Chanel’s Spring Summer 2026 campaign is photographed by Alec Soth at La Pausa, capturing Matthieu Blazy’s first ready to wear collection for the house in a series of quietly cinematic images steeped in Riviera light and ease. With creative direction by Sheila Single, the visuals focus on mood and movement rather than spectacle, presenting a softer, more intimate chapter in Chanel’s new era.
Setting La Pausa and creative team
Shot at La Pausa, Gabrielle Chanel’s villa in the South of France, the campaign is conceived as a continuation of the dialogue between the founder and Matthieu Blazy. Official materials describe the images as conveying “the spirit of freedom that Gabrielle Chanel cultivated in her villa,” with models moving through sunlit terraces, gardens and interiors that blur the line between indoors and outdoors.
The campaign credits list Alec Soth as photographer, Sheila Single as creative director and Stuart Winecoff as film director, with beauty led by makeup artist Lucia Pieroni and hair stylist Duffy. Together, they shape a visual language that feels more like stills from an art film than traditional high gloss fashion advertising.
Rather than anchoring the campaign on a single celebrity, Chanel assembles an ensemble cast of models including Bhavitha Mandava, Aditsa Berzenia, Awar Odhiang, Cathy Simmons, Josephen Akuei, Latahlia Hickling, Loli Bahia, Marta Freccia, Noor Khan, Trinidad Castaño, Waleska Gorczevski and Xiuli Jiang. Reviews note that this choice supports Blazy’s focus on “spirit over spectacle,” letting diverse faces inhabit the collection in a more democratic, narrative driven way.
Styling emphasizes fluid tailoring, lean dresses and tactile separates that move naturally with the models as they walk along stone paths, climb staircases or lounge on terraces, reinforcing the idea of clothes made to live and breathe in real spaces. Colour is controlled but rich, with black and white punctuated by sandy neutrals, sun washed tones and the occasional saturated note drawn from the runway collection.
Mood and visual narrative
Commentary on the campaign highlights its “soft confidence,” describing it as rooted less in shock and more in quiet conviction. Alec Soth’s documentary eye brings a sense of observation and interiority; models are often captured mid gesture, half turned or looking away, as if the camera has caught them between scenes rather than posing for an obvious fashion shot.
Set against La Pausa’s stone, greenery and sea glimpses, the images lean into themes of freedom, time and private life, echoing how Gabrielle Chanel herself treated the villa as a space for reflection and experimentation outside the Paris runway circuit. Short campaign films extend this mood, following the cast through the house and garden in sequences that suggest friendship, conversation and daydreaming more than staged tableaux.
Blazy’s first Chanel campaign
This Spring Summer 2026 campaign is widely read as a statement of intent from Matthieu Blazy at Chanel. Critics note that by choosing Alec Soth and La Pausa, Blazy privileges narrative depth and house history over blockbuster gimmicks, aligning his debut campaign with a more thoughtful, long form vision of luxury.
The visuals echo key themes from the runway show described in earlier reviews coats and jackets with nuanced volumes, dresses that balance ease and structure, and accessories that feel integrated rather than overplayed all presented in a setting that underlines continuity between Chanel’s past and its present.
