How the Chanel tweed jacket has endured through every age

They’ve come in innumerable iterations since their inception 72 years ago, but the platonic ideal of a Chanel jacket remains: straight lines, collarless, cut from bouclé cloth, trim as decoration and dotted with interlocking ‘CC’ buttons. They also have plenty of construction details known only to the connoisseur – hems weighted with a chain to hang perfectly, for one – but all you really need remember is that they are exquisite.

Their story begins in the 1920s, with Coco Chanel experimenting with shapes and fabrics lifted from menswear and, if fashion lore is to be believed, the wardrobes of her lovers. But it wasn’t until the 1954 ‘return’ collection, her first since the 1930s, that the Chanel jacket was shown in its now instantly recognisable form: an archetype of the ‘sportswear’ genre – a garment type spearheaded decades before by Coco – characterised by easy-to-wear, informal separates that stood in contrast to the previous century’s constrained and corseted clothing.

A star lot of auction house Bonhams’ trio of Chanel-focused sales – which are taking place in London, Paris and New York this month – is a design from one of Karl Lagerfeld’s final collections for the maison: Metiers d’Art Paris-New York, Pre-Fall 2019. Offered with an estimate of $1,200-$1,800 is a cream mohair jacket with gold metallic threadwork forming a drop-waist silhouette, with glass fastenings by master atelier Gripoix. The same model is part of the house’s legacy beyond the runway too, having graced Margot Robbie in the brand’s Gabrielle Essence fragrance campaign.

Worth noting is the ‘Blazy Buzz’, generated by the house’s newest creative director Matthieu Blazy, which extends to customers beyond the house’s usual client. Though offering strictly womenswear, men are also buying up his latest accessories and ready-to-wear, including jackets, inspired by the Chanel jackets beloved by Harry Styles, A$AP Rocky, Jacob Elordi and long-time mega-fan Marc Jacobs, who wears a classic example on the cover of Charli XCX’s 2026 album Music, Fashion, Film.

Once associated with a rigid, singular vision of style propriety, the Chanel jacket can be dressed up however the wearer pleases. Many words have been printed on how a white T-shirt and jeans gives them an everyday sensibility and, yes, though true, what remains delightful about anything Chanel is its preciousness. The appeal is in embracing its prim qualities or by subverting them into your own expression of modern sartorial customs. You choose.