In 2024, Chanel’s revenue fell, its operating profit dropped by almost a third, and its creative director left. Eighteen months later, the house was growing again, its new designer’s collections had been widely praised by critics, and shoppers who had never bought Chanel before were arriving in its stores. At the centre of that change is Matthieu Blazy, the French-Belgian designer who joined from Bottega Veneta at the end of 2024.
This explainer traces how Chanel got here, from the end of the Karl Lagerfeld era to Blazy’s first full year.
The timeline
- 1983: Karl Lagerfeld becomes Chanel’s artistic director.
- February 2019: Lagerfeld dies. His longtime collaborator Virginie Viard succeeds him.
- June 6, 2024: Chanel announces Viard’s departure.
- December 2024: Chanel names Matthieu Blazy its creative director for fashion.
- May 2025: Chanel reports a 4.3% fall in 2024 revenue and a 30% fall in operating profit.
- October 2025: Blazy presents his debut, the spring/summer 2026 ready-to-wear collection, at the Grand Palais in Paris.
- December 2, 2025: His first Métiers d’art show takes place in a disused New York subway station.
- January 27, 2026: Blazy’s haute couture debut at the Grand Palais.
- March 2026: The fall 2026 ready-to-wear show, and his first collection arrives in stores.
- May 19, 2026: Chanel reports a return to growth in 2025, with revenue up 2% to $19.3 billion.
- October 2026: Blazy presents his spring/summer 2027 collection at the Grand Palais.
After Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld led Chanel’s fashion from 1983 until his death in February 2019, building the house into one of the most recognisable names in luxury through spectacular shows at the Grand Palais and constant reinterpretation of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s codes: the tweed suit, the quilted bag, pearls, camellias and two-tone shoes.
His successor, Virginie Viard, had worked alongside him for decades. Chanel’s sales grew strongly in the years after the pandemic, nearly doubling over three years, according to chief executive Leena Nair, as reported by CPP Luxury.
On June 6, 2024, Chanel announced that Viard was leaving. The house’s studio continued to produce collections while it searched for a successor.
The 2024 slowdown
The results for 2024, published in May 2025, showed the pressure Chanel was under. Revenue fell 4.3% on a comparable basis, and operating profit fell 30% to $4.48 billion, according to CPP Luxury. Sales in the China region, which accounted for about half of revenue, fell 7.1%. Sales in the Americas fell 4.2%, while Europe grew 0.6%.
Nair attributed the decline mainly to economic volatility, particularly in China, where shoppers had cut back on expensive purchases. The company also spent heavily to stay visible during the downturn, including about $2.4 billion on brand support activities and about $600 million on property, among them a building on Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
Who is Matthieu Blazy?
Blazy was born in Paris in 1984 and studied fashion at La Cambre in Brussels, according to his Wikipedia biography. Raf Simons, who sat on the jury for his graduate collection, hired him, and Blazy began his career designing menswear for Simons.
He joined Maison Margiela in 2011, working on its Artisanal line and women’s ready-to-wear. In 2014 he moved to Céline as a senior designer under Phoebe Philo, and in 2016 he rejoined Simons as design director of women’s ready-to-wear at Calvin Klein. He joined Bottega Veneta in 2020 as design director of ready-to-wear and became its creative director in November 2021, succeeding Daniel Lee.
At Bottega Veneta, Blazy built a reputation for craftsmanship and technical invention, including trompe-l’oeil pieces such as leather made to look like denim. Bottega Veneta announced his departure in December 2024, and Chanel named him creative director the same month.
The debut: spring/summer 2026
Blazy presented his first Chanel collection on a Monday night in October 2025 at the Grand Palais, in front of more than 2,000 guests, according to Monocle. The set was inspired by the solar system.
The show opened with a simple, square-shouldered grey trouser suit. The collection reworked the house’s codes using textured bouclé, fine tweeds, frayed hems and supple leather, with camellias, pearls and wheat sheaves rendered in a more sculptural way. It included cap-toe heels, bags with minimal branding, spiky rust-red knitwear, embroidered organza, a gold bouclé knit suit and feather skirts with sporty waistbands. Silk T-shirts and shirts were made by Charvet, the Paris shirtmaker Gabrielle Chanel favoured.
Blazy took his bow to a standing ovation, Monocle reported, and the collection received widespread praise from critics.
Métiers d’art in a New York subway station
Blazy’s second show for Chanel was his first Métiers d’art collection, the annual show celebrating the specialist ateliers Chanel owns, such as embroiderer Lesage. It took place on December 2, 2025, in the disused Bowery subway station on New York’s Lower East Side, according to Wallpaper*.
The collection drew on Gabrielle Chanel’s 1931 trip to New York, when she found copies of her designs in a discount store in Union Square. The show opened with a train pulling into the station, and the cast was styled as city archetypes, from commuters and working women to socialites and showgirls. Looks included a sweater with a double-C logo styled like a superhero emblem, a leopard-print tweed suit hand-woven by Lesage, and what appeared to be beaded denim but was in fact silk.
Couture debut
On January 27, 2026, Blazy presented his first haute couture collection at the Grand Palais, which was transformed into a fantastical forest with giant mushrooms and pink weeping willows, according to Malay Mail. The collection drew on birds, from crows, pigeons and magpies to roseate spoonbills and crested cockatoos, with feathers used throughout but rarely in their natural form. The show opened with sheer silk muslin and classic tweed.
Alongside Jonathan Anderson’s first Dior couture show, it was one of the most anticipated events of the season. Guests included Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa and Anna Wintour.
Fall 2026: a house under construction
For his fall 2026 ready-to-wear show in March 2026, Blazy returned to the Grand Palais, this time with a holographic floor and brightly painted construction cranes, suggesting a house that is still being built, according to a review by The Impression. The collection treated tweed as a flexible material, combining it with metallic threads, embroidery, sheer layers and technical fibres, and moved from grounded daywear to lighter, iridescent evening looks.
From runway to stores
Blazy’s first collection reached Chanel’s stores in March 2026, and demand was strong, according to Reuters, as reported by RTÉ. Products that sold well included new handbags, two-tone pumps priced at $1,450, multicoloured tweed jackets and a maxi flap bag priced at $8,500. Simon Longland, a buyer at Harrods, told Reuters that the brand had attracted many new clients who had not previously bought Chanel.
The numbers: Chanel returns to growth
Chanel’s 2025 results, published on May 19, 2026, showed revenue up 2% in currency-adjusted terms to $19.3 billion, following the 4.3% decline in 2024. Operating profit rose 5% to $4.7 billion, though it remained below its 2021 to 2023 levels, according to RTÉ.
The Americas drove most of the growth, with sales up 7.2%. Europe grew 2.5%, while Asia-Pacific, Chanel’s largest region, declined 0.8%. Fashion was the strongest category, with the Chanel 25 bag singled out, according to nss magazine.
Nair said 2025 showed creative momentum across all of Chanel’s businesses and that investments made in 2024 had laid the groundwork for the rebound. Chief financial officer Philippe Blondiaux said Chanel raised prices by about 3% overall and 2% for fashion in 2025, and planned similar increases in 2026. Chanel opened 41 stores in 2025 and plans 30 more in 2026, including nine fashion boutiques.
For comparison, Hermès grew sales 9.8% to €16 billion in 2025, while revenue at LVMH’s fashion and leather goods division fell 5% to €37.77 billion, according to Reuters.
What changed
The figures point to where the recovery came from. Blazy’s collections drew strong reviews and, once in stores, brought in new customers, according to Harrods’ buyer. Growth was concentrated in the Americas, where Chanel continued to open stores, while price rises in 2025 were limited to about 3%. Asia-Pacific, the house’s largest market, has not yet returned to growth.
Blazy has now shown a full cycle of Chanel collections: ready-to-wear, Métiers d’art and couture. His spring/summer 2027 collection, shown at the Grand Palais in October 2026, will be the next to reach stores.
Sources: CPP Luxury; FashionNetwork; Wikipedia; Monocle; Wallpaper*; Malay Mail; The Impression; RTÉ / Reuters; nss magazine; Haute Living.
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