Chanel Pre-Fall 2026 New York

[chanelh]

The girls are fighting!! But I'm here thinking how stunning this dress is. Something Karl would never do too. I mean ORANGE lol I don't think Karl knew this colour existed.

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Chanel.com

Oh Karl knew and he did MUCH BETTER, maybe just once but enough to hunt us for the next decades, the sports line reminds demanding on vintage market nowadays

fashionmodeldirectory.com

 

[disco54]

The girls are fighting!! But I'm here thinking how stunning this dress is. Something Karl would never do too. I mean ORANGE lol I don't think Karl knew this colour existed.

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Chanel.com

Because it looks like a larvae nest, Karl had good taste he would never do that.

 

[fruitdots]

And now, with two posts in a row, we're back to Saint Karl of Immaculate Taste.

 

[Caffeine]

I think that's probably on you, since your New York is a matter of shoe wear, and Blazy's is drawing very clearly from decades of American design.

Quite the opposite. Some people start planning their outfits with shoes. What shoes you plan to wear in a city like New York on a given day is extremely important.

When Calvin Klein was around, people wore Stilettos. Then came covid, and with all the people with mental issues (the institutions were too crowded so Deblasio released these folks), wearing stilettos became unrealistic. If one doesn't understand this reality, you don't know what a woman deals with in NYC at all, let alone designing for them.

I will tell you the brutal reality: the whole New York thing is an excuse to hide the fact that they are in a panic because the debut show was hated so much by the customers. By making this a New York "theme", they can throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.

In fact, the SAs already started texting their clients for their top looks. They are trying to figure out what sticks.

 

[LadyJunon]

 

[fruitdots]

Quite the opposite. Some people start planning their outfits with shoes. What shoes you plan to wear in a city like New York on a given day is extremely important.

When Calvin Klein was around, people wore Stilettos. Then came covid, and with all the people with mental issues (the institutions were too crowded so Deblasio released these folks), wearing stilettos became unrealistic. If one doesn't understand this reality, you don't know what a woman deals with in NYC at all, let alone designing for them.

I will tell you the brutal reality: the whole New York thing is an excuse to hide the fact that they are in a panic because the debut show was hated so much by the customers. By making this a New York "theme", they can throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.

In fact, the SAs already started texting their clients for their top looks. They are trying to figure out what sticks.

Oh my god it is not that literal. Blazy didn't design this collection as a homage to the most appropriate footwear for New York in 2025. It is really not about what women are currently wearing there as footwear, because it is not being designed "for" the women of New York (at least not exclusively). A woman in Beijing isn't going to put down a pair of Chanel heels because they're not appropriate for life in New York, but she's still a targeted customer. The New York aspect is a guiding fantasy or thread, as it has always been with the Métier d'art shows.

 

[Caffeine]

Ah yes, Chanel, the famously pragmatic and practical brand. Which totally never existed as a realization of the creative designer's imagination. 100% rooted in reality at all times. Especially for women who schlep the subway.

The best selling shoes are the sling backs. Stacked 2.5" heels my friend!

 

[disco54]

As someone who has seen many, many fashion cycles go , this is a very banal and lacklustre Chanel. I do not forsee this designer remotely having the tenure of Karl, at max I give 3-4 years, Blazy does not have the chops for couture that is firmly established without dispute, those sloppy party city skirts/ sloppy jackets are not going to cut it with rich ladies. No glamour, chicness and its completely lacking that Gallic soul which is what gives Chanel its identity.

 

[Frederic01]

I will tell you the brutal reality: the whole New York thing is an excuse to hide the fact that they are in a panic because the debut show was hated so much by the customers. By making this a New York "theme", they can throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.

In fact, the SAs already started texting their clients for their top looks. They are trying to figure out what sticks.

So true! And the fact that there was a lot of criticism from the existing clientele was suggested by both Matthieu and Bruno P in interviews this week.

Sorry to say but Matthieu’s Pre-Fall will not outsell Virginies first Pre-Fall collection (apparently their top selling Metiers d’Art of all time). If you look back to that collection you can see why it resonated so much with the Chanel clientele. It was opulent and dreamy and ultimately: classic. Not much of a fashion proposition or a conversation starter, but still a good and solid Chanel collection. That is what people want.

I don’t know why Chanel HQ want so desperately to be part of “the fashion conversation”. Why can’t they just accept that Chanel sells because it is what it is. People want that tacky logo everywhere, they want those basic tweed jackets in black and pink and white, they want the classic things etc etc. If you’ve ever worked with Chanel HQ in Paris you know this is true. Sales wise and company structure wise.

For goodness sake they have these people called “style experts” in every region teaching them how to “interpret the runway” and styling them based off of outdated Parisian fashion stereotypes and concepts like “the Parisienne”. I remember in Hong Kong they had this lady who was the most cringe and pretentious person ever who went around the region styling people and she had the most basic tips ever: white shirt or blouse with everything, jeans with a Chanel jacket, etc.

Chanel is not a brand that is meant to be directional. They want to be Margiela but they also want to be a 18 billion company. It’s like no. You either want to be commercial or you want to be niche. Choose a side and stick to it.

 

[PierreGotha]

The exploration of Fashion Archetypes has become so tiring and pastiche these days. I blame Demna for this feeling of withdrawal. NYC is NYC; anyone can harness and get it. His debut remains his strongest collection so far. However, there are some nicer separate pieces here and there. MB needs to wow Chanel's clientele, who is about to jump ship. Give us something unexpected, like a resort collection that revolves around the idea of Coco Chanel going on a yacht trip to Bali. Something like that...

I could also smell the station from my laptop screen. How can the guest bear to sit and watch in a hot, humid and putrid setting? NYC has the dirtiest train stations amongst all of the G7 countries.

 

[blackcherrified]

Honestly when I saw the promotional materials for the show, my mind went “oh my god~~ Chanel is doing ‘Flushing pride’ for their New York show”

It wasn’t a good sign. That tweed jacket on Margaret Qualley looks like a combination of those red-white-blue nylon bags…

… and those tweed jackets that I see on East Asia retail sites like Taobao, Shopee, Lazada… the fringes made it worse by increasing the volume. Ended up, she looks like those “da ma” (‘big mother’, which means middle aged women with unsophisticated mannerisms) from the improvised rural north-eastern China, whom you can find in Flushing behind the cashier in a family run Asian mart carrying groceries parallel imported from China. And A$AP Rocky was basically in a set of red track suit (he looks like a 「精神小伙」… go google and you’ll know what I mean)… the entire theme looks so Chinese New Year I could basically hear the cheesy heng-ong-huat jingles going in my head

This is how bad the first impression of this collection is to me. The actual show didn’t help. That orange “tiger dress” felt like a discarded idea from the offices of Proenza Schouler or Gucci (as much as I hate how Alessandro Michele “destroyed” Valentino I don’t think he will ever go there). For Chanel, I expect to find a certain level of “polish” and “architecture”, none of which can be found in this collection. Some of the clothes are so ill-fitted or cut so “loose” in a negative way. The entire collection felt so Proenza, but I think the duo can do a better job

There are some desirable merchandise (basically bags) which I can see selling like hot cakes, but the flap bags with the legs… no. They are just novelty items, bad novelty items

And the fringes… the fringes on the clothes, the fringes on the bags. I know Chanel owns Lesage and Lemarié but when can Matthieu Blazy be done with those fringes it’s getting seriously annoying

 

[zoom]

Just like the laughable rumors and threats of wealthy New Yorkers leaving the city if Mamdani became mayor, Chanel customers aren't going anywhere. There will inevitably be something of interest to purchase especially now that Blazy is slowly flooding the market with a multitude of choices collection by collection (logo or otherwise) for nearly any and all potential buyers. Chanel will always be Chanel.

 

[disco54]

The exploration of Fashion Archetypes has become so tiring and pastiche these days. I blame Demna for this feeling of withdrawal. NYC is NYC; anyone can harness and get it. His debut remains his strongest collection so far. However, there are some nicer separate pieces here and there. MB needs to wow Chanel's clientele, who is about to jump ship. Give us something unexpected, like a resort collection that revolves around the idea of Coco Chanel going on a yacht trip to Bali. Something like that...

I could also smell the station from my laptop screen. How can the guest bear to sit and watch in a hot, humid and putrid setting? NYC has the dirtiest train stations amongst all of the G7 countries.

I was actually going to bring this up: New York’s subways are infamous for being dirty, chaotic, and full of rats, yet Chanel’s creative team decided that a decommissioned subway station ,something overwhelmingly associated with working class life—was the perfect backdrop for a luxury runway show. It comes off with this almost Marie Antoinette level delusion, a “let them eat cake” fantasy moment, especially when the vast majority of working-class New Yorkers could never dream of affording those clothes.
What makes the whole thing even more ironic and karmic is that the designer who actually captures that Chanel glamour isn’t at Chanel at all, it’s Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli, Coco’s rival in the 1930s.