Highlights From The Cruise 2027 Runway Shows

It’s that time of year again – the Cruise 2027 runway shows are underway. These shows transport us to the four corners of the world and offer some of the most dramatic and glamorous events on the fashion calendar. Chanel kicked off the season with a trip to Biarritz on April 28, marking Matthieu Blazy’s debut resort collection for the house. Followed by Jonathan Anderson’s resort debut for Dior on May 13 in Los Angeles. We’ll also be getting Louis Vuitton and Denma’s first resort collection for Gucci in New York before Max Mara closes the season in Shanghai on June 16.

Follow on for ongoing coverage of the Cruise 2027 runway shows.

Louis Vuitton

Images Courtesy of Louis Vuitton

For the Louis Vuitton Cruise 2027 collection, Nicolas Ghesquière forges a connection between Paris and New York. The designer played with the notion of traveling through eras as the collection’s theme.

A 1930s leather suitcase opened the show, reworked like a canvas by the ‘80s American contemporary artist Keith Haring. Connecting Louis Vuitton to pop art and the city of New York as a pop culture experience. Haring’s vibrant motifs also appeared on tops and dresses that linked to other unmistakable ‘80s influences seen throughout the collection, including ruffled metallic boots, satin boxer shorts, and suits in colourful tweeds. Traditional American attire of true-blue jeans was given a French twist when paired with Renaissance-esque blouses.

Gucci

Images Courtesy of Gucci

Demna took over New York’s Times Square for GucciCore, which marks the designer’s fourth collection for the house. In the ’80s, New York City was home to the Gucci Galleria, a space hidden above the Fifth Avenue flagship, reserved only for clients who carried a specialized golden key. This collection pays homage to the Galleria, taking the form of a brass key housed in an aged leather sleeve.

GucciCore represents a cross-section of New York City, outfits worn by the kinds of people you may pass on the street, from Madison Avenue to Harlem. Stockbrokers are reflected in pinstripes, ladies who lunch in shearling coats, and skaters in soft tailoring and slouchy denim. The Web stripe takes the form of a bandeau top, turning a house signature into a singular garment. Alta moda garments are crafted from croc-scale sequins, beaded fringes, and feather embroidery that lend a sense of preciousness to menswear, while technical outerwear garments are lined in goat hair and shearling for a sense of utilitarian extravagance.

Dior

Images Courtesy of Dior

For the Dior Cruise 2027 collection, Jonathan Anderson pays homage to Hollywood and the house’s long-standing relationship with cinema. With Christian Dior himself dressing golden stars of Hollywood, from Marlene Dietrich and Audrey Hepburn to Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe. The designer even received an Oscar nomination in 1955 for his work on Terminal Station. While at Loewe, Anderson also flirted with costume design for Luca Guadagnino’s Queer and Challengers – only solidifying similarities between himself and Christian Dior.

Held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this resort show marked Anderson’s first for Dior and featured both men’s and womenswear together on the runway. The opening look featured a buttercup-yellow dress decorated with rosettes and introduced flowers as a recurring refrain of the collection. A luminous orange dress designed to look like a field of poppies was a highlight, as was a gathered red gown held at the waist by an abstract flower.

For menswear, we saw new iterations of the nipped-waist Bar Jacket in metallic tweed as well as bespoke headpieces by Philip Treacy and shirts designed in collaboration with the artist Ed Ruscha. If one thing is certain, it’s that Anderson has mastered the silhouette – his pieces moving with a fluidity as striking as the designs themselves.

Chanel

Images Courtesy of Chanel

Matthieu Blazy presented his first cruise collection for Chanel in Biarritz, the same city where Gabrielle Chanel opened her first couture house and presented her first collections. It was here that she aligned the timeless natural world with the timely modern one and subsequently changed the order of fashion. It was the world of the outdoors, of the sea, the beach, the sun, and the wind that demanded practicality and comfort in movement, and it was in her new jersey and sportswear that Gabrielle provided just that.

For Chanel Cruise 2026/27, Matthieu celebrates the Basque coast – experimenting with effortless ways of being and seeing. Playful prints and statement pieces were shown alongside elements of the outdoors and nods to iconic 20th-century Chanel designs. From the functionality of the black dress (that was first created by Chanel in 1926) to the fiction of the mermaid shown through shimmering fish-scale paillettes. French workwear, leisurewear, and grandeur are united, from the uniforms of sailors to the flourish of gowns. The Basque stripe links the collection throughout, including on jumpers styled with ball skirts.

The use of the double C is another key link throughout the collection. It is not used in the typical branding way, but as part of an elemental architecture in garments.

This is a collection that not only caters to the long-standing Chanel customer but also draws the attention of a younger demographic. The aim is clearly to echo Gabrielle’s own “to free women from the literal constraints of convention found in a salon-bound existence.”