The Story Behind The Avian Nails At The Chanel Couture Show

Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel Haute Couture debut transported showgoers to a fairytale garden, complete with giant mushrooms and blush-pink weeping willows. The collection was every bit as romantic, featuring sheer organza skirt suits with natural pearl hems, and fabric love letters tucked into light-as-air handbags.

Nature permeated every aspect of the show – down to the models’ bespoke manicures. The nails were overseen by session manicurist Ama Quashie, who tells British Vogue that, initially, the plan was for models’ nails to be “clean, perfect and bare”. But Blazy ultimately pivoted, and decided that a bespoke nail design should accompany the collection. The over-arching theme? Birds. “I looked through the bird references that [Blazy] had [displayed] on the wall – species that I didn’t even know existed – everything from the most amazing colour palettes of a tropical bird that has acid green and blue feathers, to ordinary pigeons.”

Courtesy of Ama Quashie

This being Chanel, plain old London pigeon-grey would not do. Quashie describes how the shade was undercut with “washes of iridescence”, to mimic the space between feathers. “The nails then became as individual and rare as each model – almost like an organism.” Like flora and fauna found in nature, the nails also needed texture, she says, pointing to how the manicures incorporated both a matte feel and smoother, shiny patches.