The waist has moved

The waist has moved. Not metaphorically — physically. Chanel showed trousers at the natural waist for spring 2025, with a defined belt line and a straight leg that breaks once at the ankle. The slouch is gone. So is the dropped rise that dominated the last three years. This is not Chanel alone.

Dior showed the same proportion two weeks earlier. High waist, clean front, no pleating at the hip. The trouser sits where a trouser sat in 1985, before the low-rise flattened everything and before athleisure dropped the waistband to somewhere near the pelvis. At Hermès, the spring collection opened with wide-leg trousers in double-face cashmere, the waistband sitting two inches above the hip bone. The silhouette is narrow at the waist, wide through the leg, hemmed to show the shoe. It reads as tailoring, even when the fabric is soft.

This is a shift in where clothes meet the body. For Chanel, it also marks a turn in how the house builds a look. Under Virginie Viard, the formula leaned on ease — cardigans left open, trousers slung low, jackets cropped above the hip. The spring 2025 collection tightens that. The jacket is longer, hitting mid-hip. The trouser is higher. The waist is visible again, and with it, a return to structure.

Compare this to Dior and Hermès, and the differences clarify. Dior's version is harder. Maria Grazia Chiuri showed the high-waisted trouser in firm gabardine, paired with a blazer that fastens at the sternum and falls in a straight line to the thigh. The effect is architectural. The body is framed, not softened. Hermès, by contrast, keeps the proportion but loosens the hand. The trousers are wide enough to move, the waistband is there but not rigid, and the jacket — when there is one — hangs rather than shapes. Nadège Vanhée-Cybulski is working in the same vocabulary as Chanel, but the grammar is different.

Chanel's spring trousers are tailored, but the fabric has give. The waistband is defined, but not stiff. The leg is straight, not wide. This puts the house somewhere between Dior's rigour and Hermès' fluidity. It is a middle position, and middle positions are harder to hold. Dior can lean into severity because the house has spent five years building that language. Hermès can stay loose because the brand's authority is in material, not cut. Chanel has to do both — hold the structure and keep the softness — and that is a narrower margin.

The jacket tells the same story. Chanel's spring blazer is longer than it has been in recent seasons, and the shoulder is lightly padded. Not the power shoulder of the eighties, but enough to register a line. Dior's shoulder is sharper. The sleeve head is built up, the canvas is firm, and the jacket holds its shape off the body. Hermès barely pads at all. The shoulder follows the natural slope, and the jacket moves with the wearer. Chanel is, again, in the middle. The shoulder is there, but it does not announce itself.

This is not a question of better or worse. It is a question of what the house is willing to commit to. Dior has committed to a strict silhouette. Hermès has committed to material and movement. Chanel is working in both directions at once, which means the collection has to be precise in a way the other two do not. A soft shoulder needs a clean waist. A relaxed trouser needs a structured jacket. The balance is technical, and it shows.

The spring 2025 Chanel show also included skirts — mid-calf, A-line, worn with flat shoes. This is consistent with the trouser: the waist is marked, the hem is longer, the proportion is narrow-to-wide rather than wide-to-wider. It is a silhouette that requires a waist, which means it requires a body that can be shaped. That is a different ask than the last three years of loose knits and dropped waistbands.

Across the three houses, the message is the same. The waist is back. The trouser is higher. The jacket is longer. But the execution diverges. Dior is building armour. Hermès is building comfort. Chanel is building both, which is either the most difficult position or the most commercial one.

To dress in this for the next twelve months is to accept that your waist will be seen.