French luxury fashion house, Chanel, will showcase its upcoming resort line in a physical runway show in a private location in Dubai on 2nd November 2021. Creative director at Chanel, Virgine Viard, will present The Cruise 2021-22 collection after her last graphic collection was unveiled on a digital platform in May 2021, and was staged in Carrieres de Lumieres, a series of vast chambers, in Les Baux-de-Provence.
In her collections, Viard works with punk and mod references and marries them with Chanel’s traditional classic tweed styles and cuts. In her last collection, she had poured those references into a lineup of graphic suits, fishnet tights, leather holster belts and mini-skirts, softened with ivory lace dresses, high-waisted linen pants and floral-embroidered dresses.
The creative director at the iconic fashion maison talked about the elements of her collection and her inspirations, stating, “Lots of fringes, in leather, beads and sequins, T-shirts bearing the face of the model Lola Nicon like a rock star, worn with tweed suits trimmed with wide braids and pointed silver Mary-Janes.”
The predominantly monochrome collection drew inspiration from Jean Cocteau’s play “Orpheus,” which deals with themes of morality, sacrifice and artistry. As history has it, Cocteau was a friend of Gabrielle Chanel, and his 1960 film “Testament of Orpheus” was shot at Carrieres de Lumieres.
Chanel’s cruise collections are a smaller mid-season collection that were first introduced in 1919 when Coco Chanel noted that her wealthy clients would take trips abroad to warmer climates in the middle of winter, and would require clothing to match the climates they would travel to. She then got to work and unveiled these collections that comprised lightweight RTW pieces that would be suitable for a trip on board a yacht- hence it being named the “cruise collection.”
Today, Chanel’s cruise collections are shown in May, and become available in stores in November, just before the winter holiday season. With cruise collections, luxury labels have the creative power to stage their shows wherever they like – with many of them using exotic backdrops and locations to unveil their glamorous designs. For Chanel, it won’t be their first stint at hosting a runway show in Dubai. In 2014, Chanel unveiled their Cruise 2015 collection and the runway was stormed by models including Joan Smalls and Lindsey Wixon.
