PARIS - After reaching for the stars in his first show for Chanel, new chief designer Matthieu Blazy took a feathery flight of fancy for his debut Haute Couture collection on Tuesday inspired by birds and nature.
The vast Grand Palais exhibition space in central Paris was transformed into an enchanted and psychedelic forest populated by giant mushrooms and pink weeping willows.
With stars from Nicole Kidman to Dua Lipa looking on, the first outfits made abundant use of sheer silk muslin alongside Chanel tweeds before the arrival of more whimsical, avian-inspired styles.
"The idea of the feather runs through the collection, though seldom in its natural form. All kinds of birds appear, as if by magic, from the most familiar to the rarest," Blazy wrote in his show notes.
The Franco-Belgian couturier referenced the extravagant plumage of a roseate spoonbill or the crested cockatoo alongside the humble crow, grey pigeon and magpie.
Even for Haute Couture dresses, typically worn at gala or red carpet events, Blazy told the WWD website that he had tried to strip back some of the excess to focus on the "essence of the house, which is clothes that women actually wear".