When In Biarritz. Chanel Resort 2027

April 29, 2026 | Design & Culture by Ed

The sun-drenched hydrangea hill facing the ocean. The old-school seaside promenade where time seems to have stopped when Coco arrived in 1915. The dreamiest Hotel – once Empress Eugénie’s literal Palais. The Les Halles market, brimming with the best of Basque produce. The spaceship-shaped rock – or the Atlantic’s gate – that stands tall in the waters and eternally guards the town. Biarritz is a place very dear to my heart, shaped by many childhood summers spent here – idyllic, breezy, sounding like a Vanessa Paradis album. The moment it was announced that Chanel would present Matthieu Blazy’s first cruise collection here, you can imagine how thrilled I was. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to attend a show so badly.

What Blazy presented was not what I expected. A couple of days ago, I posted two nearly forgotten campaigns by Karl Lagerfeld – from 2001 and 2003 – when he brought Chanel to Biarritz. The post went viral, and I found myself trying to manifest a collection that would reflect what modern-day women actually wear here: a well-fitted tweed jacket (their mother’s or grandmother’s), a vintage T-shirt, a pair of jeans, and a (very) lived-in Flap bag. Because Biarritz is about a certain duality: it’s both one of the most aristocratic and the most chill places in the world. You have Napoleonic chandeliers alongside surfers breaking records on towering waves. It’s a town of striking – and beautiful – contrasts. Matthieu’s collection leaned more toward a fantasy of what French resort wear can be. And I’m not mad about it. READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Long Game. Hermès AW26

January 26, 2026 | Design & Culture by Ed

Hermès’s Véronique Nichanian has always insisted that luxury is not a spectacle but a system, and in her final season, that conviction crystallized into a collection that elegantly distills her 37 years at the maison. This was Nichanian’s long game, and she won. Her celebrated détails égoïstes – those “selfish” refinements that reward only the wearer – were everywhere: the interior of a jacket as considered as its exterior, a zip as impeccably functional as it is beautiful, off-center bellows pockets, étrivière stitching, double lambskin lapels. These are clothes that recognize one another instantly, like old friends reunited, hand and eye aligned through private signals of craft.

A crocodile-leather coat in the inkiest shade of black, a reversible cashmere-and-wool travel jacket, a double-breasted suit in pinstriped leather: each piece stands on its own yet remains quietly mobile, designed for lives in motion rather than moments of display. Nothing feels “too much”. Instead, the collection moves with assurance through a season conceived to endure far beyond itself. Nichanian’s departure – serene,but grand – opens space for the impending arrival of Grace Wales Bonner, whose debut remains a year away. Yet this collection resists the tone of farewell. It plays more like a manifesto: a reminder that at Hermès, innovation has always emerged from renewing the bond between body, garment, and time. Clothes for now, and – stubbornly – for forever.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Costume. Valentino SS25 Couture

January 31, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

Let’s be honest: this haute couture season was brief and left you feeling hungry. Maybe it wasn’t a famine for beauty, as Andre Leon Talley liked to say. There was way too much beauty – of the conventional kind. Hundreds of metres of tulles, thousands of hours of handwork, millions of digital impressions. But to me, this couture signalled one thing: it’s a growingly archaic commodity. Gone are the days when Raf Simons at Dior presented absolutely contemporary-looking vision of eveningwear. Or Karl Lagerfeld showing couture sneakers at Chanel. This season painfully missed true fashion moments. There was absolutely nothing close to a spectacle like THAT last John Galliano collection for Maison Margiela. Demna shows couture for Balenciaga only once a year, in July, but I really wished he saved this season. In the meantime he wore a T-shirt while being awarded with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. And a plastic bag to Alessandro Michele’s debut Valentino couture show. I feel him.

Speaking of that debut, it was a brief moment of high this season, but as Angelo Flaccavento very rightly observed, this was a parade of great, convincing costumes, but not that great clothes. In the end, haute couture is a form of very precious, very costly applied art that’s being worn – at least once in its lifetime.

Michele really showcased all the possibilities of the Valentino artisan savoir-faire. To such extremes it felt dizzying (as the show’s title, “Vertigineux”, suggests), even nauseous. Huge ball-dresses dipped in embroideries and embellishments, meaty lace, massive crinolines, sumptuous excess all over: this certainly could be a separate costume department for a Fellini film. Unfortunately, as it’s the case with costumes, they wear the wearer. This isn’t very couture.

So, if Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’s Bronwyn Newport ever wears anything straight from that runway, Britani Bateman has full right to question it as costume.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Holiday Gift Guide, Vol. VII

December 14, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

This holiday season, I will share a number of dream gift guides that might make it easier for you to go (and filter) through the festive season. Get ready for a selection of beautiful items that will spark joy and last for years. The ones that will certainly please one’s senses and deliver heavenly feelings. From globetrotting adventurers to design-forward homebodies and fashion fans with a penchant for glamour – whoever you’re shopping for, this Christmas gift guide featuring timeless classics has the perfect presents to suit all needs this holiday season. Treat your loved ones and yourself with the below choices – and shoppable links!