By: Ema Nova
Long gone are the day's brands used to do the bi-annual show, designers are no longer only focused on spring/ summer and fall/ winter collections. On the contrary, they are expanding their work with mid-season collections such as cruise, pre-fall, and pre-spring. However, today we are focusing on Cruise also known as resort collection.
In a more simplified explanation, Cruise or Resort is a collection launched between May and June and can represent up to 60% of the profit of a brand because it has more commercial purposes compared to the others collection since it stays longer in stores.
The term cruise was created by the French designer Coco Chanel because she had a large number of customers that traveled for vacation over the Euro winter and had as their main destination cruises and warmer countries. The term Resort was introduced later by Karl Lagerfeld the same idea but now Karl was targeting customers that spend most of their vacation in resorts in South and Central America. That is why cruise or resort collections are composed of relaxed silhouettes, lightweight fabric, and statement swimsuits.
Even though it's a mid-season collection designers do not take it lightly, on the contrary designers choose to present their collection in stunning locations across the world in very exclusive scenarios. Most of the time these exclusive locations are connected to the inspiration behind the collections. Designers take these mid-season collections as an opportunity to connect to their global consumers that are consistently traveling to a tropical climate. These brands also deliver to consumers in China, the Middle East, and South America. Brands like Chanel, Dior, Gucci, and Carolina Herrera spend big quantities of money flying clients, buyers, celebrities, and international press to those dream destinations so ultimately instead of creating smaller shows, they make collections with up to 70 or 90 looks.
From a business standpoint as mentioned above these collections help increase the profit of the brands and from a fashion standpoint designers are free to experiment or explore their creativity and truly let their art speak for itself.
(Above example of Resort 2024 collections)
These collections are not only about location or business but the necessity to keep creating and to stay relevant in the fashion society. So much so, that smaller brands are now also investing and creating more mid-season collections and shows somehow coping with bigger brands.
See you soon, with love...
Milênia!
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