Chanel SS27 - Through an Artist’s Eye
text Jahwanna Berglund
Art offers another way into Matthieu Blazy’s Spring Summer 2027 collection, from its patterned fabrics to the smallest piece of jewellery.
Gabrielle Chanel lived among artists. Through her friendship with Misia Sert, her circle extended to Jean Cocteau, Igor Stravinsky and Serge Diaghilev and Salvador Dali. Today, the house continues that engagement through its support for cinema, dance and contemporary art. Blazy’s collection brings this cultural history into the wardrobe, while inviting comparisons that reach beyond Gabrielle’s own world.
For me, the appeal of this collection lies in its proportions and combinations. The pale blue fitted bodice above a full white tulle skirt. The red and white pattern worn with dark green. Jewellery that deserves a second look even when the clothes have already caught your attention.
Seen through art, these choices become even more interesting. Meelzonart pairs Look 21 and Look 22 with Vuillard’s Woman in a Striped Dress, bringing the collection into the intimate, patterned world of a painter connected to Misia herself. In Look 15 and Look 16, the resemblance to Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is immediately recognisable in the relationship between bodice and skirt.
look 21
image courtesy CHANEL
look 22
look 15
look 16
look 45
I find the more unexpected comparisons equally compelling. Agnes Martin’s Homage to Greece beside Look 45 encourages a slower look at its pale surface. Laura Owens and El Lissitzky offer different readings of colour and composition elsewhere in the collection. These are associations that leave room for your own eye, which is part of their pleasure.
Perhaps the most persuasive is Calder’s earrings for Peggy Guggenheim alongside Look 38. Jewellery has always held its own at Chanel, and here it becomes a reason to revisit the entire silhouette. A small piece can command a surprising amount of attention.
You could spend days with this collection, tracing house codes, studying a fastening or finding another image in the shape of an earring. I love that it rewards that attention. There is always another detail to bring you back.
look 38
