Karl Lagerfeld – That Velvet Lady

Matthieu Blazy at Chanel: Everything Changing at the World’s Most Mythologized House

Erica — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:15:02 +0000

There are creative director appointments, and then there is Matthieu Blazy Chanel, a sentence the industry spent eighteen months trying to manifest and then, when it finally arrived, still couldn’t quite believe. For a house that treats succession the way monarchies do, handing the keys of Rue Cambon to a 41 year old Belgian who made his name turning cowhide into denim at Bottega Veneta was never the obvious play. It was the interesting one. It was also, arguably, the only one that could follow the quiet unraveling of the Virginie Viard years without turning the whole exercise into a nostalgia act. Chanel didn’t need another curator of Karl’s greatest hits. It needed a designer with a point of view strong enough to stand in front of Coco’s mirrored staircase and not flinch.

What Blazy has delivered so far, one ready to wear debut, one couture outing, and a pre fall lookbook that leaked out of Place Vendôme like a rumor, suggests he understood the assignment better than anyone betting against him. His Chanel isn’t a reinvention in the Hedi at Celine, scorched earth sense. It’s slower, stranger, more forensic. He’s reading the archive like a novel, not a catalog, and the SS26 show at the Grand Palais in March 2026 made it obvious he plans to rewrite entire chapters. Here’s the real inside read on who Blazy is, what he did at Bottega, what his debut actually revealed, and which of the sacred codes he’s protecting versus quietly retiring.

Who Matthieu Blazy Actually Is (And Why Chanel Chose Him)

Blazy is not a personality designer. He doesn’t post, he rarely gives interviews, and when he does, he talks about materials the way chefs talk about stock. Born in Paris, raised between Belgium and France, trained at La Cambre in Brussels, he built his resume in the rooms where craft gets interrogated: Raf Simons at Jil Sander, Maison Margiela’s Artisanal atelier under Martin Margiela himself, then Celine under Phoebe Philo, then Calvin Klein with Raf again, and finally Bottega Veneta, where he succeeded Daniel Lee as creative director in November 2021. That CV is not a coincidence. It’s the most quietly rigorous design education in luxury, and it made him the rare candidate fluent in both haute atelier culture and the kind of minimalist tailoring Chanel had been starved of. When the Wertheimers needed someone who could speak to Coco’s obsession with how clothes move on a real body, they hired the man who had spent three years proving you could sculpt flannel out of a calfskin.

The Bottega Years: Trompe L’Oeil, Intrecciato, and a Craft Revival

Blazy’s 2021-2025 run at Bottega Veneta is already being taught in fashion schools, and rightly so. His first show introduced the now legendary trompe l’oeil leather jeans, perfectly pressed, perfectly worn in denim that turned out to be hand painted nappa, and the trick wasn’t the gimmick, it was the philosophy. He treated leather as a language, not a category, and built an entire universe around it: the Kalimero bag in 2022, the Andiamo in 2023, the knitted leather sock slippers, the flannel shirts that weren’t flannel at all. He revived intrecciato as a technique rather than a logo and gave the Green credibility Daniel Lee’s viral phase never quite earned. By the time Kering confirmed in December 2024 that Louise Trotter would succeed him at Bottega, Blazy had already tripled the house’s fashion gravity and was openly being discussed as Chanel’s next artistic director. The industry saw it coming. The speed with which it actually happened still shocked people.

The Viard Exit and the Eighteen Month Vacuum at Chanel

To understand why Blazy’s arrival feels like a reset, you have to remember how strange the transition was. Virginie Viard, Karl Lagerfeld’s right hand for nearly thirty years and his direct successor from 2019, left Chanel on June 5, 2024, with immediate effect and no successor named. Chanel spent the rest of 2024 running on studio autopilot, pushing out a cruise show and a couture collection without a single attributed designer, which in this industry is the equivalent of a royal family refusing to name an heir. The rumor mill churned through Pierpaolo Piccioli, Sarah Burton, Hedi Slimane, even Jonathan Anderson. When Blazy’s appointment was finally confirmed in late 2024 for a 2025 start, it closed a chapter the house had been quietly struggling to write since Karl’s death in 2019. Viard’s Chanel was gentle, nostalgic, sometimes flat. Blazy’s, on the early evidence, is none of those things.

Inside the Grand Palais: What SS26 Actually Looked Like

The ready to wear debut at the Grand Palais in March 2026 is the one everyone will remember, and not because it was loud. It was the opposite. Blazy took his bow in jeans and a T shirt, a gesture no previous Chanel designer would have dared, and the collection itself read as what critics are calling a “quieter revolution.” Tweed and bouclé appeared weightless, cut into oversized blazers with masculine shoulders and low slung trousers that moved like pyjamas. Charvet collaborated on the shirting, pulling from Coco’s menswear obsession rather than her 1980s Hollywood phase. The 2.55 reappeared broken in and softened, almost slouchy, photographed as if it had already lived a life. Jersey and silk did most of the quiet work, and the palette, ivory, black, a bruised pink, a deep navy, stripped out the sugar Viard had been adding. The Grand Palais rose in a standing ovation. Anna, Edward, the whole front row. Vogue Scandinavia called the follow up couture outing a study in “lightness and metamorphosis.” AnOther said Blazy was “transmogrifying the simple into the sublime.” The read was unanimous: this is a Chanel that intends to be thought about.

What He’s Keeping from Coco, Karl, and Viard

Blazy is too smart to burn the codes. The tweed is staying. The chain, the camellia, the pearl, the quilted leather, the two tone shoe, all present, all recalibrated. What he’s keeping from Coco is the menswear DNA, the borrowed from the boys tailoring, the insistence that a Chanel woman should be able to walk, sit, and breathe in what she’s wearing. What he’s keeping from Karl is the scale and the theatricality of the set (the Grand Palais itself is non negotiable). What he’s keeping from Viard, interestingly, is the softness, her looser silhouettes, her distrust of corsetry. What he’s quietly burning is the logo heavy, bow in the hair, tourist gift shop Chanel that crept in during the late Lagerfeld years and never fully left. Matthieu Blazy Chanel is, if the first two shows are a map, going to be a house for grown up women again.

How to Read a Chanel Under Blazy: Do’s and Don’ts

Do	Don’t
Watch the fabrics first, Blazy speaks through material	Don’t fixate on logo placement; he’s moving away from it
Expect menswear references pulled from Coco’s own wardrobe	Don’t expect the bow and boater camp of late Karl
Read the 2.55 as a mood object, softened, lived in	Don’t assume every bag is a new It bag drop
Look for Charvet shirting and pyjama tailoring	Don’t expect corsetry or structured eveningwear
Track the palette: ivory, navy, bruised pink, black	Don’t wait for neon or sugar tones
Treat the Grand Palais set as part of the message	Don’t skim the show notes, Blazy writes them carefully
Follow the couture atelier credits	Don’t confuse couture drama with ready to wear restraint
Watch front row casting for cultural signals	Don’t read celebrity seating as the full story
Expect intrecciato DNA to migrate from Bottega subtly	Don’t expect him to repeat himself
Judge him by the third collection, not the first	Don’t write the verdict after one runway

FAQs

Who is Matthieu Blazy and why did Chanel hire him? Blazy is a Belgian French designer, 41, trained under Raf Simons, Martin Margiela and Phoebe Philo, and most recently creative director of Bottega Veneta from 2021 to 2025. Chanel hired him because he combines atelier level craft fluency with a minimalist, material first point of view, exactly the corrective the house needed after the Viard years.

When did Virginie Viard leave Chanel? Viard exited on June 5, 2024, with immediate effect, after nearly thirty years at the house and five as artistic director. Chanel ran without a named designer for months before confirming Blazy.

When was Blazy’s Chanel debut? His ready to wear debut was the SS26 show at the Grand Palais in March 2026, followed by his first haute couture collection shortly after. Both were met with standing ovations and serious critical praise.

Who replaced Blazy at Bottega Veneta? Louise Trotter, previously creative director at Carven and Lacoste, was named Bottega Veneta’s creative director in December 2024 and started at the end of January 2025.

What did Blazy do at Bottega Veneta that made him famous? He’s best known for his trompe l’oeil leather work, most famously leather pieces painted and treated to look exactly like worn denim or flannel, and for reviving intrecciato as a craft statement rather than a logo.

Is Blazy keeping the classic Chanel codes? Yes, but selectively. Tweed, bouclé, the 2.55, the camellia, pearls and chains all remain. What’s being retired is the logo forward, overtly decorative Chanel of the late Lagerfeld era.

How does his Chanel compare to Karl Lagerfeld’s? Karl’s Chanel was theatrical, maximalist, and culturally noisy. Blazy’s is quieter, more tactile, and more focused on how clothes actually feel on the body. Different instruments, same house.

Should I buy into SS26 as an investment piece? The softened 2.55 and the Charvet collaboration shirting are the early collector picks. First season pieces from a major creative director debut historically hold value, and Blazy’s are already being chased on resale.

Conclusion

The Matthieu Blazy Chanel era is not going to be loud, and that is precisely why it’s going to matter. He inherited a house weighted down by its own mythology, Coco’s ghost, Karl’s shadow, Viard’s cautious interregnum, and instead of shouting over it, he’s turning the volume down until you can actually hear the fabric. The Grand Palais debut was less a coronation than a thesis statement: Chanel is a craft house, a menswear inflected tailoring house, a house for women who dress for themselves. If he keeps his nerve through the next four seasons, this will be the reference point the 2030s fashion conversation circles back to. The real test starts with pre fall. The real verdict comes with FW27. Either way, the most mythologized house in fashion finally has a designer worth the myth again.

Chanel Classic Flap Price History: Why the Bag Has Doubled Since 2019

Erica — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 10:29:25 +0000

If you walked into a Chanel boutique in early 2019 and asked for a medium Classic Flap in black caviar, you would have handed over roughly $5,800 and walked out feeling like you had done something slightly reckless but ultimately sensible. Fast forward to April 2026, and that same bag, the one everyone still calls the 11.12, the one Karl Lagerfeld famously refused to apologise for, now sits behind the glass at $11,700. In seven years, a bag that was already considered expensive has more than doubled. No new hardware. No reinvented silhouette. Just the same diamond quilted lambskin or caviar, the same interwoven chain, the same CC turnlock that Coco cribbed from her riding days. The math is brutal, the mythology is intact, and the Chanel Classic Flap investment question has never been louder.

This is the part where a lesser editorial would shrug and say luxury gonna luxury. But the story of the Classic Flap’s price climb is actually a very specific story, about post pandemic demand, about Chanel repositioning itself above Louis Vuitton and closer to Hermès, about Virginie Viard’s quiet years, about Matthieu Blazy’s arrival from Bottega, and about a resale market that absorbs every hike within weeks. If you are thinking about buying one in 2026, or wondering whether the one sitting in your closet is quietly funding your next holiday, you need the full timeline. Below is the year by year medium flap price history, the reasons behind each jump, and an honest take on whether the 11.12 still deserves its reputation as the most reliable handbag investment in the game.

The Medium Flap, Year By Year: 2019 to 2026

Here is the climb in cold numbers, focused on the medium (M/L) Classic Flap in caviar, US retail. In 2019, the bag sat around $5,800. By late 2020, after Chanel’s first pandemic era hike, it hit roughly $6,500. In 2021, the year the luxury market went feral, Chanel pushed it twice, landing near $8,200 by year end, a jump of close to 20 percent in twelve months. 2022 brought another aggressive correction to around $8,800. In 2023 the medium flap crossed the psychologically heavy $10,000 line and sat at roughly $10,200. 2024 saw a quieter hike to $10,500. 2025 landed at $10,800. Then in April 2026, Chanel adjusted again, pushing the medium to $11,700 and the small to $11,300. That is a $5,900 increase on a single bag in seven years, almost exactly double the 2019 price. It is the clearest case of luxury “bagflation” on record, and outlets from PurseBop to Bragmybag to Fashionphile have been documenting every increment.

Why The Bag Keeps Climbing: Karl’s Ghost And Chanel’s Strategy

Karl Lagerfeld’s now legendary line, “exclusivity doesn’t come cheap”, was not a throwaway quote. It was policy. Karl believed Chanel’s handbags should sit in the same pricing stratosphere as Hermès, not compete with Louis Vuitton or Dior on volume. After his death in 2019, Chanel doubled down on that thesis under Bruno Pavlovsky, the president of fashion activities, who has been publicly blunt about wanting the Classic Flap to feel untouchable. The pandemic gave them cover: with boutiques shut and demand building behind closed doors, Chanel could raise prices without denting waitlists. Then came the quota system in 2022, one Classic Flap per client per year in many markets, which turned the bag into a scarcity asset overnight. Add in Virginie Viard’s tenure focusing on ready to wear over bag reinvention, and the 11.12 became the calm, unchanging anchor everyone wanted a piece of. The Chanel price increase 2026 round is just the latest chapter of a very deliberate playbook.

The Chanel 11.12 Versus The Reissue 2.55: Don’t Confuse Them

If you are shopping, know what you are actually buying. The bag most people call “the Classic Flap” is technically the 11.12, introduced in the 1980s under Karl, with the interwoven leather and chain strap and the CC turnlock. The 2.55 Reissue, relaunched in 2005, is closer to Coco’s original 1955 design, it uses the Mademoiselle lock (a rectangular bar clasp, because Coco never married) and an all metal chain. The 2.55 in medium currently sits around $10,400, slightly below the 11.12, and many collectors argue it is the more historically pure pick. For Chanel flap history purists, the 2.55 is the origin story; for the everyday luxury buyer, the 11.12 is the icon. Both have appreciated aggressively, but the 11.12 has set the pace the whole market watches.

The Resale Market: What An 11.12 Is Actually Worth Now

Here is where the Chanel Classic Flap investment story gets genuinely interesting. On Fashionphile, Rebag, Vestiaire Collective and The RealReal, a well kept medium 11.12 in black caviar with gold hardware currently resells between $8,500 and $10,500 depending on year, condition and provenance. Bags from 2015 and earlier, before the price acceleration, routinely sell for more than their original retail, sometimes 2x. Even post 2020 bags hold roughly 80 to 95 percent of their current retail, which in practical terms means you can wear a Classic Flap for three years and sell it for close to what you paid. Try that with a Louis Vuitton Neverfull. The Classic Flap resale market behaves less like fashion and more like gold bullion with a chain strap, and every Chanel hike effectively lifts the floor under preloved prices within weeks.

Is The Classic Flap Still Worth Buying In 2026?

Honest answer: it depends on how you define worth. If you are buying the 11.12 as pure investment, the smartest play in 2026 is actually preloved. A 2021 medium in excellent condition at $9,200 on Fashionphile is a better financial move than a brand new one at $11,700, because you skip the steepest part of the depreciation curve and still benefit from any future hikes. If you are buying it for the ritual, the boutique appointment, the camellia stamped ribbon, the white gloves, nothing replaces that, and you are paying for the experience as much as the bag. Matthieu Blazy, who took over as Chanel creative director in late 2024, has so far left the Classic Flap alone, which is exactly what collectors wanted. As long as he keeps the 11.12 untouched, the bag’s mystique, and its price trajectory, stay intact.

Do’s and Don’ts

Do	Don’t
Buy caviar over lambskin if you want daily wear and better resale	Assume lambskin is “more luxurious”, it scratches if you look at it wrong
Stick to black with gold or light gold hardware for maximum resale	Chase seasonal colourways unless you actually love them, they resell weaker
Consider a pre 2022 medium from a reputable consignor like Fashionphile	Buy from random Instagram resellers without provenance or authentication
Keep the box, dust bag, authenticity card and receipt forever	Toss the packaging, it can add $300 to $500 to resale value
Insure the bag once it crosses $10,000 replacement value	Carry it in rain, on airplane floors or stuffed into overhead bins
Check the current Bragmybag or PurseBop price chart before a boutique visit	Walk in blind and assume the SA will quote you last year’s price
Treat the 11.12 as a long hold asset, 5+ years minimum	Flip it within 12 months, you’ll lose to commission fees
Try the small and the medium in person, proportions matter	Buy the mini as an investment; its resale is softer than the medium
Ask about the waitlist for specific hardware finishes	Expect instant availability in 2026, quotas are still active
Compare to a Hermès Kelly 25 if you want a true apples to apples investment bag	Compare it to fast fashion or contemporary bags, different universe

FAQs

How much has the medium Chanel Classic Flap actually gone up since 2019? The medium 11.12 Classic Flap in caviar has climbed from roughly $5,800 in January 2019 to $11,700 as of April 2026. That is a $5,900 increase, or almost exactly 102 percent in just over seven years. PurseBop and Bragmybag have tracked every hike, and the steepest single year was 2021, when Chanel pushed the price up nearly 20 percent in twelve months while US inflation sat under 5 percent.

Why did Chanel raise prices so aggressively after 2020? Three reasons layered on top of each other: pandemic era demand with limited supply, a strategic decision under Bruno Pavlovsky to reposition Chanel closer to Hermès on the luxury pyramid, and Karl Lagerfeld’s old philosophy that exclusivity must be priced to feel exclusive. The 2022 introduction of the one bag per client per year quota sealed it, when supply is capped, price becomes the only lever.

Is the Chanel Classic Flap still a good investment in 2026? Yes, but with caveats. Preloved medium flaps from reputable consignors hold 80 to 95 percent of current retail, and pre 2016 bags often sell above their original sticker. Brand new, you are paying peak retail and absorbing the steepest initial depreciation. For Chanel Classic Flap investment purposes, a well kept 2020-2022 bag from Fashionphile or Rebag is usually the smarter buy than a fresh boutique purchase.

What is the difference between the 11.12 and the 2.55? The 11.12 is what everyone calls “the Classic Flap”, Karl’s 1980s redesign with the CC turnlock and the woven leather and chain strap. The 2.55 Reissue is closer to Coco’s 1955 original, with the rectangular Mademoiselle lock and an all metal chain. The 2.55 sits slightly below the 11.12 in price and appeals to collectors who want the historically purer version.

Should I buy small or medium? The medium (also called M/L) is the most iconic silhouette, holds the strongest resale, and fits a phone, cardholder and lipstick comfortably. The small is technically the same retail price now after the April 2026 adjustment but carries less and resells slightly softer. Unless you are petite or want a true evening bag, the medium is the smarter long term pick.

Is caviar or lambskin better? Caviar, pebbled, more durable, daily wear friendly, and holds resale value better. Lambskin is softer and more traditionally “luxurious” looking but scratches, scuffs and dulls with real use. Every serious Classic Flap resale expert will tell you the same thing: if you are buying one bag for the next decade, buy caviar.

Where is the safest place to buy a preloved Classic Flap? Fashionphile, Rebag, The RealReal’s Luxury Consignment Office, Vestiaire Collective (Expert Sellers only), and Collector Square in Europe. All of them authenticate in house, most offer buyback programs, and their pricing is transparent enough to cross check. Avoid Facebook Marketplace, random Instagram accounts and eBay unless the listing comes with Entrupy authentication and clear provenance.

Will Chanel keep raising prices in 2027? Almost certainly yes. Chanel has raised Classic Flap prices every single year since 2016, including two separate hikes in some years. Matthieu Blazy’s arrival has not changed the strategy, and Bruno Pavlovsky has publicly signalled that the Hermès adjacent positioning is permanent. Plan your purchase assuming another 4 to 8 percent hike in January or April 2027.

Conclusion

The Chanel Classic Flap investment case is not a fairytale and it is not a scam, it is a very specific asset with a very specific playbook. If you want in, know the medium flap price history, know the difference between the 11.12 and the 2.55, and seriously consider preloved before you walk into a boutique. For more on building a handbag wardrobe that actually appreciates, our guide on luxury vs budget fashion breaks down where to spend and where to skip.

Karl Lagerfeld – That Velvet Lady

Matthieu Blazy at Chanel: Everything Changing at the World’s Most Mythologized House

Who Matthieu Blazy Actually Is (And Why Chanel Chose Him)

The Bottega Years: Trompe L’Oeil, Intrecciato, and a Craft Revival

The Viard Exit and the Eighteen Month Vacuum at Chanel

Inside the Grand Palais: What SS26 Actually Looked Like

What He’s Keeping from Coco, Karl, and Viard

How to Read a Chanel Under Blazy: Do’s and Don’ts

FAQs

Conclusion

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Chanel Classic Flap Price History: Why the Bag Has Doubled Since 2019

The Medium Flap, Year By Year: 2019 to 2026

Why The Bag Keeps Climbing: Karl’s Ghost And Chanel’s Strategy

The Chanel 11.12 Versus The Reissue 2.55: Don’t Confuse Them

The Resale Market: What An 11.12 Is Actually Worth Now

Is The Classic Flap Still Worth Buying In 2026?

Do’s and Don’ts

FAQs

Conclusion

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