Jamaican Romae Gordon, now signed to Lulu Management New York and Select Models in Paris, shares with the Style Observer her second runway experience for Chanel.

The story continues. And so does the journey. Naturally. Because they both have only just begun. Barbra Streisand’s version of We’ve Only Just Begun pops into my head as I write, for good reason. This memory takes me back to graduation from Alpha Academy in Kingston, Jamaica the summer of 1989. Mrs Brown, our music teacher, drilled the words of the song into us. We had to enunciate Streisand’s every note. Her voice and the precision it carried resonate with me, even today.

I have only just begun. A powerful second act, effected with that spark by Jamaican-born photographer Luca Khouri and now filling up with profound creativity, led by high fashion at the hands of Chanel Creative Director Matthieu Blazy and his team.

This is my second turn for Chanel and Mathieu’s fourth. The work in progress is taking shape as evidenced by the grand cranes that form the pillars of the set in the dome of Paris’ Grand Palais. Blazy is building a dream that is fast transforming into a beautiful reality. In my act two, music is the yin for the fashion yang. I arrive at Chanel, Rue Cambon’s location on a mild Paris winter morning for fittings. There is a quiet calm in the lobby filled with models. The frenzy that often follows Fashion Week is absent. We are escorted to the lounge to await word from the cast’s maestro, Anita Bitton. In minutes, we are led to the salon where Mathieu and his team go through and match photos with looks to be fitted. Everything flows seamlessly.

At my call, Cesária Évora’s sweet voice echoes through the speakers. And, if there was any doubt that I am in love with Matthieu’s creative force, il n’existe plus. The magnificence of the collection is not yet in my consciousness. Yet, the question of music appears. You are making us walk to Cesária? As I complete my fitting, I share my love of Cape Verde’s greatest music export and he tells me an interesting story of seeing her live in concert. Well, then, Monsieur Blazy, my heart is in your hands! Having fashion design genius is one thing, but coupled with a musician’s ear to match sounds that evoke emotions one wishes to convey to an audience is altogether something else. The effect for me is profound. I have experienced many fashion shows where the music is either triste, ineffective or monotonous.

Blazy has applied great craft in the music curation for his collections. Great music, with complementary language that speaks to models, audiences and consumers to evoke a certain emotion, is no easy act. But for Blazy, creativity in all forms flows from him effortlessly. And this is talent that makes him hover above the rest. He creates high fashion that is exacting, within reach, transformative and advances with the times. The bridge that Blazy constructs allows connections that magically pull people in. They want to wear the clothes, and automatically a feel-good current runs from concept to delivery to the world.

The soundtrack for this installation of beautiful clothes is sweet Cesária, the narration of a prepubescent boy in the character of Billy Elliot (a powerful, most coming-of-age film about an Irish boy who is drawn and driven to dance despite his conservative Catholic upbringing and his parents’ initial objection). Elliot describes the need to heed his calling to dance “like electricity running through [his] body”. And as we walked the runway, we all felt the itch in the body and in the air with Mathieu leading us to Lady Gaga’s explosive Just Dance! With the desired effect realised, we hear the anchor in the music mélange. Chanel’s founder, Coco, speaking of caterpillars, butterflies and metamorphosis.

At the helm of this powerful Parisian heritage house, Blazy is striking a chord for himself, the team he has assembled to cast, construct and make change with. Anita Bitton’s bold diversity and age inclusion in the band of multi-talented models strutting the Channel runway now reflects the world. This is also part of the magic, to show people from all across the globe themselves wearing beautiful art to cross-cultural eclectic sounds. This is the pervasive theme at Chanel. He has not put a foot wrong! The music has been spot on. At the Metier D’arts show held in the abandoned subway station in New York City, at the end of 2025, Jamaica’s own Sister Nancy’s Bam Bam was a big part of the music mix. The ‘riddim’ and words could not have been more apt for the occasion. Hip, sharp and with the right edge. People want the association with the brand because Blazy is reimagining its specialness, which is meant precisely for the woman who is confident, happy and wants to dance! They feel it. There is no other designer making these music moves to nice up (as Jamaicans would say) their fashion and shows. Blazy is causing his own
Bam Bam! Coco Chanel would definitely approve.

It is no small wonder there was pandemonium at Chanel’s flagship store when the S/S collection arrived in Paris recently. The effects of his transformation is creating seismic shifts in how people see and want to consume Chanel. This takes talent because not very often can the high creative pull the commercial success. As one paper sums it up: “There is often a chasm between the highs of the marketing machine that is the fashion show and people’s willingness to part with their money to acquire what’s for sale. But this is not a concern for Chanel. Blazy has this covered.”

But I digress! My Fall-Winter appearance is Look 62. A doubling of the number I wore for Haute Couture Look 31. Am I reading too much into the numbers, maybe? I can’t help but wonder about the coincidence that my second call from Chanel gets me a double. My beloved Look 31 was solid, all black and expectedly, its impact is resounding, getting the nod from film superstar Nicole Kidman, who sat front-row with fellow stars of film, fashion and music, including Tilda Swinton, Penelope Cruz, Margaret Qualley, Kim Go-eun, Gracie Abrams, Dua Lipa and A$AP Rocky at the Couture in January. Kidman wore the look to one of her recent movie premieres. Look 31 was best-seller bound from the minute it was confirmed in the studio that fateful January evening.

For my F/W outing, Anna Wintour, Oprah Winfrey, Margot Robbie, Olivia Dean, Lily-Rose Depp, Surya Bonaly, Olivia Dean and Teyana Taylor sat front-row. It is the fateful day of my first meeting with Chanel CEO Leena Nair, whose story was a jolt of inspiration for me a year before Chanel would enter my world. The signals are showing that Look 62 has all the making of a good doubling. Black on White with its own story. Like Look 31, it is a dress with a top cover made of the same fabric layered over it. Beads applied to plisséd fabric in strips of vertical rows running down the body gives a 3D effect and the gifted artisans have to do a remake of the shorter top layer for reasons, Charlene (who gives my look the final once-over before I find my place in the line pre-show tells me), only she and her team hold. Paired with red-tipped, high cut on the instep iridescent light blue/green leather pumps and a black CC monogrammed clutch, simple gold, green-stoned, clip-on earrings complete the components. And, to round out the polished facade, the barely there/no make-up — not even a touch of mascara — from Lucia Pieroni’s team with a super-polished, this time low bun from team Duffy, and manicured but unpolished nails all have become de rigueur…consistent with plain perfection makes 62 a sleeper key look.

Film, music and dance star and Golden Globe winner for her role in One Battle After Another Teyana Taylor (left) shares the frame with Romae Gordon, post-show.

Keeping up the no/barely there make-up aesthetic, Romae Gordon in the backstage lounge at the Chanel F/W RTW 2026 collection.-

The many looks of Chanel shoes-

Romae Gordon (left) stands alongside Leena Nair, Chanel CEO, and Matthieu Blazy, Chanel creative director. (Photos courtesy of Romae Gordon) –

Stopping for a quick snap were (from left) models Romae Gordon, Charlotte Eta Mumm, Bhavitha Mandava & Stephanie Cavalli.-

In signature black Cooyah, en route to rehearsals through one of the grand stairways of le Grand Palais.(Photos courtesy of Romae Gordon)

Cranes adorn the set of the Chanel F/W RTW 2026 show at the Grand Palais in Paris.