Cruise shopping is about having fun with fashion

Welcome to Cruise, a full-blown season which is all about having fun with fashion. An important money earner for fashion houses, Cruise collections offer a sneak peek into the industry's new direction for the new year.

When we think of fashion seasons we normally think of two seasons - Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter. Well, Fashion has decided it too needs four seasons, so Pre-Fall has been added to the calendar and then there is Cruise. Though the concept of a cruise fashion season is not new, its importance has grown in recent years. Today Cruise is a full-blown season; these collections generally enter the stores in October and remain right till June. Being in stores over six months makes Cruise financially very important; it is in stores longer than any other season collections.
Coco Chanel is probably the designer who should take credit for the concept of Cruise. The designer who made the sun-tan popular realised that around the end of year many of her clients decided to escape from the cold winter by taking a cruise or going to a beach resort for a mini-break. For these privileged clients she made a capsule collection of holiday wear.
Till date, Chanel Cruise shows are among the hottest tickets and every year, Chanel's designer, Karl Lagerfeld chooses a different destination - be it New York Grand Central Station, Venice's Lido Beach or as it was this year - Seoul's Dongdaemun Design Plaza. Famed architect Zaha Hadid designed the location's decidedly futuristic look. And travelling to the Korean capital were some of fashion's most wanted faces: Tilda Swinton, Gisele Bundchen and Kristen Stewart. Joining the idea of destination shows was Louis Vuitton last year, and Gucci held its destination Cruise show in New York this year.
Cruise collections are now important money earners for fashion houses, so they no longer mind spending big bucks on runway shows to support the season. Dior, who like Chanel has a history of showing Cruise shows at destinations, chose the French Riviera as its home for their show this year. These shows generally take place in May or June, though now is the time of the year that most consumers buy their Cruise collections.
As November draws to a close and it is the busiest time of the year both at work and on the social front, now is the time to escape. And that is what Cruise clothes are all about. They are about escaping in style. To keep things more up to date, some fashion brands prefer to call Cruise collections "holiday" or "resort" collections. That is because Cruise collections of today are not just for the privileged few who take holidays to exotic locations. Cruise collections are really about setting the tone for the new year. For fashion the year begins in March, when the Spring collections hit the stores, and Cruise collection give you a glimpse as to what the new year has in store.
Cruise shopping is all about having fun with fashion. In current Cruise collections you find nautical swimsuits that pay homage to origins to the season, fun coloured furs for those who prefer to take "staycations" during the holiday season and soft tailored power suits, so that you start your new working year in style. So do check out those cruise collections - add them to your Christmas Wish List! Perhaps the real reason I love resort pieces is that it marries two of my favourite pastimes - holidaying and shopping.
This year there are some very strong Cruise trends, and they truly give you a sneak peek into fashion's new direction for 2016. Fashion's ongoing love affair with the 1970's continues - ruffles, florals, military, and graphics prints are the pieces to look out for. Look for all these in a very exaggerated and overstated way, so florals are large, bold and graphic, ruffles are oversized, military suits are functional but full-on. With Spring 2016 bringing a new romanticism to fashion, it is no surprise to learn that blush is the favoured neutral tone of this season. In fact during this year's resort shows, Donatella Versace is reported to have said "Blush is the new white". Chanel paid respect to his host city with blush hanbok dresses, and it was colour that was seen on the resort collections of many labels. Also look for pleating, it was seen at both the Dior and Oscar de la Renta Cruise collections and is another style you will see given a strong nod by many design houses in Spring 2016. Shop smartly at Cruise collections, and you can pick up pieces that will see you through till the end of next year. Cruise collections really are no longer the hidden secrets of fashion's insiders, they are the collections that ensure you start and end the year in complete style
The writer is Khaleej Times Consulting Fashion Editor

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