Mona Tougaard in Chanel Covers W Magazine China February 2026 by Zhong Lin
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All eyes turn now to Paris where there is a shift in dialogue in the last 90 days. If the ‘once in a century’ genius of Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson had solo billing in summer and fall 2025, there are now two new kings in Paris next week.
In the biggest PR fanfare I remember around a designer appointment, Jonathan Anderson has more to prove when he debuts his first Dior couture collection on Monday, followed by Matthieu Blazy delivering his maiden Chanel couture collection on Tuesday.
The momentum is not whether we — the clients, the press, the financial analysts and entire luxury business community — DARE to embrace his vision for Dior, which was his message to us in July 2025.
The question in January 2026 is whether or not Anderson can deliver an inspiring couture collection for the House of Dior. Or has LVMH embraced their golden boy with the message to ‘just let it rip’ and burn down the House of Dior once and for all.
As The Sunday Times writes from London, we now have two kings — Anderson and Blazy — and those debut October women’s collections from the two kings were only the ‘hors d’oeuvre’. This week we see what they are made of, in meeting the expectations of a couture house.
“It is also the designers’ first opportunity to speak directly to their wealthiest clients, those women who can drop five-figure sums on daywear, six-figure sums on evening wear,” Anna Murphy, Times Fashion Director, reminds us.
AOC has noted strong support for Chanel in China, including their appointment of A$AP Rocky as a key ambassador. Like Pharrell before him with Lagerfeld, Rocky hasn’t seen a Blazy for Chanel jacket that he’s not wearing out and about for prime-viewing occasions.
Among China’s netizens, Blazy has made Chanel gender fluid. You can twist that sentiment into a pretzel however you wish. The financial accounting side of Chanel has to love a very important enhanced-value deliverable that Blazy and Rocky have created for the brand.
The way Blazy honored Rocky as a father — filming him at home with his two sons for an earlier Bottega Veneta campaign — also has sentiment embraced in China, and especially among the young.
Both Chanel and Dior are on Xiaohongshu [also known as RedNote or RED] a major Chinese social media and e-commerce platform.
