Editors love to review, critique, and offer fashion advice, but rarely do they line up for hours to spend their own money on a brand-new collection. Well, that’s exactly what’s happening in Paris right now, as Matthieu Blazy’s first collection for Chanel began trickling into stores. Currently, my Instagram is saturated with influencers documenting their multi-day ventures trying to get their hands on a specific Matthieu-designed Chanel bag or shoe, and failing. On the other side of the spectrum, the more subtle, demure community of editors are posting sneak peeks and cheeky shots of Chanel shopping bags on their Instagram stories. The ultimate in-crowd is getting its hands on history’s first Blazy x Chanel pieces.

But why is Blazy’s Chanel hitting such a nerve? I think the answer is pretty simple. Chanel fans have been starved of good design for so long. Loyalists tried to stay faithful, pretending not to notice (or not to care) about the house’s decline in fashion’s hierarchy. And while everyone respected Chanel for what it once was, few could justify splurging upwards of $10,000 on collections that simply did not resonate.

The comeback feels so personal because Matthieu is making up for years of deprivation. In one or two collections, he effectively caught Chanel up to 2026 while remaining true to the house’s DNA. This is not your grandmother’s Chanel. It’s a new and improved, Paris-meets-upper-east-side Chanel.

I already adored Blazy at Bottega. He single-handedly made me fall in love with the Italian heritage brand, and I was immensely proud when I finally got my hands on one of his Bottega bags. That’s why I took it a little personally when he left to lead Chanel, a brand that never resonated with me.

I have friends to the left and right of me who love Chanel—they own the Chanel lipstick, the Chanel tweed jacket, the Chanel flap bag… but nothing ever pulled at my heartstrings. I considered Blazy’s move to Chanel the end of my one-sided love story with him, but seeing his latest collections completely transformed me. This is what it must have felt like when Coco Chanel first emerged onto the scene in 1913—I feel like I’m witnessing a renewed greatness, and I’m delighted to be experiencing it first-hand. It should come as no shock, then, that people are running into Chanel stores just to be a part of this history.

The Blazy collection is just that good. The styles, simply put, are easy to love and easy to wear—something that Coco Chanel prioritized in her work. Wearability was her northern star and what led her to lose the corsets in favor of drop-waist dresses and loose silhouettes. It was her drive to “free” the woman that inspired her to reconstruct the fabric of women’s fashion itself.

To me, Blazy’s designs are so editor-coded. As someone who watches, but can’t quite participate, with this very specific aesthetic that is “the fashion editor,” Blazy’s designs feel like the epitome of the editor it-girl. The loose jackets, the multi-layered ensembles, the skin-grazing tops that are neither baggy nor fitted… It’s everything I’ve seen a Vogue editor wear but with a signature Chanel touch. It’s not the instant sell or the Kodak moment for an influencer. No, this is where editors thrive.

While everyone is emptying stores trying to get their hand on the spring/summer collections, I can’t wait to shop its more recent fall/winter pieces. I gasped at the shoes. I drooled at the jackets. I’m dying for a drop-waist skirt dress. This is Chanel 2026, completely reborn but with the same soul it once had in the early 1900’s. Am I going to be among the editors elbowing my way into Chanel? Very likely.