Chanel turns the Salon d’Honneur into open country for Couture 2025.
Paris’s Grand Palais often feels monumental, yet the Salon d’Honneur remained almost intimate for Chanel’s Fall-Winter 2025/26 Haute Couture show. Willo Perron’s restrained décor echoed the calm of 31 rue Cambon, where Gabrielle Chanel championed simplicity. The mood pointed to English countryside and Scottish moorland, landscapes that once fed Mademoiselle’s imagination and now guide the Creation Studio.
Freedom of movement framed the collection. Suit jackets adopted relaxed menswear proportions, and their earthy palette (ecru, ivory, brown, green, black) resembled a soil chart. Tweed appeared knitted for a white coatdress trimmed with embroidered braids, while mohair suits in russet-green or plum broadened the house’s winter range. A bouclé weave suggested sheepskin across a straight coatdress, a skirt suit, and a long gilet; ivory short trousers, painted and embroidered, kept the rural note light.
Tweed and feathers combined to mimic faux fur in a trouser suit, a sweeping coat, an embroidered over-cape, and a cropped blouson. The effect drew the audience closer to study texture.
Wheat ears, Chanel’s symbol of abundance, appeared throughout: woven into the chiffon flounces of a black-and-white strappy dress, stitched along the neckline of the finale wedding gown, and pressed into jewel buttons fastening coats and suits. A chevron of wheat marked a pants ensemble, while multicolored floral embroidery enlivened a pea coat and a satin-crêpe pinafore.
Toward evening, gold emerged. Buttons caught the light, lace carried a silver-and-gold sheen, and a flounced dress in orange lamé flashed like late-day sun. The glow stayed measured, matching a collection that allowed technique to speak quietly.
Chanel described the presentation as “an invitation to greener pastures,” a phrase that felt accurate. By revisiting winter classics through knitted tweed, feathered illusions, and sunlit embroidery, the Creation Studio reaffirmed Gabrielle Chanel’s belief that modernity begins with comfort. Haute Couture, the show suggested, can feel as natural as a walk outdoors.
