Let’s Not Give Up on Fairy Tales

The setting for Matthieu Blazy’s show for Chanel in the historic Grand Palais borrows from the fairy tale of Alice in Wonderland a scaled‑down position of the human being in relation to nature. The models walk beside long stalks and beneath the corollas of gigantic flowers. Compared to the atmosphere of Dior’s défilé, here the dimension is not realistic; one joyfully enters an oneiric, gentle, enveloping plane: the enchantment of the world of fairy tales. If figuration in the pictorial arts is narration, Matthieu Blazy shows that Haute Couture inhabits the same plane as the technical and creative nobility of the great epochs in the history of Western figurative art. The audience is called to a meticulous attention to detail that guides and opens up the world of interpretation. Matthieu Blazy invites us not to abandon fairy tales, and he does so not to lull us to sleep, but to give new meaning to our way of moving through the world—especially when the magic beanstalk from “Jack and the Beanstalk” climbs up the heels of our shoes, with Jack himself ready to clamber up among flowers and butterflies. His story tells us that trust and intuition lead to well‑being, if only we learn to welcome the Other, who may not be ill‑intentioned at all.

There is also a bear minaudière, one of the characters from the tale of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. It is an exhortation to respect other people’s space, which should not be invaded but preserved as the foundation of healthy sociability. Look 33 is a dress that recounts the story of “The Ugly Duckling”. Its transformation into an elegant swan is narrated by coloured beaded embroidery and silk fringes, over an enchanting light blue lake. It is the show’s only indulgent moment, an invitation to dream that is nevertheless not devoid of gentle admonitions to young girls stepping into social life: one becomes beautiful by allowing what is most unique and original—what has always been there, within us—to speak. The fairy tale of “Puss in Boots” is told through the buttons of Look 46, a grey, black and red tweed suit recalling the cat’s outfit in his most famous illustrations. Matthieu Blazy urges us to be the Cat, and not the princess doomed to marry his master. There is so much creativity in taking action instead of waiting, in using the intellect against passivity. And it is surely because of these new ways of interpreting fairy tales that this show met with such great success. It relaunches hermeneutic art as an art of fashion for women who, by choosing the fairy tale to reinterpret and to live, can still choose to dream that beauty, strength and freedom are friends.

© Francesca Manzari