Chanel Métiers d’Art 2026 show brings style and sophistication to the subway

For his first Métiers d’Art show, Matthieu Blazy brought Chanel’s flair and glamour to a place intimately familiar to all walks of life.

Chanel has a whole new universe, and it’s bringing vibrant flair and forward momentum even down to the subway.

On Dec. 3, 2025, the French fashion powerhouse took over an abandoned subway platform in New York City to hold its 2026 Métiers d’Art show that’s big on character, craft, and culture. It was an unusual venue for the maison, which is known for curating large-scale, elaborate exhibitions usually held at the emblematic Grand Palais. Its recent Spring 2026 show, for one, made headlines for its out-of-this-world runway that creative director Matthieu Blazy bedecked with massive planets.

The French-Belgian designer continued to showcase his creative prowess with his first Métiers d’Art show, which began with models emerging from an incoming train car and into the subway platform as any New Yorker would. Although surprising, the venue selection came with an underlying message. Blazy told WWD that the subway is a place where there is no hierarchy; it is where every sector of society converges, from students to innovators.

“I like the idea of doing a show where nothing is linear. I wanted to create a kind of happenstance — what we see every morning when we go to work, and you don’t know what’s gonna be at the corner. Everyone is invited,” he told the outlet. “It’s directly playful, this show.”

The collection pays tribute to personas associated with New York, “from kids to students to world leaders.” It is, in Blazy’s words, “very character-driven.” He cited a ‘70s journalist and an ‘80s businesswoman as inspiration, along with founder Gabrielle Chanel’s first trip to America in 1931 to create costumes for cinema.

Feathered gowns, neon animal-print skirt suits, statement coats, pinstripes, and psychedelic patterns abound, seemingly coming out from the closet of any downtown apartment. They were reimagined through a cinematic lens—slightly exaggerated but still wearable for the fast-paced, ambitious, confident women of New York and every part of the world.

It opened with an everyday look that’s distinctively symbolic, featuring a beige quarter-zip jacket, straight-cut denim jeans, pearls, and chain-strap bag. A classic Chanel tweed jacket was tossed nonchalantly on top of the bag, as if to say that in the house’s new universe, classics remain classics, but comfort gets a share of the runway too.

This was followed by a mix that spanned eras, from ‘20s to ‘80s, infused with Gabrielle Chanel’s revolutionary chic aesthetic. A model strutted in a monochromatic black skirt suit hemmed with feathers and accessorized with oversized sunglasses and a gold crocodile skin bag. Others sashayed down the platform in all kinds of modern skirt suits: one with leopard print and hemmed with crystals, another with an abstract red pattern and embellished with black feathers, and an elegant pair made from emerald green crepe fabric with black-and-white fur trimmings.

Other looks featured New York classics done the fashion-forward way, like the oversized pinstripe suit paired with a fedora; a green leopard print ballgown skirt with multiple tiers, a black turtleneck, and a ton of jewelry; and a a light blue set that looked like it was crafted from denim but was actually made out of of silk using a technique from the ‘20s.

Of course, Chanel’s signature tweeds were key to the collection. It was seen on skirt sets, jackets, and even on an intricate tweed-ified version of the 1931 film poster for Tonight or Never, which Gabrielle designed the costumes for. The idea for this collection, especially the tweeds, was to make them light and airy, according to Blazy. Comfort was front and center, too, in luxed-up knits, American sportswear, functional trench coats, and denim, black dresses.

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Ease and grace conversed with theatricality in shimmering ombré dresses; floating ballgown skirts crafted out of giant, animalia frayed “petals;” a scarlet and ivory suit with an asymmetric cut and black fringe, and an oversized charcoal coat bedecked with fluffy feathers. There was even Chanel’s own version of “Clark Kent,” with a blue, red and yellow graphic sweater peeking out beneath a plaid blazer and brown slacks.

“The other thing that I found amazing about New York—I think it’s one of the unique cities in the world where, when you take the subway, you truly never know who you’re going to meet,” Blazy remarked.

Chanel’s Metiers d’arts show is staged annually to showcase the skills of the house’s specialty ateliers and artisans, like millinery Maison Michel, shoemaker Massaro, and embroiderers Lesage, that is has acquired to ensure its world-class, revolutionary artistry. Since its launch in 2022, the show has travelled to different glamorous locations, including Hangzhou, China; Manchester, England, and Dakar, Senegal.

“Here with Matthieu, it’s the beginning. So the difference, it’s another way to look at the city.,” said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS. “Now we’re in the Lower East Side and before, we were in the Upper East Side. Everything is opposite, and that’s part of New York.”

“At Chanel, with Matthieu and before Matthieu, we love to travel,” Pavlovsky continued. “I think it’s quite important to be able to go where our clients are. This idea of being connected daily, to go where they are, where they live, whatever happens, it’s something which is super important. And Chanel being a global brand, it’s part of our job to connect, to travel, to go everywhere.

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