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Matthieu Blazy will take Chanel back to Deauville for Cruise 2027, revisiting one of the most significant locations in Gabrielle Chanel’s history.
Chanel is looking back to its origins. The French maison has chosen Deauville as the setting for its Cruise 2027 collection, a decision rich in significance that will allow Matthieu Blazy to reinterpret one of the house’s foundational chapters through his own creative vision.
The presentation will take place on 27 April 2027 in the Normandy seaside resort, a location closely connected to Gabrielle Chanel’s personal and professional history. Although the exact venue for the show has yet to be revealed, the choice of destination already points towards a collection in which past and present will come together once again.
Before revolutionising womenswear, Gabrielle Chanel began building her reputation as a milliner in Paris. It was later, in 1912, that she opened a boutique in Deauville, a town then frequented by some of society’s most sophisticated figures. It was there that she began developing an approach that would gradually move away from the conventions dominating women’s wardrobes in the early 20th century.
A year later, Chanel began selling her first fashion pieces there, laying the foundations for an aesthetic defined by a much freer and more functional approach to elegance. Deauville therefore became one of the places where the codes that would eventually form part of the house’s identity first began to emerge.
More than a century later, Matthieu Blazy will return to the same setting to present his second Cruise collection at the helm of Chanel. The designer will have the opportunity to engage directly with the maison’s earliest years without necessarily turning the collection into a literal reconstruction of its archives.
The decision also continues a strategy in which the destinations chosen for Chanel Cruise collections maintain a cultural, historical or emotional connection to the house. Each location becomes part of the wider narrative, revealing different chapters of a history that continues to influence Chanel’s contemporary identity.
The return to Deauville will follow Chanel’s decision to choose Biarritz for Blazy’s Cruise 2026 collection. The French Basque city also played a decisive role in Gabrielle Chanel’s early career, becoming another location associated with the expansion of her business and the consolidation of her distinctive approach to fashion.
With both choices, the maison appears to be tracing a journey through the places that helped shape its identity while Blazy continues to establish his creative era at Chanel.
Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel’s Fashion Activities, has highlighted Deauville’s foundational importance and its role as the place where Gabrielle Chanel introduced some of her earliest fashion creations. Now, that history will be revisited through the perspective of the house’s current creative director.
