Yahoo Lifestyle Chanel Goes Over the Rainbow With Spring 2025 Couture Show
Guests walking into the Grand Palais for the Chanel haute couture show on Tuesday were greeted by two imposing white ramps curving toward the soaring steel-and-glass ceiling.
Backstage before the show, monitors revealed an aerial view of the set by buzzy interior designer Willo Perron, with the runway forming a cross between the label’s double-C logo and the infinity symbol. What better way to signal continuity at the house as it prepares to welcome its new creative director Matthieu Blazy in April?
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“We’re celebrating the 110th anniversary of couture at Chanel. We had to mark the occasion,” said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS. “The symbol means it is constantly changing and evolving, and it never ends.”
Ahead of the event, the brand released a short film featuring model Lulu Tenney getting fitted for her finale bridal look, and friends of the house Vanessa Paradis, Marion Cotillard, Naomi Campbell and Anna Mouglalis talking about what makes couture so special.
The spring collection, designed by the studio team, explored the hidden facets of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s color palette. “Chanel is not just black and white,” Pavlovsky stressed.
The lineup began with a sequence of white looks before working through the chromatic circle, from sunrise pastels to primary hues. With a passage through midnight blue and black, it completed the sequence from day to night.
Chanel’s signature tweed suits were jazzed up with linings in saturated green, yellow, royal blue or purple satin, and trimmed with multicolored braids and precious buttons. Short skirts, some layered with sheer tulle or extending into frothy trains, gave the lineup a youthful appeal.
While models’ red lips popped against striking looks like a scarlet evening gown, the softer shades felt more familiar, recalling the 18th-century sugared almond hues that endlessly inspired Karl Lagerfeld during his three-decade tenure at the helm of the house.
Baby pink, blue and gold were dabbed in watercolor stains on a floral-print trouser suit embroidered with translucent petals, while tiny feathers appeared as frothy accents on looks including a pink and green chiffon slipdress and a black lace evening gown.
Some of the most striking styles were also the simplest: Alex Consani looking statuesque in a pale yellow double satin shirtdress with rhinestone buttons, or Steinberg sweeping past in an ice blue satin cape.
While the collection stuck to safe territory by mining the archives, it felt solid enough to tide over the house until Blazy shows his first collection in October. In the meantime, Chanel has seen no drop-off in demand for its top-end collections, although overall sales missed expectations amid a global slowdown in luxury sales, Pavlovsky said.
“Our haute couture workshops are running at full steam and we continue to recruit,” the executive reported.
However, he confirmed media reports that Chanel is cutting its headcount in the U.S. in response to slowing growth, but said the net figure was below the 70 jobs reported.
“For the full year, revenues were flat in 2024 versus 2023,” Pavlovsky said. “We’re starting on a strong footing in 2025, but we’re having to readjust to take into account the shortfall.”
He stressed that Chanel’s revenues have doubled since 2019, and expressed confidence that the luxury sector will bounce back after the current trough. In Chanel’s case, Blazy will carry much of that responsibility, though the power of the brand — telegraphed by that monumental show set — provides strong momentum.
“When times are tough, that is the time for brands to refocus on their fundamentals,” Pavlovsky said.
Launch Gallery: Chanel Spring 2025 Couture
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