At Chanel’s spring 2025 show this morning, brand ambassador Riley Keough quite literally took flight, soaring above guests on a swing in a giant white cage at the center of the Grand Palais while singing a cover of Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” Chanel may still be without a creative director following the departure of Virginie Viard in June—speculation about who will take the coveted top job reached a fever pitch in Paris this week—but the studio team spread its wings with a joyful tribute to the house’s long legacy of dressing liberated women. Cards left on the seats offered an epigram from the founder Gabrielle Chanel herself that set the tone: “People have always wanted to put me in cages: cages with cushions stuffed with promises, gilded cages, cages that I’ve touched looking away from. I never wanted any other than the one I would built myself.”
The show marked Chanel’s return to the glass barrel vaulted Beaux-Arts landmark where the brand had shown its collections since 2005, following an extensive four-year renovation which it sponsored. And it was a return to form, both of the sort of grand spectacle Chanel was known for in the Karl Lagerfeld era—the striking mise-en-scène referenced a 1991 ad for Coco perfume starring Vanessa Paradis—and a showcase of the maison’s ability to continuously reimagine and reinvent its icons. So there were bouclé skirt suits in spades, here fashioned as wrap skirts with easy-on button closures or given multiple slits to facilitate movement. Little black dresses came in airy lace, or sprouted Superwoman chiffon capes that looked ready for liftoff.
Part of the magic of Chanel is that its codes—the pearls, the camellias, the quilted bags, and the two-tone shoes—never go out of style. You only needed to look around the crystal palace at the clients, editors, and buyers Coco’ed out in Chanel bits from various seasons for confirmation. For spring, flight suits cut in fine black or white silk faille and aviator jackets with elegant Peter Pan collars made styles Amelia Earhart wore over 100 years ago feel thoroughly modern. The collection felt referential without being overly reverential, thanks to fresh silhouettes like sequined and fringed wide-leg denim and a fun multicolored feathers print that wafted across ruffled tops, palazzo pants, and bloomers.
