Chanel couture gets a breath of fresh air and stars. Armani revamps

PARIS (AP) — Fashion powerhouse Chanel stacked the Paris front row like a movie premiere Tuesday: Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa, Penélope Cruz, A$AP Rocky, Gracie Abrams, Margaret Qualley.

Then, it handed the spotlight to its new designer, Matthieu Blazy, for his much-anticipated couture debut built on one big, confident swing: joy.

Inside the Grand Palais, the house went full fantasy.

The set was a dream-garden of candy-colored trees and giant pink-and-red mushrooms: a surreal antidote to the gray January day outside, and to the even heavier mood of the world beyond the doors.

Before the first look, Blazy even teased the mood with an animation film of woodland animals at work in the Chanel ateliers, “Cinderella” style: a wink that said this would be couture, but not grim.

Then came the clothes, and the message landed fast: lightness.

Blazy took Chanel’s most famous codes — the suit, the pearls, the chain-weighted hems — and made them feel almost weightless.

A classic skirt suit arrived as a sheer, barely-there version of itself, cut so delicately it looked like air had been tailored.

In a house where tweed can be armor, this was tweed as whisper.

Birds hovered over the collection as a guiding idea: freedom, motion, travel.

Featherlike textures and flighty embroideries fluttered across silhouettes that moved like breath instead of structure.

There were flashes of plumage in color and surface — at times bright, at times raven-dark — and plenty of soft, floating chiffon that made the models look as if they were gliding rather than walking.

The best trick was how the craft wasn't obvious.

Up close, the work was meticulous: a level of handwork couture clients pay for, and ateliers live for.

But the overall effect stayed easy, almost casual; as if the clothes were beautiful without demanding applause.

Blazy played with the artistic technique trompe l’oeil, including a tank top-and-jeans idea reimagined in organza, and with textures that were romantic but also a little strange; couture that winked.

In a brand built on total looks and strong house signatures, Blazy offered something personal: choice.

Models were invited to pick symbols and messages to stitch into the clothes — a love note, a sign, a private mark.

It pushed Chanel away from “uniform” and toward intimacy: couture as a wearable secret, not just a public statement.

The show also had a sense of casting as storytelling.

Blazy’s runways have tended to carry an open, joyful energy, and that continued here — a mix of ages, backgrounds and presences that made the clothes feel lived-in.

Model Bhavitha Mandava, fresh off her viral moment at the house’s Métiers d’Art show, returned.

Later she closed as a couture bride, shimmering and feathered, smiling as if she knew she was ending the scene exactly on the right note.

The soundtrack shifted moods like a DJ set, moving from Disney sweetness to millennial nostalgia — including Moby’s “Porcelain,” and a mashup that blended Oasis’ “Wonderwall” with The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony.”

By the finale, the room was playing along.

Big sets are easy. Blazy’s debut didn’t try to overpower Chanel with noise or force a new era with aggression. Instead, he made it feel alive.

Silvana Armani stepped forward Tuesday with her first couture collection as creative director of Armani Privé, taking the spotlight after the death of her uncle, Giorgio Armani, in September.

Armani, who worked alongside him for more than four decades, becomes the only woman leading a couture house this season, in a week dominated by high-profile debuts from male designers.

Her debut kept the house’s signature restraint but pushed it toward a lighter, more wearable mood. The lineup was trimmed to about 60 looks, a sharper edit than the brand’s typical scale.

Tailoring opened the show, but softened: relaxed suits, sheer organza shirts with ties, and wide-leg trousers in light layers that moved easily on the runway. Accessories were kept minimal — and hats were left out entirely, a notable change for a house long associated with Giorgio Armani’s love of headwear.

The palette stayed pale and controlled, with celadon and blush tones running through the collection.

Decoration was largely contained to embroidery, with sparkle used selectively rather than as an all-over effect.

Evening looks brought the strongest statements, including crystal-shimmered gowns that read almost weightless, sequins paired casually with wide trousers, and a column dress covered in translucent crystals under a black satin opera coat lined in matching green.

The finale delivered a direct link to the founder: a bridal gown designed by Giorgio Armani for his last Privé collection, shown publicly for the first time.

A model wears a creation as part of the Chanel Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A model wears a creation as part of the Chanel Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A model wears a creation as part of the Chanel Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A$AP Rocky, from left, Margaret Qualley and Vanessa Paradis attend the Chanel Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Designer Matthieu Blazy accepts applause after the Chanel Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Models wear creations as part of the Chanel Spring/Summer 2026 Haute Couture collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

ACERRA, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Saturday greeted one by one families who lost loved ones to illegal toxic dumping in an area near Naples, tied to a multi-billion criminal racket run by the mafia.

Many paused to share photographs and other mementos of children and young people who have died or are battling cancer because of the pollution.

Leo's visit to the so-called Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, came on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Pope Francis’ big ecological encyclical Laudato Si (Praised Be), and indicates Leo’s commitment to carry on his predecessor’s environmental agenda.

“I have come first of all to gather the tears of those who have lost loved ones, killed by environmental pollution caused by unscrupulous people and organizations who for too long were able to act with impunity,” Leo said in remarks to family members and local clergy inside Acerra's cathedral.

The pontiff recalled that the area now dubbed the Land of Fires was once called “Campania felix,” Latin for blessed or fruitful countryside, "capable for enchanting for its fertility, its produce and its culture, like a hymn to life.

"And yet — here is death, of the land and of men,'' the pope said.

The European Court of Human Rights last year validated a generation of residents’ complaints that mafia dumping, burial and burning of toxic waste led to an increased rate of cancer and other ailments in the area of 90 municipalities around Caserta and Naples, encompassing a population of 2.9 million people.

The court found Italian authorities had known since 1988 about the toxic pollution, blamed on the Camorra crime syndicate that controls waste disposal, but failed to take necessary steps to protect the residents. The binding ruling gave Italy two years to set up a database about the toxic waste and verified health risks associated with living there.

Bishop Antonio Di Donna estimated 150 young people had died in the city of some 58,000 over the past three decades — emphasizing in his opening remarks that the number didn't take into account adults and victims in other municipalities.

He urged the pope to admonish those who continue to pollute, noting that the dumping of tons of toxic waste was reported a day earlier near Castera. Di Donna said that Italian officials had identified dozens more human-caused contamination sites throughout the country, including the Venetian port of Marghera, and the leaching of PFAS forever chemicals into groundwater near Vicenza.

"We say to those brothers of ours ensnared in evil and seized by a mirage of fabulous earnings: Convert, change your ways, because what you are doing is not only a crime, it is a sin that cries out to God for vengeance,'' the bishop said.

The pope later greeted the mayors of the 90 communities impacted by the toxic dumping, and greeted thousands of people waving yellow flags and chanting “Papa Leone” along the route of his popemobile and in a central piazza.

The victims include Maria Venturato, who died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 25. Her father, Angelo, said he hopes to speak with the pope to explain their reality, “not for me … for the next generation.”

“I’d like to give these young people a future, so I’m asking for the pope’s help with this. That is, I’m making a strong appeal to him to go to those in power and say, ‘Look, let’s heal this land of fires,’" he said on the eve of the pope's visit.

Inside the cathedral, Filomena Carolla presented the pope with a book containing memories from the life of her daughter, Tina De Angelis, who died of cancer at the age of 24.

“I’m just angry at the people who poisoned the soil, because what did our children have to do with it? What did they have to do with it, so young,” Carolla told The Associated Press on Friday.

Francis' plans to visit the area in 2020 were canceled due to the pandemic.

A man presents a pizza with the portrait of Pope Leo XIV during his a one-day pastoral visit in Acerra, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech during his meeting with clergy, religious and families of victims of environmental pollution in the Saint Mary of the Assumption Cathedral in Acerra, near Naples, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV rides on his popemobile during his one-day pastoral visit in Acerra, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

A man enters a grocery store with posters of Pope Leo XIV ahead of his visit to the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Acerra bishop Antonio Di Donna speaks during an interview with the Associated Press ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Illegal waste is seen on the side of a road in the outskirts of the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026, a day ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Illegal waste is seen on the side of a road in the outskirts of the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026, a day ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Angelo Venturato talks during an interview with the Associated Press next to photos of his daughter Maria who died at the age of 25 of a cancer he claims to be connected to decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, in the southern town of Acerra, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)