an obstacle course.

We watch Rocky wake up, realise Qualley is gone, and proceed to sprint through the boroughs in his silky red pyjamas in what can only be described as ‘Olympic-level lover boy’ mode. Qualley, meanwhile, offers a serene counterpoint, slowly navigating the subway in her signature Chanel tweed jacket and loose trousers, stopping only to enjoy a jazz performance.

The sequence is pure Gondry surrealism: Rocky dives into the river, navigates chaotic streets and finally proposes at the Astor Place subway station. Set to a thumping original score by electronic producer Le Motel, it suggests that if this is the mood board for tonight, we can expect a collection that moves fast.

While the exact location remains a tightly guarded secret, Chanel President Bruno Pavlovsky teased earlier this year that Blazy “will make the creative energy of the city he knows so well resonate with the exceptional savoir-faire of the House.”

The creative director is expected to fuse the delicate, centuries-old craftsmanship of Chanel’s petites mains (embroiderers, feather workers, goldsmiths) with the raw, architectural pragmatism of the American city he once called home.

The show streams live tonight at 8:00 PM EST. Tune in on Chanel.com or the brand’s social channels to watch.

photography. courtesy of Chanel
words. Gennaro Costanzo