Reframing
the Shirt

The New Chanel: Blazy in Dialogue with Madame Chanel
Matthieu Blazy’s debut at Chanel was among the most compelling statements of the season—modern, calm, and marked by remarkable lightness. The collection preserves the house’s savoir-faire while creating space for clarity and openness. Instead of placing Chanel’s familiar icons in the foreground, Blazy spent extensive time in the house’s rich archives. His attention turned to an early, formative moment in its history: Gabrielle Chanel’s relationship with Boy Capel and the quiet revolution that emerged from their intimacy.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Gabrielle Chanel introduced the shirt into her house’s repertoire—and thus into the wardrobes of women who had until then been confined by corsets. The shirts Chanel adopted from Boy Capel’s circle came from Charvet: a family-run house considered not only the oldest shirtmaker in France, but the oldest in the world—and the very one that shaped the concept of chemiserie itself. Through architectural cuts, exceptional craftsmanship, and fabrics of rare quality, Charvet quickly captured the attention of the European elite. The Maison developed during a historical moment in which prosperity, cultural curiosity, and aesthetic ambition formed a shared foundation. Its renewed collaboration with Chanel is a natural consequence of this continuity.

Gabrielle Chanel’s androgynous wardrobe, inspired by Capel, marked a decisive turning point. Elements of menswear—practical, functional, liberating—were integrated into her own clothing, forming a new silhouette that combined structure with ease. The paradox of her femininity lies in its strength: a wardrobe in which pragmatism and functionality coexist with seduction and presence.

Blazy’s debut collection begins precisely here, with the design of shirts and trousers referring directly to Capel. The shirt preserves traditional masculine proportions and is subtly anchored by a chain. Charvet contributes fabric expertise and artisanal technique, realized in three specially developed designs.

Shirts are deliberately staged, paired with feather-trimmed ball skirts or asymmetrically shaped volumes in which elegance is destabilized just enough to remain alive. In this balance lies Chanel’s enduring promise: modernity arises not only through rupture, but through love made wearable.

The New Dior: A Tribute to History and the Now
With Jonathan Anderson, the new creative director for womenswear and menswear at Dior, fashion is being reread. Anderson is less interested in spectacle than in attitude, less in effect than in relationship. The Spring/Summer 2026 collection moves away from excess and spectacle toward sincerity and empathy.

At its center stands the shirt—not as an iconic statement, but as a familiar form. It reappears in different constellations: with simple trousers, in cropped versions, or combined with sculptural skirts. Especially in the womenswear collection, tension arises through contrast: simple light-blue and white shirts meet romantic, aristocratic mini feather skirts or deconstructed shape skirts. The everyday remains calm, while volume, texture, and color open the emotional dimension.

Several looks feature shirts with structured fronts: bib fronts, known from classic men’s eveningwear, appear sober and assured when worn with a tuxedo. The reinforced center panel organizes the surface without decorating it; formal discipline is referenced without being overstated. In certain looks, the shirt detaches from its classical function and becomes a hybrid shirt-garment. Draping, soft materials, and reduced details lend it a more relaxed feel without sacrificing structural clarity.

Thus emerges a Dior language that feels extraordinary without being loud—clothing as a surface for the projection of personality.