Cruise collections – sometimes referred to as resort, holiday, or travel collections – have been getting more luxurious as the years go on, and similarly draw more celebrities and press. Despite the name, these are not collections of cruise wardrobes with linen pants or khaki capris and sailing sweaters. Meant for wealthy consumers who require light clothing for warm vacation destinations in the winter – including perhaps a $1,650 Chanel beach tote – cruise collections usually hit retail stores in November.
Cruise collections were originally a way of expanding a brand’s influence outside of the spring/summer and fall/winter collection cycles and being able to offer ready-to-wear items that could go directly to retail. Most online retailers present new clothing items on a near-daily basis.
And with designer brands bridging the gap from the catwalk to the retail business, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that these types of collections are actually easy to find all year round. Peter Hahn, just for an example, are an online retailer to browse through where you might find clothing that fits with what a cruise collection embodies.
Cruise collections are still a big deal for the luxury sector, because the clothing tends to have a longer shelf-life than summer or winter collections. However, the luxurious element and increasing appeal to cruise collections has more to do with the flair of presentation than anything else, and that’s no exception to the cruise collections presented for 2017.
Jimmy Choo
Presented in Paris during Haute Couture Week, the Jimmy Choo cruise collection showing was brilliantly breathtaking. Partnered with Swarovski, crystals in an array of colors and tones embellish shoes, handbags, and even the decoration – like a turkey, grapes, and a lobster – in and elaborate feast setting.
The Jimmy Choo cruise collection 2017 is meant to “feed your eyes and your mind,” as creative director Sandra Choi puts it. The elegant dinner party theme presents the collection in a “product display meets art installation” kind of way, and is meant to show showmanship, boldness, and exaggeration.
Dior
Dior decided to present its cruise collection 2017 in London, in a “quintessential English setting” – Blenheim Palace. Along with opening their new boutique in London, which made it optimal to have an English collection showing, the 2017 Dior cruise collection is meant to portray a young and chic French woman whose restless wanderlust brings her to England, where she is captivated by the eccentricities of British fashion – as outlined on the Dior website under the collection description. The cruise collection 2017 and location chosen to present it show the ability of a fashion brand to tell an intriguing story.
Chanel
Perhaps because the formerly shut borders are now open, everyone wants to travel to Cuba, which is exactly where Chanel decided to present its 2017 cruise collection. According to Vogue, the cruise collection 2017 fashion press had arrived in Havana mere hours before the first American cruise ship docked in the past 40 years.
Although the French have always had an influential place in Cuban history, with its borders now widely open, there was a sense of needing to celebrate this. The 2017 Chanel cruise collection, then, with its vivid, bright colors, sequins, and playful patterns, is a celebration of all things Cuban. Always topical and on-point, Karl Lagerfeld’s decision to put the brand front and center during a turning point in international relations is a move that will make this collection go down in history.
Louis Vuitton
Presented in Brazil on perhaps the most creative and longest runway that we’ve seen yet, Louis Vuitton knows what it means to put a fashion show on in Brazil. The Louis Vuitton cruise collection 2017 was held at the iconic Niterói Contemporary Art Museum, trying to embrace a quintessential Brazilian essence.
Brazil, despite political and social unrest, seemed to be the best place for creative director Nicolas Ghesquière to present the 2017 cruise collection, which is an edgy collection being described as a “deconstructed pop aesthetic.” The show consisted of ethnically diverse models to fit to the theme, as well as androgynous models, with a distinctly punk aesthetic being present in many of the designs, and focusing heavily on leather.
