Chanel Spring 2025 ready-to-wear collection

Chanel was back at the Grand Palais for the first time in four years. The sun streamed through the newly renovated glass roof and added sparkle to the embroidered tweeds of the many customers in attendance. They sat in their happy spot, taking selfies and praising each other’s looks, apparently not bothered by the empty creative director’s seat, which has been the subject of so much speculation among industry insiders since the shows began in New York a month ago .

The front row discussions weren’t just about who should get the job, but also about what kind of talent they should be: A marketing genius? A creative guru? And wouldn’t it feel right and true if it were a woman? Everyone has an opinion, including Hedi Slimane, who put a surprising Celine collection with unmistakable Coco echoes online at the weekend.

For spring, Chanel’s creative studio took the Grand Palais itself as a starting point. The exhibition’s most notable pieces were hand-knitted in the pattern of emerging Art Deco iron and steel work. Lightness, airiness and a touch of transience were the guidelines for the collection, which the studio team achieved in various ways: skirts with front slits that revealed a glimpse of the legs, collars made of layers of down feathers, trailing chiffon capes and platform shoes that lent the process a feeling of youthfulness.

In the middle of the palace stood a huge birdcage, a reference to a 1991 Jean-Paul Goude-directed Chanel commercial starring Vanessa Paradis. The models crossed the cage as they walked back and forth in the nave The routes they traveled were a visual reminder of the house’s long history. The creative team had ideas on how to give their own tweeds a fresh look: by using candy pastels or by swapping the famous skirt suit for a shorts suit. There were also surprises, like a black denim jacket and jeans, both embellished with shiny black sequins, reflecting the casual way the young women who work on “accessorizing” in the atelier a few days before the show do every day Chanel make and their own.

The evening looks were created in a similarly playful spirit, combining embellished jeans and a feather-dusted baby blue cape and adding a chiffon train to a sparkly tweed jumpsuit. Riley Keough wore something like this when she sang Prince’s “When Doves Cry” from a birdcage swing at the finale. The pigeon pauses in mid-flight and the entire industry waits to see which direction it takes off again.