Style Edit: Chanel’s Métiers d’Art 2026 bags signal a bold new era

Jul 6, 2026

Chanel Métiers d’Art 2026 campaign with the Chanel V-cut shopping bag. Photo: Handout

From a V-cut tote to a croc-embossed baguette, Matthieu Blazy’s silhouettes prove that knowing who you are is Chanel’s most radical design statement

Chanel has spent decades refining its archive. With the 2026 Métiers d’Art collection – staged, at the end of last year, on an abandoned subway platform at New York’s Bowery Station – the house is interrogating its own mythology.

Beyond the line’s clothing, its small bags are among the most interesting Chanel has shown in years. Structured, tactile and, at times, genuinely surprising, they signal a new chapter under creative director Matthieu Blazy.

Chanel Métiers d’Art runway presentation in New York City with the Chanel V-cut shopping bag. Photo: Handout

The headline newcomer is a V-cut bag that has quickly become one of the collection’s most talked-about pieces. The design – with its V-shaped opening and a gold-tone CC clasp at its centre – is both functional and subversive: a nod to Chanel’s vintage codes that feels freshly updated rather than merely nostalgic. The interior is lined in burgundy leather, and the bag comes in two sizes and several materials, including pony-effect printed lambskin.

Chanel’s new boxy purse silhouette as seen on the maison’s Métiers d’Art 2026 runway. Photo: Handout

The boxy purse poses a different question: what does an everyday Chanel bag look like in 2026? The silhouette is architectural but not austere. The mobile top handle converts easily to a shoulder or crossbody configuration via an interlaced chain, with a magnetic closure to keep the bag’s contents secure. The purse’s sibling, the boxy clutch and flap bag, comes in a fine, smooth calfskin with a subtly shiny finish.

A crocodile-embossed baguette purse is the line’s most playful offering. The fantasy embossing gives the leather a delicate, raised effect – the kind of celebrity-favoured texture with a habit of turning up on red carpets and front rows.

Blackpink’s Jennie Kim at the Chanel womenswear fall/winter 2026-27 show at Paris Fashion Week in March, carrying the maison’s new baguette purse style. Photo: Getty Images

And for those who prefer their accessories to be more ladylike than leading-edge, there is the envelope flap bag – a vintage silhouette in smooth calfskin or two-tone canvas, secured with a CC turnlock and punctuated by a bold leather strap of three interknotted laces.

Wonhee of K-pop group Illit at the Chanel Métiers d’Art replica show in Seoul with a new signature envelope flap bag with a CC turnlock. Photo: Handout

Style Edit: Chanel’s Métiers d’Art 2026 bags signal a bold new era

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From a V-cut tote to a croc-embossed baguette, Matthieu Blazy’s silhouettes prove that knowing who you are is Chanel’s most radical design statement

From a V-cut tote to a croc-embossed baguette, Matthieu Blazy’s silhouettes prove that knowing who you are is Chanel’s most radical design statement