In the interim before Matthieu Blazy’s much-anticipated debut, Chanel constructed a huge black ribbon-shaped set at the Grand Palais, the better to tie the fall show to Coco’s codes. Much as the haute couture was earlier this year, this was a case of continuity-Chanel by the Fashion Creation Studio at the Rue Cambon, fulfilled with a light-ish air.

How to make the tweed suit a hot fashion item again? Blazy will be expected to perform that transformation, but for the moment, the Chanel design team drew a veil over the task by softening a few short tweed looks with longer over-layers of trompe l’oeil tulle. A couple of these delicate superimposed silhouettes had bows at the neck—a cute way to segue into the Chanel ribbon theme.

First, though, there were more strategies for blurring the edges of tweed suits and shifts. One revived Coco Chanel’s own white-ruff signature—amazing in the way she wore it herself in chic contrast to a black jacket (it’s an accessory which also popped up at Dior and McQueen this season). A short multicolored tweed shift grew cream chiffon ruffles at the hem, shoulders and neck in a cute way.

As the set suggested, the design team had brainstormed just about everything you can do with a Coco ribbon bow: tie it at the neck, print it, sequin-embroider it, cut it out, knit it, put it in the hair. Of course, the black satin bow tied in the neck of a silk blouse is truly an identifier, a classic ‘owned’ by Chanel if not in legal copyright, then in spirit. In its purest form, it’s a styling trick that looks great on practically everyone from 14 to 94. When you see it in any other collection, you think: oh, a curtsey to Chanel.

That’s not to say everything went completely right with harnessing the season’s ideas. Karl Lagerfeld got away with multiple variations on all of Chanel’s themes because of his playful, punning wit and the fact that he didn’t have that much reverence—as he never stopped mentioning—for Coco herself. The anonymous in-house design team (probably including many trained at the court of Karl) don’t have anything like that freedom at the moment; nor the leadership that edits their skills and ideas to make an essentially exciting fashion show.

Watching the show, you could pick out the gorgeous silk-satin billow-y sleeved poet blouse, think the oversizing of the pearl Chanel necklaces looked fun and find them desirable. But you had to wonder who was it who set the rule of the Chanel running order? The show exhaustively ran through all the set-pieces: tweeds, followed by print dresses, followed by knits, followed by party dresses. Every category was exhausted. Quite possibly it was Karl Lagerfeld who set that template, winking satirically at the old school Coco Chanel way of showing a collection when he took over as new broom in the early 1980s. But does it have to be that way forever and a day?

Chanel has an internal team who know the brand playbook inside out. What’s needed is a new approach that respects and extends their talents, while creatively throwing everything else up in the air. Over to you, Matthieu Blazy.