Runway Magazine

Cerulean Blue – Origins, Historical Secrets, and Global Impact. Analyses by Guillaumette Duplaix, Editor of RUNWAY MAGAZINE: https://runwaymagazines.com/cerulean-blue-origins-historical-secrets-and-global-impact/

Elevated to the status of an icon by the film The Devil Wears Prada, Cerulean Blue conceals a history far richer than its Hollywood reputation.
Born from the science of pigments in the 19th century, it revolutionized Impressionist painting before becoming the secret weapon of the greatest couturiers.

The origin of this color choice in the film stems from here: Pantone announced its very first Color of the Year in 2000, and Cerulean Blue was chosen (even though The Devil Wears Prada was only released in 2006).

The word “Cerulean” draws its roots from the Latin caeruleus (dark blue) and caelum (the sky or heaven). Originally, coeruleum or ceruleum designated a pigment used in painting and decoration to capture the exact nuances of a pure sky and crystalline waters. Its strength lies in its stability: it is a permanent color that does not alter under artificial lighting.

Cerulean Blue is a shade of blue that can range from a light azure blue to a more intense sky blue. It can also be blended with green. In comparison with turquoise blue, cerulean blue has a more pronounced, soft blue-green hue, whereas turquoise blue is generally more vivid and more green.

In the 1870s, Cerulean Blue became a central element in the palette of artists such as Claude Monet, Paul Signac, and Pablo Picasso. Marketed as synthetic paint in tubes, it proved extremely easy to transport, revolutionizing open-air painting (pleinairisme).

Ultimately, Cerulean Blue remains a shade of exceptional richness. Mastering its history, its technique, and its geographical subtleties allows it to be used no longer as a mere aesthetic cliché, but as a true tool of visual storytelling and brand strategy.

CHANEL Cruise 2026-27 Biarritz. Story by Eleonora de Gray, Editor-in-Chief of RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo Courtesy: Chanel: https://runwaymagazines.com/chanel-cruise-2026-27-biarritz/

Fast forward to April 28, 2026. Matthieu Blazy, in his first Cruise collection for the House, has returned to this “fashion pedestal.” Titled Sous le salon la plage (Under the salon, the beach), the collection is a masterful dialogue between the rigorous architecture of Art Deco and the fluid, shimmering fiction of the deep sea. It is a world where French workwear, leisure, and grandeur collide, dispensing with hierarchical clothing codes to create a new “CHANEL folklore.”

Blazy’s vision is “sensorially pleasurable and experimental.” He treats the House codes not as a rigid brand exercise, but as an elemental architecture. The double C is woven into the very structure of the garments, reflecting the sinuous contours Gabrielle introduced in the 1930s.

One cannot ignore the heavy, intellectual wink to John Galliano’s newspaper era. Throughout the runway, there is an echo—a sarcastic homage to the “newsprint” suits and dresses that once scandalized the industry. In Blazy’s hands, this is refined. We see springy tweeds and washed cotton canvas suiting that carry a graphic, ink-on-paper energy, particularly in the sharp-shouldered silhouettes that command attention before they even reach the light.

The “salon” has officially slipped into the beach, and the result is a folklore of fashion that Gabrielle herself would have recognized: a smart, attractive modernity that demands nothing less than total freedom.

The question remains: in this new era of “barefoot” luxury, are you ready to be the caterpillar by day and the butterfly—or perhaps the mermaid—by night?