Don’t judge a book by its cover, and don’t judge a Chanel couture look solely from the front. Case in point: Ayo Edebiri just proved the humble skirt set can be full of surprises when viewed from a slightly different angle.
At the BFI London Film Festival yesterday, the star stepped onto the red carpet in a two-piece from Chanel’s spring 2026 couture show. From the front, the ensemble was sharp and precise—with exacting princess seams, a high neckline, and a simple knee-length pencil skirt. But when she turned to the side, the ivory top cascaded into a feathered, Victorian bustle. Layers of shredded black and white fabric created intense volume, while the back of the blouse was lined with multicolored gemstones, akin to a bejeweled spine.
The look first hit the runway in Paris last January as part of Matthieu Blazy’s bird-inspired couture debut. The catwalk itself was filled with larger-than-life mushrooms and the designs drew heavily from storybook creatures. Avian aesthetics were a throughline, with capes cut to resemble wings and birds carefully embroidered onto jackets. Through this lens of childlike wonder, classic Chanel skirt suits were reimagined.
As a Chanel ambassador, Edebiri has been bringing this fairytale vision to red carpets in recent weeks. At TIFF, she wore another couture look—from fall 2026—with a similarly dreamy bent. While that was a one-shouldered evening gown with slashes of fringed tassels, her latest textured two-piece brings the sartorial storytelling to new heights.
Edebiri is in the midst of a press tour for the upcoming drama Clarissa, which reimagines Virginia Woolf’s classic 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway. The film hits theaters on December 11, and there have only been two promotional red carpets thus far. Delightfully, at both, the actor has delivered surprising storybook drama by way of Chanel.