“Women think of all colors except the absence of color. I have said that black has it all,” said Coco Chanel. The founder of the iconic eponymous maison lived by that belief all her life. The woman who gave fashion the little black dress and structured monochromatic suits would, in all probability, not have approved of Chanel’s latest offering. Matthieu Blazy, in his very first CHANEL Métiers d’art collection, has clearly decided to ditch the dull. In an endeavor to bring to life eclectic personalities at the crossroads of reality and fiction, using Chanel’s New York mythology, pop culture, and the idea of ordinary city people as secret heroes, the maison has displayed guts, color, and a sense of mischief in one of its most un-Gabrielle offerings yet.
The piece that stood out most was the 2026 Métiers d’art Long Vanity with Chain. Chanel lists the hues as blue, yellow, and red, a dead giveaway of the superhero who wears them with pride, yet there is no mention of the legendary Superman. It does not take a genius to guess who inspired this seriously vibrant lambskin, enamel, and gold-tone metal creation. Priced at over $3,500, the handbag features quilted leather, a leather-interlaced chain, and the power-packed double C. It is sheathed in oodles of pop flair, but the real hero is the shield-like emblem engraved with the Chanel logo, set against a gush of primary colors.
Inspirations for the collection spanned the 1920s to the 2020s, and this playfulness extended beyond the Superman-inspired vanity bag to a sweater with a double-C version of the Superman logo. Anyone who has studied Coco’s work knows, with some certainty, that she would probably have disliked this bag. Not because she was averse to shock or change, but because her shock was achieved through reduction, while this bag achieves shock through graphic excess.
That, perhaps, is exactly the point. What is applaud-worthy is how the house has delivered a deeply un-Gabrielle object made from very Chanel ingredients. It also brings to mind Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel Graffiti Collection, the 2014 release that blended street art with couture and remains a collector favorite today. Reddit users, however, had very strong opinions, almost as strong as Coco’s, calling the Superman pieces all kinds of names. The digs were plenty, with one user asking, “What in the Moschino is this,” while another chimed in with, “What in the Balenciaga is this?” Words like hideous, disgusting, and foolish were used freely in the subreddit, though not everyone was horrified. Some remembered Lagerfeld’s love for novelty Chanel, with one user stating, “I agree it’s a collectible piece, not for everyone, but that’s how it is for any novelty item.”
They may love it, hate it, or call it everything Chanel was never meant to be. But they are talking about it, and for a $3,575 vanity bag dressed like a comic-book alter ego, that may be half the victory.
