Natural Origins: Chanel Honours Beginnings For Fall/Winter 2025/26 Haute Couture

As we await the dawning of a new era, the maison's creation studio presents a collection blooming with pastoral elegance

Chanel Fall/Winter 2025/2026 Haute Couture (All Photos: Supplied)

It all begins at 31 Rue Cambon. The legendary mirrored staircase, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s apartment above, the hallowed Haute Couture salons below—Chanel’s Fall/Winter 2025/26 Haute Couture show is a luminous return to the house’s birthplace, both literal and symbolic. In a teaser video directed by Malick Bodian and a show set at the Grand Palais, with the Salon d’Honneur artfully fitted out by Willo Perron, the mood is one of introspection and natural elegance.

Nature serves as both a muse and a motif, with a collection that draws inspiration from the significance of origins. The maison’s creation studio’s vision channels the Scottish Highlands and English countryside that once enchanted mademoiselle Chanel herself, and first acquainted her with some of the house codes we know today—tweed, Chanel’s eternal fabric, being one of them. But on this runway, it is transformed, reading like knitwear in a plum mohair suit and a snowy white coat dress trimmed with braiding. Elsewhere, it mimics sheepskin, paired with feathers for a trompe l’oeil effect, across short jackets, gilets, and long coats.

Ecru, moss, mahogany, and black thread are woven through classic silhouettes borrowed from menswear—boxy jackets, relaxed trousers, and military-style coat dresses, all imbued with a pastoral calm and styled with a contemporary insouciance.

Ears of wheat—symbols of abundance and a personal talisman of the founder—appear sporadically embroidered onto chiffon flounces, glinting in gold buttons, lining the neckline of the iconic Chanel bride’s finale gown. A chevroned pant ensemble and multicoloured floral embroidery, seen on a satin crêpe pinafore, continue the homage to land and harvest.

And as the show draws to a close, the palette shifts. Sunlight is summoned in golden buttons, burnished lace, and a flounced lamé dress in gleaming orange tones—a moment of light at the end of the season where midriffs are bared and layers slip away.