Returning to work after a sun-soaked holiday can be tough, but when your office is the Grand Palais in Paris for the Chanel haute couture show, and you’re Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, sympathy dissipates faster than a spritz of No.5 perfume.
The curls Kidman sported for her Sydney sojourn with daughters Sunday Rose and Faith Kidman-Urban were replaced by a straight hairstyle that meant business, as Kidman went to work in the front row as a Chanel ambassador.
The joke that her ex-husband, singer Keith Urban, got the hair-straighteners in the divorce can finally be put to rest.
Posing for the cameras before the show, Kidman was in full model mode, having honed her craft on the Balenciaga runway in 2022.
Wearing a black dress with a sequinned skirt, satin top and white feather accents from Chanel’s Metier’s d’Art collection, Kidman took prime position next to Vogue boss Anna Wintour at the haute couture debut of Matthieu Blazy, a worthy successor to Karl Lagerfeld.
With the most covetable pair of black and white trimmed heels and her sunglasses firmly affixed, Nicole was in full femme fatale mode (think Cruella de Ville at a Disney villains’ convention), and a perfect match for Wintour’s signature impassive stare.
Keeping a Botox-blank expression would have been difficult as Blazy delivered a masterclass in technique, with the classic Chanel suit rendered in sheer fabrics before a parade of feathers emerged, with a yellow and white combination conjuring images of the chicest cockatoo imaginable.
“The idea of the feather runs through the collection, though seldom in its natural form,” Blazy wrote in his show notes. “All kinds of birds appear, as if by magic, from the most familiar to the rarest.”
“These are clothes that are as much about the wearer as the designer,” he added. “It’s the clothes worn that give them a true story; their own story and an emotional resonance, giving women a canvas to tell their own story.”
Kidman arrived with daughters Sunday Rose and Faith for her debut as a Chanel ambassador in October at the brand’s ready-to-wear show, more than 20 years after she appeared in an advertising campaign for Chanel No.5 directed by Baz Luhrmann. This time she was flying solo.
Sunday Rose might have been enjoying a rest day, following her turn down the Dior runway for the haute couture debut of Jonathan Anderson a day earlier.
The 17-year-old arrived for work looking every inch the off-duty model in a cropped leather jacket and baggy grey cargo jeans that hung from her hips.
On the runway, street cred gave way to classicism as Sunday Rose, who made her fashion debut at 16-years-old for Miu Miu in 2024, wore a sleek black coat dress with a croc-pattern.
Sunday Rose has updated her hairstyle with a dark reddish hue. Just like Mum. And just like Mum, not a hint of curl.
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