City Rhythms
Review of Chanel Métiers d’Art 2026 Ad Campaign by Photographer Craig McDean and Videographer Rahim Fortune with models Anne Vyalitsyna, Anok Yai, Bhavitha Mandava, Feng Jiao Long, Jesi Evans, Josephen Akuei, Julia Nobis, and Penelope Ternes
For Matthieu Blazy’s first Métiers d’Art campaign for Chanel, the house trades polished fantasy for something livelier and more cinematic, staging its artisanship against the restless energy of New York City. Photographed by Craig McDean and accompanied by a film directed by Rahim Fortune, the campaign places Chanel’s historic codes into dialogue with sidewalks, ferries, diners, comic book stands, subway cars, and rooftops. The result feels intentionally transitional: a heritage house testing how elegance behaves once it leaves the salon and enters the street.
That tension gives the campaign much of its appeal. Métiers d’Art collections traditionally celebrate Chanel’s network of specialist ateliers and decorative mastery, but Blazy approaches that legacy with a lighter hand than expected. Craft remains central, yet it is woven into motion and environment rather than isolated in static luxury portraiture. Sequined coats catch grey waterfront light, quilted outerwear moves through restaurant kitchens, and dramatic volumes sweep across taxi roofs and ferry decks. Instead of treating craftsmanship as untouchable, the imagery suggests it is meant to circulate through real life — albeit a highly stylized version of it.
McDean’s photography balances polish with spontaneity remarkably well. Several images possess the clean compositional rigor expected of Chanel campaigns, yet others embrace humor and visual friction. A model clutching a pretzel beneath a leopard tweed suit, another flipping through Superman comics in corporate Manhattan, or an apple-shaped minaudière resting on a subway seat all introduce moments of wit that prevent the campaign from becoming overly reverential. These touches feel important. They soften Chanel’s grandeur without diminishing it, allowing the collection to appear curious rather than self-serious.
Blazy’s influence emerges most clearly through proportion and texture. The collection oscillates between sharp tailoring and exaggerated theatricality: vast plaid gowns, fuzzy tweeds, sculptural skirts, elongated coats, and tactile embellishments that emphasize movement as much as decoration. Animal motifs and graphic prints inject energy into silhouettes that might otherwise lean too archival, while accessories ground the campaign in recognizably Chanel territory. The handbags, slingbacks, pearls, and quilted details provide continuity even when the styling drifts toward eccentricity.
The New York setting also proves surprisingly effective for Métiers d’Art. Rather than using the city merely as backdrop, the campaign taps into its contradictions — glamour and grit, ambition and absurdity, speed and spectacle. Ferries cut through misty skylines while gulls hover overhead; neon diner signs glow against couture-level craftsmanship; subway interiors frame immaculate black bouclé. Chanel has often flirted with cinematic urbanism, but here the city feels genuinely inhabited rather than idealized.
At times, however, the campaign’s ambition works against its cohesion. The imagery moves between editorial realism, surreal theatricality, and polished commercial portraiture with such frequency that certain shots feel disconnected from one another. Some compositions carry emotional immediacy, while others function more as elegant product showcases. The campaign occasionally risks reading as several visual ideas competing simultaneously rather than one fully unified narrative.
Still, that looseness may ultimately be part of its success. Blazy appears less interested in imposing a rigid visual formula than in opening Chanel outward — allowing the house’s craftsmanship to interact with unpredictability, humor, and movement. There is a noticeable desire to make Chanel feel observed in motion rather than preserved behind glass. Even the most extravagant garments are photographed with a sense of physicality and life.
For a first Métiers d’Art campaign, the message is clear without being overstated. Blazy does not dismantle Chanel’s codes, nor does he simply replicate them. Instead, he nudges them into a more contemporary rhythm, where couture-level savoir-faire coexists with comic books, ferries, pretzels, subway rides, and downtown noise. In doing so, the campaign captures something rare for a heritage luxury house: elegance that feels animated rather than merely displayed.
Chanel Creative Director | Matthieu Blazy
Photographer | Craig McDean
Videographer | Rahim Fortune
Models | Anne Vyalitsyna, Anok Yai, Bhavitha Mandava, Feng Jiao Long, Jesi Evans, Josephen Akuei, Julia Nobis, and Penelope Ternes
Casting Director | Anita Bitton and Lorenzo Rotondo