The early flush of summer, between May and June, marks the arrival of the Cruise shows, a round-the-world odyssey that sees fashion brands decamp to far-flung locales to show their latest high-summer offerings (the tradition began in the early 20th century as European fashion houses began to cater for the burgeoning jet set classes).
After the Cruise 2024 shows took us to Mexico City, Los Angeles and Seoul, this season, fashion houses are largely looking closer to home, swapping cross-continental travel for locations across Europe. First up, Chanel in Marseille, France, which took place on 2 May 2024, while Gucci showed yesterday evening (14 May 2023) in a blockbuster show at Tate Modern in London. Dior at Drummond Castle, Scotland, Louis Vuitton at an as-yet-unnamed location in Barcelona, Spain, and Max Mara in Venice, Italy, will follow.
Here, in our ongoing round-up, Wallpaper* picks the best of the globe-trotting Cruise 2025 shows.
Fashion odyssey: the best Cruise 2025 shows
Gucci, London
‘I owe a lot to this city,’ said Gucci’s Sabato De Sarno as he presented his debut Cruise collection for the house yesterday evening in London, choosing the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Tanks in London’s Tate Modern as the setting. ‘It has welcomed and listened to me. The same is true for Gucci, whose founder was inspired by his experience there,’ he continued, referring to Guccio Gucci’s time at the Savoy Hotel as a porter, which would eventually lead to him creating an eponymous luggage line on his return to Florence, Italy in 1921.
Here, the vast subterranean concrete space was filled for the occasion with 10,000 plants – a clash which he described as one of ‘man and nature, sentimental versus minimal’, the ‘bare concrete Tanks invaded by a poetic panorama of greenery’. The idea of dichotomy ran through the collection itself – De Sarno cited Gucci’s ‘limitless capability to put together contrasts, make them converse, and find ways to coexist’ – with pieces which straddled a mood of delicacy and toughness, seeing romantic pussybow blouses worn with baggy distressed denim, or skirts decorated with intricate floral embroidery combined with chunky creeper-style versions of the house’s horsebit loafer. Meanwhile nods to Britishness came in oversized Harrington jackets, Prince of Wales check overcoats and a play on the Mackintosh raincoat.
Most striking, though, were the flourishes of craft: a matching jacket and skirt were adorned with a grid of thousands of gently clattering hanging beads, while fronds of glimmering tassels emerged from denim jeans. Or the laser-cut organza chamomile flowers, each assembled delicately by hand. ‘This is another piece of me, more romantic, more contradictory,’ said De Sarno. ‘I like taking something that we think we know and breaking away.’
Chanel, Marseille
Chanel travelled southwards for its latest Cruise show, choosing Marseille, the ancient port city that has long been a raw-around-the-edges counterpart to the more glossy Riviera cities of St Tropez and Cannes eastwards along the coastline. Creative director Virginie Viard said this was purposeful, part of a desire to expand the cultural impact of Chanel beyond the rarefied Rue Cambon in Paris and the high-earning locales with which it is most associated (it was also the reason the house chose Manchester’s cobbled streets for its Métiers d'Art show in December 2023, which was inspired by the energy of the city’s underground music scene). The setting here was Cité Radieuse, Le Corbusier’s 1952-completed ’vertical city’, recognisable for its monolithic concrete exterior punctuated with vivid moments of colour on its balconies (such is its architectural impact, Le Corbusier’s modular, utopian vision for living has since been designated a Unesco World Heritage site).
Viard chose the concrete-clad rooftop – the rain just about holding off – to present a collection largely defined by a sense of youthful ease, a hallmark of the designer’s tenure so far. There were breezy white blouses with broderie anglais motifs, colourful crochet mini dresses and spongy-soled flip-flops, while playful nautical motifs ran throughout – from anchor-charm jewellery to hand-drawn fish and plays on wetsuits and diving hoods. Signature Chanel tweed was of course in abundance: here shot through with Le Corbusier-inspired colour, like a grid-like design on a cropped tweed jacket and matching skirt, or a boldly-hued pinafore-style sleeveless blazer in shades of red, yellow and optic white. ‘Marseille is a city that puts me in touch with my emotions. I tried to capture its power of attraction, its breath of fresh air, and to convey the energy that reigns there,’ said Viard. ‘And you couldn't ask for a better backdrop to a runway show than the Cité Radieuse.’
Stay tuned for more from the Cruise 2025 season on wallpaper.com.
