For its Fall-Winter 2026 Haute Couture presentation in Paris, directed by Matthieu Blazy, Chanel stages its latest collection in a world conceived by Bureau Betak, where monumental flowers, twisting vines, and oversized botanical forms transform the runway into an immersive environment for attendees. The scenography extends the collection's central narrative, translating fairy tales into space as models move through a hand-made landscape populated by climbing vegetation, hidden furniture, and fantastical flowers.
Bureau Betak Builds a Fairy Tale Landscape With Huge Flowers for Chanel
Drawing on stories including Jack and the Beanstalk and Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the collection explores fantasy through the established codes of the house. Tweed jackets are adorned with embroidered flowers, while vines climb across dresses and even wrap around heels. Braided hairstyles are accented with birds and small found objects. Hidden inside several garments, personal notes, initials, and handwritten to-do lists suggest that each couture piece carries the story of its wearer, shifting fairy tales from familiar folklore to intimate stories.
Video by: Chanel
Bureau Betak's scenography amplifies these ideas by enlarging the botanical shapes into inhabitable forms. Towering stems were seen branching across the runway, where giant flowers also emerged from the walls and ceiling. Lastly, looping vines weave around vintage-style chairs, mirrors, and decorative objects. Earth-toned walls and a softly painted sky overhead strengthened the feeling of stepping into a storybook scenography, while its oversized scale places it somewhere between interior design, theatrical scenery, and large-scale art.
Giant Flowers and Climbing Vines Shape an Immersive Set
Floral embroidery appears throughout the collection, picking up on the oversized flowers placed around the runway. Beadwork and appliqué follow winding patterns that also appear in Bureau Betak’s set design, connecting the garments to the surrounding environment through repeated botanical details. The collection highlights the work of Chanel’s Haute Couture ateliers through embroidery, weaving, braiding, and appliqué. Botanical motifs shift between garment and set, creating visual continuity across different scales and materials. In 2023, Camellia's took over the runway, but that was totally different from now.
The presentation also reflects the growing role of set design in runway shows. Betak’s oversized flowers, climbing vines, and domestic furnishings created a setting that feels intimate and connected to the collection itself, allowing the runway and the couture pieces to function as part of the same presentation.
The Lasting Influence of Flowers in Luxury Fashion
Flowers remain one of the strongest creative references across luxury fashion. Season after season, designers return to botanical forms for ideas that influence embroidery, silhouettes, prints, textures, and even runway environments. Houses such as Chanel, Dior, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, and Schiaparelli have all incorporated flowers into their collections, using them as the second protagonists after the models. They really become part of the concept behind a collection, helping communicate mood and identity.
Matthieu Blazy, who designed his first collection for Chanel last year, mapped the house’s origins and archives within a living cosmos of fashion history. Inside the Grand Palais, Matthieu opened his Chanel debut with a scene that felt like a cosmic rebirth for one of the world’s biggest brands. Under Blazy's direction, Chanel Haute Couture once again shows its ability to speak to many different expressions of femininity. The collection combines sharp black tailoring, striking black-and-white looks, and touches of deep carmine red. The designs feel comfortable and easy to wear, even though they require an extraordinary level of expertise and precision to create. Each piece can be layered or styled in different ways. Blazy presented an imaginative collection filled with feathers, guipure lace, chains, and metallic accessories that, much like childhood fairy tales, invites viewers into a world of imagination and wonder.
Photos and videos: @chanelofficial
