Margaret Qualley became the first celebrity to wear the Matthieu Blazy Chanel sandals that have been quietly destabilising the internet since their debut: the toe-less, heel-only slippers that arrived at the brand’s cruise 2026 show and immediately divided opinion along the sharpest possible lines. She wore them to the London premiere of The Dog Stars, which, given the film’s title, gave the moment a pleasing circularity, dogs out for The Dog Stars, as it were.
A Return to Biarritz for Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel Sandals
The shoes were first seen in Biarritz, the Basque resort town that carries a particular weight in Chanel’s history. According to Chanel, it was in Biarritz that Gabrielle Chanel opened her couture house in 1915, gathering boutique, ateliers, salons and apartment under one roof, a model that foreshadowed the famous Rue Cambon address. Choosing the same city for his cruise presentation was, for Blazy, something more than a location decision: as Coveteur noted, it was his first-ever Cruise show for the house. That the collection’s most-discussed exit was a sandal that barely functions as a sandal feels, in retrospect, entirely consistent with Blazy’s appetite for ideas that play against expectation.
The Matthieu Blazy Chanel sandals are essentially a heel with aspirations: the toe box is absent, the foot is mostly bare, the shoe does the minimum it could possibly do while still being a shoe. The internet, naturally, could not stop looking at them. There is a long tradition of fashion rewarding objects that refuse their own utility, and these slippers sit comfortably in that lineage, alongside Loewe’s PVC boots, Saint Laurent’s recent see-through shoes, and Vibram’s FiveFingers, which managed the opposite trick of being simultaneously too functional and deeply strange. Qualley wearing the Blazy sandals to a film premiere rather than a runway context is the detail that makes the story: celebrity adoption is where a designer’s provocation becomes a cultural object.
The Rest of Fashion’s Week, From Comme to Casablanca
Elsewhere, Kerry Taylor Auctions has announced its upcoming sale will be dedicated entirely to Comme des Garçons, drawn from the private collection of vintage specialist dot COMME. The auction, scheduled for September, will feature 265 lots spanning the 1970s to the present, a rare opportunity to track the house’s evolution across five decades in a single room.
Mulberry, meanwhile, is taking over Shreeji newsagents in Marylebone this weekend for a three-day pop-up celebrating a new partnership with Ronan McKenzie, photographer and founder of Selasi. McKenzie’s HOME (described as ‘a space for artists, ideas, conversation, gathering and community’) provides the conceptual frame, with the occasion doubling as a showcase for Mulberry’s Darley Camera Bag.
Central Saint Martins has announced a collaboration with McLaren’s Formula One team, in which 46 students from the MA Fashion course, working in 12 groups, were each asked to produce a single runway look drawn from McLaren’s racing history. ‘This collaboration gave our students the opportunity to work with one of the most powerful brands in global sport,’ said course leader Fabio Piras.
Casablanca’s AW26 collection continues the house’s preoccupation with Egypt, with a campaign shot on location in Cairo by photographer Theo Liu. Framed around mythology and cosmology, the images position a young traveller moving through the country’s cultural landscape, with the pyramids as backdrop.
Pat McGrath and Nicolas Ghesquière have officially launched their Pat McGrath x Nicolas Ghesquière La Beaute Louis Vuitton collection, built around the LV monogram, which celebrates its 130th anniversary this year. The collaboration brings together two of fashion’s most consistently discussed names at a moment when both are operating at the height of their visibility.
And Converse has relaunched the Jack Purcell, one of its oldest silhouettes. Originally designed in 1935 by Jack Purcell, a Canadian badminton champion, the shoe returns as part of the brand’s First String collection, available from 2 September in white and green colourways, a quiet reissue for a shape that has never entirely gone away.
