Chanel Pre-Fall 2026 New York

[THD96]

Non-related but not Alessandro out here doing homage to Karl Chanel (the tweed, the cutout gloves, the bow) instead of Valentino is just diabolical to me ☠️.

 

[tourbillions]

Valentino tweed jacket (with embroidery) vs. Chanel tweed jacket
9600AUD (Original Price) vs 20,790AUD
Both made in Italy, both using similar craftsmanship (I wouldn't be surprised if it were at the same factory) except the Valentino one has added embroidery.

View attachment 1442089
View attachment 1442090
VALENTINO & CHANEL

im not sure its a fair comparison, comparing chanel for what they are known for, and possibly an heirloom piece to something that can be more "trendy" for valentino. After michele, will valentino still have tweed or is it gonna be back to frou dressess again.

that's like comparing a birkin to whatever currrent discounted bag is. The trendy bag could be tons better and use more leather but its not a birkin.

 

[tricotineacetat]

im not sure its a fair comparison, comparing chanel for what they are known for, and possibly an heirloom piece to something that can be more "trendy" for valentino. After michele, will valentino still have tweed or is it gonna be back to frou dressess again.

that's like comparing a birkin to whatever currrent discounted bag is. The trendy bag could be tons better and use more leather but its not a birkin.

Perhaps we can agree that the upcharge on the perceived superior value of a Chanel has been stressed a little far by constantly increasing the prices while at the same time imposing cost-cutting measures throughout their product ranges.

No doubt there is a customer like our very own @Caffeine willing to spend it, but not when the brand cuts on the product on points where it matters for the client.

 

[Frederic01]

im not sure its a fair comparison, comparing chanel for what they are known for, and possibly an heirloom piece to something that can be more "trendy" for valentino. After michele, will valentino still have tweed or is it gonna be back to frou dressess again.

that's like comparing a birkin to whatever currrent discounted bag is. The trendy bag could be tons better and use more leather but its not a birkin.

What do you mean by "an heirloom piece" though? Valentino himself was making tweed jackets in the 1960s up until his retirement. So to be fair, it's not exactly "trendy" for Valentino, it's a part of their heritage. The point is, if the jackets are made using the same quality of tweed (we are not talking Lesage here, but regular tweed), with the same patten making, and with the same hand-knotted ribbon finishing - and the price is wildly different - we can agree that people who pay for the Chanel piece are paying for the brand name exclusively. It's total snobbery.

Valentino Haute Couture S/S 1998

VOGUE

The point is, the quality and the craftsmanship is more or less equivalent for most of these luxury brands. They use the same factories and they buy the same fabrics from the same suppliers. I've seen Chanel silk fabric (below, from Karl's HC SS16 show) sold at my local fabric store lmao. It is from a Swiss fabric supplier called Jakob Schlaepfer. Chanel has a contract for exclusivity for these fabrics for a few years, but then after that time passes, the supplier is free to sell the fabric en masse to the public. I saw a lady making up a mother-of-the-bride dress for her son's wedding out of the same fabric without any clue that it was once shown on a Chanel runway lol. Chanel is not as well-made or exclusive as they make out to be. They have successfully convinced the public that their clothes are the best and the rarest and etc etc, but the reality is, it is none of that. Chanel has more stores around the world than Valentino and produce probably triple the amount of pieces. Rarity and exclusivity were concepts that went out the door the moment they went aggressive on expansion. Virginie pushed it even further and Leena Nair has now destroyed any remaining exclusivity and rarity that remained.


VOGUE

 

[imjustken]

View attachment 1442099

Chanel with Karl was just so good ❤️ Couture, ready-to-wear, accessories, communication, image, quality, everything. He knew how to run the business, even if he was not the CEO.

 

[tricotineacetat]

Instead of cutting on the quality of the product, I would have rather seen them take a more secretive approach to their PR - More along the lines of Hermès or Celine under Hedi to emphasize the ultimate exclusivity rather than an embrace of too much inclusivity and pop-credibility.

When Karl did those larger than life runway shows in the Grand Palais with spaceships and icebergs, there was a sense of surprise and anticipation that also befitted his larger-than-life public persona - Now it merely feels like the new normal of Chanel, without second guessing the status quo.

You don't have to love the cut of Hedi‘s videos for Celine but to acknowledge it felt fresh to question the status quo of communication. People like Helmut Lang and Azzedine Alaia went a step further by challenging the dates of their collection presentations to their conditions - I don't see why Chanel couldn't bend the 'rules' to their liking.

 

[tourbillions]

we can agree that people who pay for the Chanel piece are paying for the brand name exclusively

pretty much how luxury world goes. maybe a hand few would go to valentino for a tweed jacket but you can't dismiss that tweed jackets are synonymous to chanel. So unfortunatley they can price it however they want and people do collect them.

 

[PDFSD]

Instead of cutting on the quality of the product, I would have rather seen them take a more secretive approach to their PR - More along the lines of Hermès or Celine under Hedi to emphasize the ultimate exclusivity rather than an embrace of too much inclusivity and pop-credibility.

When Karl did those larger than life runway shows in the Grand Palais with spaceships and icebergs, there was a sense of surprise and anticipation that also befitted his larger-than-life public persona - Now it merely feels like the new normal of Chanel, without second guessing the status quo.

You don't have to love the cut of Hedi‘s videos for Celine but to acknowledge it felt fresh to question the status quo of communication. People like Helmut Lang and Azzedine Alaia went a step further by challenging the dates of their collection presentations to their conditions - I don't see why Chanel couldn't bend the 'rules' to their liking.

1000% the approach is now more conglomerate brand than a couture house /maison specialist in fine luxury hard and soft.

its giving nestle & LÓreal all about covering all market shares and demographics on the front end while product is subpar and driven by increasing margins cutting on high quality ingredients and manufacturing.

thats why the craft halo and individual gloss that Blazy brings is the perfect surface level front facing image they needed to distract from actual high margins on lower products being produced.

 

[Lola701]

we can agree that people who pay for the Chanel piece are paying for the brand name exclusively. It's total snobbery.

I can admit that I would go for Chanel.
I have tweed jackets from many brands. Literally from Sandro to Balenciaga or Givenchy.
But if I have to get a tweed jacket that looks like Chanel, I would likely go to Chanel.

And it’s never really like Chanel because there are the subtlety of the jackets like the small shiny threads. Because yes they may not be Lesage tweed, but Lesage does research and development for Chanel anyway with Vimar etc.

Let’s be honest, when we buy HF, we buy it as much for the prestige as for the craftmanship and we have an instinct attraction based on aesthetic.
I don’t believe in total equivalence when it comes to that. It may differ from people to people.

And for me while the two jackets have a lot of similarities, the small differences on top of the fitting alteration I would make will make me choose Chanel even more.

However I love the Mr Valentino suit. It evokes a Chanel style but it looks nothing like Chanel. Even in terms of shoulders…

 

[Caffeine]

pretty much how luxury world goes. maybe a hand few would go to valentino for a tweed jacket but you can't dismiss that tweed jackets are synonymous to chanel. So unfortunatley they can price it however they want and people do collect them.

If it fits and is done well with seam allowance without falling sequins, etc. ;-)

 

[tricotineacetat]

1000% the approach is now more conglomerate brand than a couture house /maison specialist in fine luxury hard and soft.

its giving nestle & LÓreal all about covering all market shares and demographics on the front end while product is subpar and driven by increasing margins cutting on high quality ingredients and manufacturing.

thats why the craft halo and individual gloss that Blazy brings is the perfect surface level front facing image they needed to distract from actual high margins on lower products being produced.

For me, that is precisely the thing I find off-putting about fashion today - The way how fashion brands tend to so desperately fight for every attention they can get - We saw it with all the many custom looks and previews we saw from JWA's Dior, the many re-see images from Blazy's Chanel shows that were flooded on social media a mere 24hrs after the show - And last but not least, the inevitable 'brand ambassadors', whose every look they wear is a means for money making and not representative of personal style or earnest connection to a designer.

The icing on the cake has to be when a house like Ann Demeulemeester tries to play the same game by throwing their clothes at people like Dua Lipa, Jenna Ortega or Kendall Jenner.

 

[Caffeine]

Valentino tweed jacket (with embroidery) vs. Chanel tweed jacket
9600AUD (Original Price) vs 20,790AUD
Both made in Italy, both using similar craftsmanship (I wouldn't be surprised if it were at the same factory) except the Valentino one has added embroidery.



VALENTINO & CHANEL

Actually the details are very different.
The average chanel trim is braided. Chanel tweed also *tends* to use different threads for tweed to create a less than uniform texture. Of course, uni-tweed exists (and are used more often in recent collections).

In fact, if the Valentino tweed jacket was less obvious a copy and constructed with more of its own code (I don't know what it is because I'm not a Valentino girl), it probably would have been sold at regular price

 

[Caffeine]

Chanel with Karl was just so good ❤️ Couture, ready-to-wear, accessories, communication, image, quality, everything. He knew how to run the business, even if he was not the CEO.

I was reading the book "Line of Beauty" again the other day...Karl's Chanel was so solid partly because his design and ideas were solidly rooted in history. The foundation was strong. He made many historical references from design, to culture, to concepts, and many seemingly different looks have common elements rooted in specific culture in a specific age. There was generally cohesion within a collection.
He held a higher standard.

 

[imjustken]

I was reading the book "Line of Beauty" again the other day...Karl's Chanel was so solid partly because his design and ideas were solidly rooted in history. The foundation was strong. He made many historical references from design, to culture, to concepts, and many seemingly different looks have common elements rooted in specific culture in a specific age. There was generally cohesion within a collection.
He held a higher standard.

Right but none of it was pedantic or heavy, that's what I loved most about him, he wasn't full of himself. Drawing, coming up with ideas, it was just another thing for him. He was very open, he said the dumbest ideas were the best. Everything felt very spontaneous and easy with him. He wasn't making grand statements, he was just talking.

 

[PDFSD]

WWD​

EXCLUSIVE: Chanel to Repeat Matthieu Blazy’s First Métiers d’Art Show in Seoul​

The show reprising the 2025-2026 Métiers d'Art collection will be held on May 26.
DECEMBER 21, 2025, 11:00PM

The 2025-2026 Métiers d'Art show was unveiled in New York on Dec. 2. COURTESY OF CHANEL

NEXT STOP: A subway ticket won’t cut it to get to the repeat show for Chanel’s 2025 Métiers d’Art collection.
The French fashion house announced Monday it would show the first specialty craft-focused lineup of artistic director Matthieu Blazy in Seoul on May 26.
Details about the location remain under wraps.
First shown on Dec. 2 in New York, the collection was unveiled on a decommissioned subway platform at the Bowery stop in a cinematic show attended by a star-studded front row that included A$AP Rocky and Margaret Qualley, who featured in a short romantic comedy-tinged film by Michel Gondry released prior to the show.

Chanel has a long history with the South Korean capital, where it opened a first fragrance and beauty store in 1992, followed by fashion which landed in the Galleria department store in 1997.

Seoul was host to the French house’s cruise show in 2015, when the late Karl Lagerfeld presented his collection at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a futuristic and curvaceous building designed by Zaha Hadid and South Korean-based Samoo Architects & Engineers.

Exhibitions are regularly staged in the city, such as “The Little Black Jacket” in 2012, exploring the famous garment; “Culture Chanel, The Sense of Places,” which alighted on places that inspired Gabrielle Chanel in 2014, and “Mademoiselle Privé” in 2017.

Several repeat shows have been brought to Seoul over the years, including the 2012 cruise and the 2018 “Paris-New York” Métiers d’Art collection.

 

[FashionPower]

Remember when they had a second show in Russia for the Metiers D'Art Hamburg 2018? Russia no more I guess.
They keep reholding basically every show in Asia, they had Cruise in Hong Kong few weeks before the subway show.

 

[Melancholybaby]

Didn't they also have the Paris-Moscow one in Moscow as well? Or am I making that up?

 

[TurkicMongol]

I still think Chanel is one of the fewest prestigious and most expensive brands that attracts the most affluent clienteles and unless there's other alternatives there's no way those people would settle for the lesser ones. I just feel that those clients nowadays are hating for its greedy expansion that loses the brand halo of rarity and exclusiveness that they love in every aspect of life.

 

[PDFSD]

Remember when they had a second show in Russia for the Metiers D'Art Hamburg 2018? Russia no more I guess.
They keep holding basically every show in Asia, they had Cruise in Hong Kong few weeks before the subway show.

yes because it increases spending for the region its simple creating local events for high net worths to spend because it creates a buzz and competition among big spenders to place orders etc show off who can still spend in current climate ...also asia has different countries is not monolit of taste JAPAN KOREA CHINA are not the same

 

[jeanclaude]

Poor South Koreans...as if having Kim-Jong-un as neighbour wasn´t enough torture...