Matthieu Blazy staged the French fashion house’s Métiers d’Art show on a decommissioned subway platform
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
Photography courtesy of CHANEL
Transit doors opened and closed as women clad in skirts with Lesage embroidery and dresses with fringed feather work by Lemarié darted out of subway cars and along the platform at a decommissioned Bowery station in New York during Chanel’s Metiers d’Art show on Tuesday, December 2. The presentation, the house’s artistic director Matthieu Blazy’s second, combined an assortment of looks — all championing the artisans who contribute to collections throughout the year. A variety of moods, modes of dress, and personalities were brought together on public transport. Here was a woman in denim running to catch a train; there was one in a beaded gown, heading out for a night on the town. The transit line runs toward Wall Street but also through outer boroughs, and Blazy designed looks for a wide range of riders, from socialites and bankers to women on the go and creative types.
House founder Gabrielle Chanel made stops in the city en route to Los Angeles, where she was invited in 1931 by producer Samuel Goldwyn to design costumes for his studio’s stars, launching the house’s ongoing association with filmmaking. Blazy’s show, set downtown, also referenced the designer’s discovery of her influence and democratic appeal among New Yorkers there. With the subway setting functioning as an equalizer, where riders from all corners of the city meet, Blazy pulled from the 1920s to the 2020s for his looks, mixing Art Deco motifs created by Atelier Montex with Lesage’s slubbed leopard tweed paired with a fascinator crafted by the milliners of Maison Michel while also introducing wool bouclé tweed evoking a tossed-on flannel shirt. Blazy excels in such manipulation of materials to produce the look of something more mundane using elevated fabrics. His creativity was on full display here, as were his playful nods to house codes. Many women were clad in Massaro’s kidskin slingbacks, originally designed by Mademoiselle herself.
December 5, 2025.
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