Thus, on Wednesday evening, Catherine Deneuve, Cate Blanchett, Emma Stone and Léa Seydoux moved to the Isola Bella, a jewel floating on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, for a baroque cruise show of Louis Vuitton, which since 2014 places these shows in masterpieces of architecture or in the middle of nature.

Cruise collections, presented by a handful of brands around the world in May for a November release, appeared a hundred years ago to meet the demand of a wealthy clientele who went on cruises during the winter holidays. Gabrielle Chanel was one of the pioneers.

Dior cruise show in Mexico City, May 20, 2023 © Rodrigo Oropeza / AFP

With the generalization of holidays after paid holidays in France in 1936, the format faded, before Chanel brought it up to date in the 2000s, followed by the few other tenors capable of such investments.

Long live the shop

"Little by little, these collections have become major in our ecosystem," Chanel fashion president Bruno Pavlovsky told AFP.

Unlike the "imposed exercise" of ready-to-wear and haute couture, where it is necessary to "convince" in 15 minutes an audience running from one fashion week show to another, the "cruise" shows in spring -- or "crafts" that Chanel is the only one to do in December -- are "moments of privileged exchange" with countries and customers.

Chanel cruise show in Los Angeles, May 9, 2023 © Michael Tran / AFP / Archives

"These collections are delivered very early to stores around the world and have a longer shelf life," he adds.

"The cruise collection has a very high visibility and plays a key role as soon as it is released, during the Christmas holidays," Dior said in a written response to AFP.

When questioned, the houses refuse to quantify the share of these collections but all stress their strategic nature.

Louis Vuitton cruise show at Isola Bella on May 24, 2023 in Italy © GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP

"Pre-season collections are often the best selling and they usually don't have runway shows, except for houses that do the cruises," Benjamin Simmenauer, a professor at the French Fashion Institute, told AFP.

"When you do a fashion show in Seoul or Shanghai, you see a lot of activity in local shops in the days that follow," he adds.

For him, these fashion shows are also a way to "anchor" the specificity of the house on an international scale. Choosing Los Angeles was, for example, a reminder that Gabrielle Chanel designed costumes for Hollywood in the 1930s.

"Exploring cultures"

A way to "escape criticism" while "more questions arise today" on this subject but also "the pharaonic displacements" that these parades cause, says Benjamin Simmenauer.

Dior women's designer Maria Grazia Chiuri (c) at the cruise show on May 20, 2023 in Mexico City © Rodrigo Oropeza / AFP/Archives

According to Dior, these shows "allow us to explore in depth craftsmanship of excellence from different cultures (...) and to promote worldwide the beauty of ancestral techniques in the heart of symbolic places".

For artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri, it was also an opportunity to defend the cause of women by presenting at the end of the parade white dresses with red details to the sound of "Canción sin miedo", a feminist anthem by Vivir Quintana denouncing femicide in Mexico.

Chanel's "métiers d'art" show in Dakar in December resulted in a long-term collaboration.

Chanel craft show in Dakar, December 6, 2022 © JOHN WESSELS / AFP/Archives

An exhibition "On the thread: embroidery and weaving" on the ancestral know-how of West Africa, already presented in Dakar, opened to the general public at 19M, headquarters of Chanel's craft workshops in Paris. The house is committed to training, in the coming years, young craftsmen in its workshops.

© 2023 AFP