Margot Robbie, Oprah watch Blazy transform Chanel with color and craft

PARIS (AP) — Chanel 's Matthieu Blazy is still building.

Six months into his tenure at the Parisian stalwart, the designer staged his second ready-to-wear collection at Paris Fashion Week Monday, where brightly colored cranes rose from a holographic floor — a deliberate signal that the construction is ongoing.

For Parisians who have spent years staring at the real thing above Notre-Dame cathedral, the set was perhaps less dreamy than intended.

The audience inside the Grand Palais suggested the foundations are solid: Margot Robbie, Oprah, Jennie, Kylie Minogue, Lily-Rose Depp, Teyana Taylor and Olivia Dean all turned up to watch the next floor go on.

Blazy took his cue from a quote from Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel: “We need dresses that crawl and dresses that fly.”

The collection was structured around that tension — plain against spectacular, function against fantasy — with a discipline his sprawling debut last October sometimes lacked.

The opening looks were austere by design.

Black knit zip-ups, tweed blousons and boxy overshirts arrived with little more than four gold buttons to signal they belonged to Chanel.

In the vast runway space, they could read as underwhelming.

But Blazy’s point was architectural: the suit, he said, is “the first brick” — and everything else rises from it.

That logic tracks to the founder.

In her apartment on Rue Cambon, a wall is covered in gauze painted gold — something poor made precious.

Chanel built a house on that idea, borrowing from everyday dress and elevating it.

Blazy is doing the same with her codes, stripping the suit to a knit shirt jacket or pressed-tweed blouson before rebuilding it in silicone-woven fabric and metallic mesh.

The collection’s most provocative move was its silhouette.

Blazy pulled waistlines dramatically low — belts slung to mid-thigh, pleated skirts starting where blazers ended.

The references were retro flapper filtered through a modern lens: drop-waisted twinsets, patchwork dresses with floral embroidery, vivid patterned knits with a twenties pulse.

A furry coat in bold geometric color could have been worn in a chic part of London's Camden.

Whether the ultra-low waistlines will land with the well-heeled clients who pack Chanel’s front rows is another question.

Selling a radically new proportion to women with deep loyalty to the house is a different challenge than winning critical praise.

The final stretch answered that concern with force. Sequined plaid suits arrived in dazzling color. Beaded coats glinted with star-chart embroidery.

Metallic mesh was woven to mimic tweed motifs, and several models wore pastel-tinted hair to match their looks.

Fabric flowers burst from bodices.

Trailing ribbons, layered ruffles, and insect-wing detailing turned the runway into something closer to spectacle than commerce.

Blazy cast wide — teens through to women in their fifties — and let the show breathe, with a runway circuit that took models the better part of five minutes.

He framed it all with seven pared-back black and cream looks, as if to say: whatever else changes, the Chanel you know isn’t going anywhere.

If this second outing holds — on the penultimate day of fashion week — Blazy has found something rare at a heritage house: a way to honor the founder’s voice without simply echoing it.

Designer Matthieu Blazy accepts applause after presenting the Chanel Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Women's collection in Paris, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A model wears a creation as part of the Chanel Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Women's collection presented in Paris, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A model wears a creation as part of the Chanel Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Women's collection presented in Paris, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Lily-Rose Depp poses for photographers upon arrival for the Chanel Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Women's collection presented in Paris, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom Nicholson)

A model wears a creation as part of the Chanel Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Women's collection presented in Paris, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

ROME (AP) — Some of the lesser-known treasures at San Pietro in Vincoli basilica in Rome, known for Michelangelo’s massive marble statue of Moses, are finally being restored.

Thanks to an infusion of European Union pandemic recovery funding, a frenzied series of restorations at religious, historic and cultural sites around the Eternal City are popping up.

On Monday, restorer Melanie Khanthajan climbed up a series of ladders with her toolbox to her perch on the scaffolding near the basilica ceiling, 20 meters (65 feet) off the floor. Using a scalpel, she painstakingly scraped off layers of plaster on serpentine decorations around a coat of arms on the vaulted ceiling, a technique called “descialbo.”

“Every removal of a layer surprises us because it allows us to understand what it is like, what emerges,” she explained. “So for us it’s wonderful, it’s a discovery every day.”

The ceilings, altar, tombs, marble columns and decorations of the basilica are being cleaned and restored with a 2-million-euro ($2.3 million) EU recovery grant that is keeping Khanthajan and 10 other restorers busy.

The city of Rome received 500 million euros ($579 million) in European funds for the “Caput Mundi” projects to be used on over 100 cultural renovations in the city. “Caput Mundi” was a term used by ancient Romans to mean “the head of the world.” According to an agreement with the EU, the funds must be used before the end of 2026.

The basilica is just a few steps from Rome’s Colosseum and gets its name, “vincoli,” from the Latin “vincula” for chains. A glass box at the center of the altar holds ancient chains, relics that, according to tradition, were used to hold St. Peter in Jerusalem. According to tradition, they then miraculously fused together with the chains used on Peter when he was held in the Mamertine prison in Rome.

The basilica was built in the 5th century under the Eastern Roman Empire and then in the 16th century Pope Julius II had the church partially rebuilt, adding his noble family Della Rovere’s coat of arms with an oak tree at the center on the ceilings, arches and chapels. The coat of arms and other decorations are the focus of the restoration.

The main attraction of the basilica is the sculpture of Moses, made by Michelangelo in 1513 to decorate the funeral monument of Julius. The Moses is not part of the restoration but will get a dusting off when the job is done.

“The works started about eight months ago and will end by May 2026,” said Ilaria Sgarbozza, the scientific director of the restoration project. “Let’s say it’s a very fast pace.”

A fresco depicting Jesus Christ is visible inside the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

The hand of a restorer peaks from a scaffolding inside the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

Journalists visit the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome during its restoration works, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

From right, restorers Ilaria Balmas, and Victoria Mattia polish the tomb of Cardinal Mariano Vecchiarelli inside the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

Restorer Domiziana Marchioro polishes the altar od St. Sebastian inside the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)