The Quarter Zip Strategy at Chanel

Many PR methods of Chanel are short-sighted. This one I recommend taking note of.

1. In recent days, the fifth show of the brand under the direction of Matthieu Blazy has taken place. Starting from the second show, the designer comes out for the final bow in a uniform.

2. That was Métiers d'art 2026 in December 2025 when he first appeared in a quarter zip — fully plain but with small delicate logos — at the zip and at the back.

3. Three times it was a black sweatshirt, and at the couture show finale — beige. In the beige version, the designer also appeared in an interview with the Financial Times.

   

   

   

   

   

4. Designers’ clothing is a separate topic of discussion after shows. Perhaps over the past decade, even when it comes to luxury brands, the pendulum has shifted towards the democratisation of such looks, and towards designers themselves treating them primarily as a tool.

5. The motives are obvious — freeing oneself from routine tasks — including choosing what to wear — often helps redirect cognitive energy to priority work.

6. However — at a professional level — ignoring even such final touches is not commercially reasonable.

7. Luxury is an image you try to reach. Make this image ordinary — and you begin to rationalise the choice in its favour. Reason prevails over emotion — and over the wallet.

8. Such appearances are part of the narrative — a moment that should reinforce the emotion and hold the entire image together. When they break that rhythm, the story loses its final note.

9. I had been thinking about how to approach this topic in a practical way for some time — since reading the conversation of Haider Ackermann, designer of Tom Ford, with The Cut. There he said that he drinks his morning coffee at home in a cashmere coat and silk scarf.

10. I was both fascinated by the effortlessness of such an elevated image, and at the same time questioning — how PR and communications teams can approach the designer with such an idea so that it is not perceived as pressure or as an attempt to break individual self-expression?

11. And then I look at Matthieu Blazy in a quarter zip — and at how the brand milks the momentum. Such models will appear on sale very soon.

12. The beige quarter zip — identical to the one Blazy wears — appeared in the opening look of Métiers d'art 2026. In the cruise collection, the same model was presented in Breton stripes.

13. The look itself suits Matthieu — he looks comfortable in it, much better than many male ambassadors in so heavily pushed unisex tweed jackets.

14. So an organic solution appears on its own — it is enough to delicately propose that the designer develops a piece for himself.

15. The brand will naturally close runway storytelling and integrate it into the offering, while the designer is relieved from exhausting routine choices of clothing. Win-win.