Gabrielle Chanel’s favored garden becomes the backdrop for a new campaign.
JENNIE, Chanel ambassador, steps into the Fall‑Winter 2025/26 pre‑collection in the gardens of Paris’s Palais‑Royal. Photographer Craig McDean shows her walking only a few strides from the Ritz and Rue Cambon, places stitched into the house’s history.
The garden, once a favorite refuge for Gabrielle Chanel and her friends Colette and Jean Cocteau, frames a story that balances poise and ease. That tension runs through the clothes, built around the masculine‑feminine mix that defined the heroines of 1990s romantic comedies.
Wide shoulders anchor an enveloping wool‑and‑cashmere tweed coat, slipped over a tank top and jeans. “The 90s have always spoken to me,” JENNIE says. “Not just the fashion, but the mood and the spirit. I love how women in rom‑coms from that era felt strong and vulnerable at the same time. There’s a playfulness in how they dressed and such a perfect mix of feminine and boyish, it’s romantic yet preppy, and that’s something I love incorporating into my own style.”
Strength appears in a black leather coat finished with gold buttons and in a black double crêpe corset cut like a men’s waistcoat, its straps laced with beads. Each look is tempered by gentler touches: the CHANEL 25 bag tucked under an arm, a beret set at a tilt. “Masculine‑feminine style makes me feel grounded and empowered,” she continues. “I love how this collection plays with shapes, like the broad‑shouldered black coat or the black double crêpe corset inspired by a men’s waistcoat. These are strong pieces, but they still feel elegant. Wearing masculine silhouettes with feminine details reminds me that you don’t have to choose one or the other, you can be both, and that’s powerful!”
Inside an apartment overlooking the garden, McDean shifts from promenade to pause: JENNIE stands at a window in a woollen‑tweed miniskirt suit, then stretches across a bed in cashmere trimmed with sky‑blue flounces. Later, beneath the covered walkways, she moves in supple beige leather that reads as easy authority.
Pastel accessories echo that softness: quilted heart‑shaped bags in pale pink and baby blue, plus a minaudière modeled after the house’s make‑up palettes. They lighten the mood without breaking the line.
The pre‑collection is now available in Chanel boutiques, a reminder that a familiar stroll can still spark a fresh exchange between the house’s heritage and the women who wear it.
