Inside the Grand Palais on a rainy Paris morning during Couture Week, fashion’s A-list and top celebs including Kylie Jenner, Lily-Rose Depp and BLACKPINK’s Jennie gathered to see the Chanel Spring 2025 Couture show. While the vast space, with its impossibly high ceiling and stark white curved ramps, seemed serious, the collection — and hair and makeup — was quite the opposite.

Playfully chic, colorful and airy takes on classic Chanel tweeds dominated in a technicolor dream, with fresh cuts above the knee, at times layered with wispy tulle cascading into modern trains. The glam details followed suit.

Lips, done by makeup artist Lisa Butler, popped in red, set against glassy, glowing skin and barely-defined eyes.

Tresses served as an embodiment of the fresh turn the iconic French fashion house is taking as new designer Matthieu Blazy prepares to take the reigns. Easy-sexy waves of all lengths took to the air as models — many new to the Chanel catwalk themselves — walked the runway. “We wanted to achieve the right balance of classic Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel with a fresh modern intention,” hairstylist James Pecis shared. “Hair needed to bounce, have a tighter wave, yet have freedom and a slight roughness to it.”

Pecis chatted with Grazia USA about the inspiration for the look as well as sharing an inside peek at his process. As one can imagine, the statement-making glam for a couture show does not happen overnight.

In fact, the process started about a month before. Pecis received the brief for the show “before the holidays,” he says. When he arrived in Paris for the fittings on January 19, the inspiration boards included images by Man Ray, which the pro read as an experimental art influence. This, coupled with the “exciting new faces cast for the show” led him to fine-tune his ideas for the final look.

While he had a relaxed style in mind, he likes to “try different things at the fittings. Even when we find the perfect look right away, I like to push and try something else because sometimes it opens a door to the unexpected.” The hair guru, who founded his own haircare and stying line called Blu&Green, takes fabric and texture into consideration as well as each face when determining every model’s look, but he made sure that each had “some type of beautiful wave added,” creating bends and waves that moved and “felt individual to each girl.”

On show day, Pecis left his hotel at 4:45am to start prepping. “We have around 50 girls and 3 hours for hair, makeup, nails, and dressing,” he says. “Chanel always creates a lovely environment to work in and we are well taken care of. My team and I have been working for many years  – we’re a tight unit.”

To achieve the ripples, which were languid yet polished at once, he started by working Blu&Green Dry Shampoo through the roots, brushing through to give hair “an ultra-lightness.” He then created S-waves, varying the size of the curling iron depending on the length and texture of each model’s hair, but confided that the Babyliss 3/4” iron was used most frequently.

Once models were dressed in their final looks, Pecis finished each style with a dab of Blu&Green Solid Oil to add separation and weight that “created a beautiful texture and helped push the hair away from the face.”

The gorgeous takeaway: While couture clothes “are not likely to be worn to pick up a carton of milk,” jokes Pecis, this hair is infinitely wearable IRL. The pro recommends going down a size from the iron you usually use to get a tighter curl.