Chanel maternitywear? It goes without saying that a lot of mothers-to-be would happily yelp, “Yes, please!”—and it appears that Matthieu Blazy is happy to provide.
At least that’s exactly how it played out this afternoon when New Jersey–born, Norway-based model, musician, actor, and first-time mother Kaya Wilkins walked Chanel’s resort 2027 runway show, accessorizing her black-and-white tweed suit with a second-trimester belly in full view. “I only got the call a few days ago and was quite surprised as I’m five months pregnant,” Wilkins tells Vogue just a few hours after stepping off the runway. “Matthieu and Anita [Bitton], the casting director, were looking for someone pregnant, so I was quite lucky to have a little bump on me.”
Wilkins went on to explain that her agents were “quite chuffed” by the casting and that the Chanel team made the experience of walking in her first show for the brand—complete with her own “world’s youngest runway model”—all the more enjoyable. “I just had a really nice experience being around a lot of creative, really chill people, to be honest,” she says. She does add that the tasty backstage catering certainly didn’t hurt.
Photo: Aurore Marechal/Getty Images
In addition to a classic Chanel skirt suit, Wilkins wore a knit bra, high-waist bikini pants, and red-hot chile pepper earrings, all of which needed little alteration to accommodate motherhood, as Blazy intended to include a pregnant model all along. The styling only completed the vision. (See the adorable children’s shoes strapped onto the chain of the accompanying bag.) Overlooking France’s southwestern coastline, you could already picture a family’s sandy walk on the beach, with barefoot kids and Mary Jane slippers in tow. (Fashion’s best-dressed dad, A$AP Rocky, was seen in the audience posing with his own distressed pink flap bag and matching miniature shoes.)
So was it comfortable? “Oh God, it was amazing,” Wilkins says. As of right now, her personal style is down to her last two pairs of trousers. Sporting a classic tweed from Blazy’s Chanel was a welcome change, with the gothic coastal bride being her other favorite look. “I’m not galumphing around with my bump out, so it was cool,” she adds. “It felt quite freeing to have my flowing hair and the bump.”
Beyond that, the setting of today’s Biarritz runway show was of particular significance for another reason: It is where Coco Chanel opened her very first haute couture boutique over a century ago. So Blazy’s decision to show his debut resort collection for the brand there was both a nod to that history and a homecoming. The collection, meanwhile, was in line with what we’ve seen from Blazy’s Chanel thus far: deeply rooted in the brand’s rich archives, where he digs around before giving his references a kooky, crafty, modern remix.
